Sorry if this is discussed somewhere else.

When attacking, does having your defensive measures equipped help you? Likewise when defending, does having your weapons equipped help you?

yes to both, without any defence online when you attack you will be getting hit back at your damage cap, or the level of weapons equipped on the defending ship, whichever is lower.
if you leave weapons off while you are afk the 1st one to attack you has a free run to disable you without fear of getting hit himself.

when you click Attack on a player's ship or a planet or a base..... both your attack and your defense is important at that moment... basically, one click of Attack means you shoot once at the opponent AND the opponent shoots once at you

Your attack vs the opposing defense determines how much damage you deal
while
Your defense vs the opposing attack determines how much damage you receive


Same goes if someone attacks you

Thanks, that info helps.

So it helps to have an even att and def stat?!

not necessarily... it helps to have more atk than the opposing def, and more def than the opposing atk.... but sometimes both aren't simultaneously possible... you have to find your own balance of the two

personally, i keep my attack at double my defense

What would happen if you had a higher defence then attack, but attack was still a reasonable score?

not my cup of tea, but a workable strategy

Fair enough, each to their own!

As you get higher in rank you will find that naturally your attack will be lower than defense with the game as it is now. Much of this is to do with the cost of weapons and weapon upkeep, and some with the helmsman arti drop... also with more def mods available. As an example I am rank 400. I have a buffed defense over 10000, but attack is buffed at 8000. Unless I am adding tactical officers this tread will increase to even more defense. Whatever your score tho it is all relative.

If you have an atk higher than their defense you will do good dmg... if their atk is also lower than your defense you will take less dmg (all per hit). The reverse of both also fits...

...then it comes down to shields and hull.. ship to ship.. but even more so to who is online atm more than anything else really lol.