Ramming and sacrifice

[GoodMorning]

I have noticed recently that ramming tactics and ship-sacrifices have become rarer in my play. This might be because a typical ship in the Exchange takes significant time to rebuild, and a Destroyer-size ship (as a typical sacrifice) seems to be thought deadweight by fleet designers.

Also, the Hammer-style seems to see progressively less use, again due to the upscaling in the Exchange. The time that a useful thickness of armour takes to build is now much greater, as armour can only be built one layer at a time. Shielded ramming craft also tend to take so much energy to operate that they negate the primary advantage of rams.

Is this an inferior playstyle showing, or is this a general change? How often are sacrifices and rams useful to you?

[tornado]

Depends. if I have multiples lathe- style ships bearing down on a single threat and they aren't going to make it, I will happily blow one up to keep the rest going. though yes, most ships tend to be too expensive or useful to use as cannon fodder. I think someone should do something about that.

[FOXX]

I use ship ramming against large enemy ships and i like this strategy.
Or when you have to lathe a strong emitter sacrificing a ship [or more] can be very usefull to make sure your lathe doesn't get destroyed.
An example of ship sacrifice i don't like is the HQ Bomb when players sacrifice the HQ to destroy a large ship.

[Sorrontis]

It is a very useful strategy in my many of my maps. Although, I prefer partial sacrifices - where I take a big ship and sacrifice a portion of it's hull and then get it to retreat.

[Keeper Decagon]

Usually, I only tend to ram if I know I have energy to spare for rebuilding the sacrificed ship, or to finish off large targets (or destroy specific modules onboard said targets), as well as sacrificing smaller Frigates or Destroyers to save a Capital Ship. Perhaps also to quickly finish off doppels too.

Sacrificing the HQ via HQ bomb, like FOXX said, is something I never use, and I generally detest its use in nearly all situations where the map is clearly possible without it.

[D0m0nik]

There is an alternative kind fo ramming, in Sorrontis' last map for example I stacked ships on top of each other by timeing their departure and was able to move 4 or 5 ships at the same time across the map. The ship that was slightly in the lead took most of the damage and allowed the other ships to pass over emitters and alongside enemy ships without taking too much damage. Ueful tactic for moving weaker but useful ships into 'hot' areas.

[D0m0nik]

Just playing your latest map Decagon and using every ramming tool in the ramming tool box. For dopels you can use small ships to repeatedly ram them as they start to build, keeps them at bay until you can nullify them. Also the idea of stacking is useful for dopels, two ships hitting at exactly the same time packs a big and instant punch but saves both ships. Useful for quickly regenerating dopels.

I am realising playing this that I use ramming constantly but rarely sacrifice ships.

[GoodMorning]

Thinking back, I think I agree - I don't sacrifice many ships (mistakes aside), but I regularly will scrape off significant amounts of hull, or even have a small ship throw itself in front of the engines of a retreating capital ship to protect them.

While I have used the stack tactic, it has tended to be for Struc-crunching.

It's interesting to hear your opinions and strategies.

[FOXX]

There is an alternative kind for ramming, in Sorrontis' last map for example I stacked ships on top of each other by timeing their departure and was able to move 4 or 5 ships at the same time across the map. The ship that was slightly in the lead took most of the damage and allowed the other ships to pass over emitters and alongside enemy ships without taking too much damage. Useful tactic for moving weaker but useful ships into 'hot' areas.

This strategy i used sometimes but with 2 or 3 ships. Allign the ships after each other and use pause key to 'stack' the other ships on each other. This works good in the situation that D0m0nik says. This also works for ramming big ships.

When i ram ships usually i don't sacrifice the ship, only a part of it and then i retreat and use another ship if needed.
If a ship gets destroyed in this process it's fine but it takes longer to rebuild.

[D0m0nik]

Looks like ramming is still a major part of the game, we have just refined how we use it and don't reserve just fro the traditional ramming ships.

In terms of ship design it would be great to see a range of different ramming ideas. Yums needle ship, very long and thin, was fantasic for almost surgicaly targeting a ships core, really great design and it took some skill to weild properly. A ship in the dhaped of an anchor would be uesful, fly alongside an enemy adn then rotate your ship pushing the tips of the anchor into components at the rear of your enemy. Perhaps other 'hook' deisgns. It's interesting if a ships shape can be as useful as it's size.

[GoodMorning]

I had experimented with arrowhead rams, and found it effective in some situations.

Most dedicated rams seem to suffer from engine destruction after turning, foiling (or at least severely complicating) retreat.

[FOXX]

For specific ramming ships i usually go for a not to big ship with a lot of hull obviously and little weaponry. Two or 3 engines would be sufficient.
Yums Needle is a good example for a ramming ship.
I think that king of design will be best for ramming ships.

When i finished fix your fleet i had a [maybe silly] thought for making a ramming ship who could take out 2 enemy ships if close enough together.

This came out of that idea

[close]

Originally it did not have shields. I've added those today.

It was NOT suited for the maze series and i didn't implement it to the new adventure mainly because of the build cost. [and i already have a big ship for the new series]
I don't know where i am going with this ship.

[Nicant]

Do shields stack? Does having multiple shield modules make the shield stronger? If so, then you could make a heck of a ramming ship.

[FOXX]

1 shield adds 1 to health of hull so in theory that is possible.
So i have added 4 more shields to the ship in previous message and it can withstand all particles [if in energy range] from an standard enemy emitter [interval 1, max particles 200 and i set the speed to 1] [and i used fields to aim the particles at the ship]
so that is quite good for hull strength.

Interesting for the future.

ps -> when i tested this i used both ships in the same map, build from the same energy source and placed when pause game and the ship with 6 shields builded a bit faster than the ship with 2 shields. Little strange because the ship with 6 shields costs more. I tested it again and the same thing happened.
A bit strange.

[cooltv27]

damage taken is calculated by 1/(1+number of shields)
so 1 shield makes you take half damage, 2 shields would be 1/3 and 3 shields would be 1/4 and so on.