Ramming spoils combat for me

[Doncommie]

This is a deceptive subject line because I am not talking about ramming on purpose, I am finding that the vast majority of time I die in combat to being rammed. As all ships like to constantly close in on the enemy I find that enemies tend to approach me then as I or they turn away they still try to smack into the side of me. This is generally with multiple opponents where there is less room to maneuver plus turning your unarmed back to an opponent is fairly suicidal. The cloaking device helps a little but you still have to be extremely careful, in the last game in a three ship encounter I had a ship swipe into my previously healthy ship and take out the cloak and all of my modules.

I don't think it would be as much of a problem if it wasn't for the insane damage ramming does, your five star shield folds up instantly and if you get lucky you might pull away with only a few module out of action and your health bar halfway into the red.

Am I just approaching combat wrong and should be trying harder to keep distance?

[Hugh Manatee]

Well some of the enemies are "kamakazies", the Garthans(triangulay ships piloted by aligator lookin guys) and tchorak(the asteroid ships) especially, they are "ram hardended" and WILL try and plow you down, and if you're tryng to ram on purpose they seem to take less damage in relation to you or deal more damage when they collide. Also the Urluquai I tend to smsh into because they like to cloak.

Maneuvering in the midsts of a furbal is a bit of a challenge too, I have accidentally plowed into the tan ru and muktian on occasion.

I find the best combat tactics are either a "firing line" of heavy ships geared with decent shields and heavy guns covered by a few point defense ships with the rail guns and micrometeorite guns that should kill everything before ramming becomes an issue, hit and run with the supper weapons like the gong, multi missiles and particle thingee, then retreating and coming back till everything dies, or cat and mouse cloakiing/decloaking ECM battles a'la Wrath of Kan/Undiscovered Country.

[sgqwonkian]

You could always make a mod that either:

a) removes all the ramshields so enemy ships won't try to ram you

b) gives all ships ramshields so ramming does less damage

c) increase all weapon ranges (triple?) so there's less chance of ships getting close enough to ram

or

d) some combo of c and either a or b

[Storel]

What I find most unbelievable is how often you get rammed when you're cloaked. Accidentally ramming a cloaked ship should be a 1-in-a-million occurrence, not something that happens every day! It's extremely frustrating and annoying to be closing in on someone from cloak and have someone else accidentally ram you.

It also changes combat from 3-dimensional to 2-dimensional. In SAIS, ramming didn't exist, so ships could pass right over/under each other without damage, as you would expect in 3-dimensional space. In WW, trying to do that always results in ramming, because now it assumes they're always in the same plane.

[Phoenix-D]

Agreed. Its was ultimately the last straw for me, and why I didn't buy the game.

[Ripcord O'Reilly]

If you're so close that turning your starship will sideswipe an adversary ship, you're too close. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

And ever try to steer one of these tubs for real? What was it Ford Prefect said? They steer like a cow. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Successful ramming is bliss, don't you think? But there are elements of risk...

It's true that when ships get too close, the gameplay gets a little funky. A lot of tweaking there just to get it to the point it is. As far as realism goes....well, I just imagine Wrath of Khan and all those old sailing ship battle scenes in movies and it's cool.

[capnq]

I'm baffled how you guys are surviving the incoming fire long enough to close to ramming distance. I hardly ever use ramming when I have it available via the Garthan merc. The only time I've seen a cloaked ship get rammed was when I was trying to slip past the defense ring to board the Damocles and misjudged where I had to aim to clear the gap.

I generally try to avoid combat as much as possible, anyway; I die often enough as it is. Maybe you are being too aggressive.

[Phlagm]

Hah. You just need to play a mod. I have a few ramming ships and some shields to aid that.

[Grogar]

I've never had that problem. My approach is usually to save combat for the very end - get as many upgrades, weapons, etc. as possible before engaging any enemies.

In fact, ramming is super-sweet, I think. A cloaked Garthan corvette with a decent shield can destroy any ship with ease. Even Tchoraks.