Ramming Damage

[couslee]

On a side note. WOW at all the replies and views. I am glad I asked this question.

Thanks to one and all.

[Fyron]

I am fairly certain that only current HPs (not max HPs) are factored into the damage. If a ship has 20 damage, but no destroyed comps, it will do 20 less damage when it rams (or is rammed).

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by couslee:
And I seriously doubt the settings.txt are mis-worded. attacking and target are not going to be confused. (unlike some of the other .txt wordings. lol)

No, it's not misworded. But that didn't stop me from misinterpreting it.

[couslee]

Me either. I mis-understood it too. I just did another quick test not using the ramming ship
I attacked
He took 60% of my HP in damage
I took 100% of his HP in damage
Damaged components are not included, only remaining HP are used.

warhead test will have to wait until I get a ship hardy enough to survive the above +300. I fear it adds 300 damage to each ship. but no idea until it can be tested.

Edit in.
That stinks. If your ramming, your are hitting nose first and structural planning would be used to make that the most resistant to impact (we have bumpers on cars,eh?) When your ramming, you could be doing a corner ram at the engines, or a broadside. you would cause more damage than you would recieve. I think the setting are backwards, but that is just my opinion.

[ February 03, 2003, 21:24: Message edited by: couslee ]

[stecal]

Ok, A few ideas leap out at me:

1) A ramming warhead weapon mount that adds a lot of structural tonnage to absorb damage to the rammer. This only makes sense since a ship designed for ramming would have a reinforced bow.

2) Warheads change damage type from normal to "skips all shields." Only armor would count like vs mines.

[PvK]

couslee, if you want it to work the way you describe, simple change your settings.txt file.

However, to repeat what I said before, in case you might agree, in my opinion it is a lesser evil to have the settings the way they are, than to have to live with what would happen if they were equal, or reversed. The real problem here is not the damage levels, but the fact that ramming is automatically successful, and has almost nothing to do with speed or maneuverability. You should not be able to ram fighters and faster ships with another ship. The only thing allowing this to happen is the turn-based movement system. In reality, if a slower or equal-speed ship tries to ram an enemy ship that does not want to be rammed, it will have a very hard time succeeding, because the target will simply alter course to avoid the ramming maneuver. Without any reasonable way to avoid ramming, it would be both unrealistic an unbalanced for ram ships to do equal or more damage to their targets. Untrained cheapo ships with armor would be smashing elite expensive ships left and right. This is already quite possible - I have lost many elite expensive ships to ram ships with no training and less speed than mine.

PvK

[Baron Munchausen]

Actually, if you consider the speeds involved ramming is ridiculously under-powered. I have changed both of the ramming damage modifiers to 300 percent in my personal config. I suppose that means that you could build a fleet of rammers and rule the galaxy -- if your race is suicidal enough. But it seems only logical to me that only a very large size difference would make it possible for one ship to survive ramming or being rammed.

Maybe I should mod one of the AIs to build lots of rammers just to see what would happen...

This does make drones more powerful, btw.