an idea of a new/old weapon

That... was strangely worded, but an interesting idea.

The idea of a sea going ramming ship was to damage or cripple an enemy vessel, while doing little damage to your own. They would have a reinforced bow.

With all the internal dampers and force fields available within GC, it might not be feasible.

However, I can see small, cheap, unarmed suicide bombing ships being integrated into fleets. They could charge enemy ships or spacestations, and when they get close enough, explode. I'm not sure that this would be consistent with the GC universe in later stages of play. However, if used before a race develops "Force Fields", it might make sense.

they used it on voyager once and the ship couldn't move or fight as long as that shuttle was sticking out of its side.

but if you used a larger ship it could be more destructive.


and as i said all weapons in space are direct fire. the only one that could be used as an indirect fire weapon would be missiles. but that would require more fuel ie smaller war head

this was supposed to say. Why has scifi done away with the ram ship.

Come up with a good reason why it should be used.

For example, I think in the Vorkosigan universe, what happened is that defense technology leaped ahead of weapon technology with the Sword Swallower and Plasma Mirror systems, that reflect laser and plasma fire away from the ship, often back in the direction of the ship that did the shooting. For that reason, missiles vs. point defense usually becomes the combat style and one person speculates they might wind up resorting to using rams because defensive systems have just gotten so effective.

Mostly, though it's because. . . well. Space is HUGE. And ranges in space combat can be equally HUGE. Getting close enough to use that ram will be hard.

true but you can put so much armour on that ram that the shots would just bounce off.

and then you only have to worry about the occasional round about shot of a missile.

as for why capture of a ship.

sneak attack.

Ram ships were used before projectile weapons were invented on ships. New defences kill old weapons and new weapons kill old defences.

Why did cities stop using stone walls as protection? Because with the invention of gunpowder they didn't stand a chance and weren't worth it.

I just dont see what a ram ship will add to the game. How would it survive long enough to make contact?

But i do like the idea if it could be brought in and keep the whole thing balanced. I like the addition of things to combat to make it make that rock-paper-scissors.

Some other ideas i had for changes to warfare were additional parts for ships to add to combat and lessen the rock/paper/scissorsness. For instance... maneuvering thrusters that can make an enemy ship "miss" or targeting computers to give better accuracy. I'm no programmer BUT, i see it as being in reality that the components just alter the die roll for damage. So my thrusters wont really cause a miss but will cause the computer to maybe roll a zero on occasion or just lessen the actual die roll. The opposite being true for targeting.

Or the targeting computer will enable the possiblity of a critical hit, meaning the an enemy ship might lose its defences on the first volley or some enemy weapons might be "hit" and not work in that battle.

Also astromedic droids to really add to an individual ship's repair rate after a battle.

And something like a shield generator as a ship component, so that a percentage of your defense for that ship comes back after a round.


What do you guys think?