Question About AI Ship Effectiveness

[SneakyTacts]

Has anyone built a ship in the style of the common AI ship pattern of being long and thin? If so, was it easier to dodge shots or naturally avoid inaccurate projectiles?

 

I ask because I have trouble dealing full damage on those thin ships when I’m just 4 km away with projectiles and it’s because they’re often spinning and their center of rotation is very thin. I wonder if I should try building in that design to test its effectiveness.

[Shrooblord]

Absolutely. Making your ships long and thin makes it harder for projectiles to hit you, also those fired by AI-piloted ships. Keep in mind though that, unlike humans, the AI ships will have "perfect targeting" i.e. won't get confused about spinning or thin ships, but will always have a lock-on.

 

Another consideration is that to keep your ship "thin enough" for this to effective, you need to also be quite small, and as a result have not so much space for hull points, or actual functional blocks. You would be very easy to blow up if you did get hit. Oh, and torpedos don't care about your shape or size. :P

[SneakyTacts]

I'll definitely have to try it.  Hopefully the AI doesn't aim for the center, haha. I know that the AI struggles with predicting when acceleration comes into play, so that's got me hopeful.

 

Speaking of acceleration, if you constantly accelerate with a nimble ship straight towards an enemy ship, they'll never hit you. It's one of my favorite things to do because it's so elegant to orbit and destroy while remaining untouched. You kind of need to play around with your distance since it depends on each ship's engine power.

[BlackGazebo]

Long/thin provides certain advantages to control (since control surfaces are more effective the further they are from center of mass) and tend to be more difficult to hit consistently if maneuvering correctly, but the maneuvers that make you difficult to hit also make it very difficult to aim weapons.  Those NPC ships that start spinning wildly when smacked on their long ends are also not shooting at you, so the net benefit of their shape is... nothing.

 

Keep in mind that certain weapons are going to hit you almost no matter what and that you're going to lose out on volume bonuses if you have to build your ship like a chain or intersecting chains, and a long ship is going to require more armor to comprehensively protect than a round ship of the same volume.

[SneakyTacts]

Good thoughts, BlackGazebo.

 

Perhaps a spinning thin ship is best for the titanium zone because small turrets can be placed on small areas in the center where movement is minimal. This way, the center is still a small target and the turrets might fire continuously. Also, chainguns are the primary weapon used by enemies in that zone, which are inaccurate.