Maybe you would also need a Prow component weighing in like 2.5k/5k tons or so.
That means
designing a ship to ram. Would you design all your ships with a Prow, just to have the option to ram? And what about NPRs and civilian ships that want to ram?
Also, the existence of a Prow component suggests that a ship utilizing it is expected to survive impact. But most voices here insist that ramming should destroy the ram ship, making it more difficult to be "exploited" as a strategy to make the game easier. They want to limit it to something rarely done out of desperation.
I ran a multiplayer game with new players recently, and I believe two of the three asked for ramming.
Easy. Just stipulate a "no ramming" rule for your multiplayer games. Community games often state some rules in the OP of their main/FAQ topic.
I don't like ramming from an aesthetic POV...
And you're not the only one who does not like ramming. But some of us greatly desire the option for a player ship to ram.
I understand that player ramming is a matter of personal preference. And I understand the concerns about balance, et al. What
puzzles me is how some players are so against this. Even if it was added,
how would it impact your games?
This is not rhetorical: I'd really like to hear a response.
Aside from multiplayer games: How does the way
other players play their single-player campaigns affect
you? IMO, how they play and what they find fun is their own business.
There are some players who dislike certain types of strategies or weapons. Perhaps they don't like lasers or rainguns. But that is no reason to tell other players that they can't use them in their single-player games or the multiplayer games they run or participate in. And if you're running your own multiplayer game, you could stipulate a rule to forbid them.
And for those of you asking to remove ramming entirely, NPRs and all, consider:
Why not post a suggestion in the Suggestion thread to have a "ramming" setup option to disable or enable it with a click? That way, ramming is still available to the rest of us.
...I suspect that player ramming would become ludicrously overpowered or totally useless.
How is player ramming so different from any number of other new features or suggestions made by players? It sounds like you lack confidence in Steve's ability to balance new features. Worst case scenario: It is unbalanced when initially added. But then, a patch or two later, it gets fixed.
So far as we're concerned, ships are point targets relative to their ability to dodge.
Not necessarily. Like TheRowan and others suggested, it may only require getting in close and then quote, "detonating your reactors, rather than hull-to-hull contact."
I'd assume that missiles are specially designed to deal with this {turning on a dime}. Ships aren't.
Imagine two aircraft, with one trying to ram the other. And the rammer has superior speed and maneuverability. The ram target will try to destroy the rammer with weapons (assuming it has any), outmaneuver, or flee. Assuming the rammer isn't crippled or destroyed, the ram target won't be able to avoid it, due to having inferior speed and maneuverability. The rammer may miss the initial attempt, but the target can't outrun and it can't avoid forever.
The scenario would be similar if it was two naval ships instead of aircraft. Anyway, computer-controlled ships
can ram, so the argument is moot.
...I think that the ability to ram is an interesting point in favor of the NPRs being very different from the players.
Computer opponents are able to utilize a
basic strategy that human players can't. And the only plausible reason I hear is... because players could exploit it?
It bothers me when computer opponents have all sorts of major advantages heaped on them to make up for the AI. In my book, that at least
suggests flawed game design. Granted, few games have AI which can match human players on an even playing field. And I
can ignore AI advantages when they're done behind the scenes. It's a necessary evil. But
this advantage is rather in-your-face and hard to ignore.
Also, I have
yet to hear a good argument against making player ramming an SM option. If you don't like it, then just don't use it.