Are structure destroying ships worth creating?

[shanebratt]

Hi, I am wondering, do many of you create structure destroying ships?

Last round I didn't create any because they seemed fairly useless. It doesn't help me to win if I destroy one person's structure. I realized though that destroying structures has a score bonus. Is the score bonus worth it?

[wakey]

They can cripple a target pretty well, however as far as i'm concerned they are a feature iof this game that have little place in a persons normal fleet. Those people whom place them in a fleet thats your normal roiding fleet do a great damage to the game by crippling players for no reason and very little score gain

They are ships that should be reserved for Alliance wars only

[ChubbyChecker]

I was hoping that the Predator this round (I'm still pissed off that the Xan ships have had their names abbreviated, long names FTW) would be a Siege Weapon ship, which is what the tech description implies. Unfortunately a Xan in my galaxy corrected me, apparently Xans can build them after researching Frigate Class Hulls.

And no, you shouldn't build them. What's the point in destroying somebody elses structures?

[Fyodor]

Ive always thought that structure killers are one of the worst things in planetarion. Yeah they can be great for alliance wars, but far to many people send them on regular roiding runs. Ive know 2 or 3 noobs who have left the game due to having a large amount of their structures killed for no other reason then the attacker could. In my personal opinion people who use structure killers in their fleet help to drive new players away.

[The Real Arfy]

P.S. Killing structures gives you NO gain in value or XP, and thus no gain in score.

Unless its changed, but I doubt it.

[TheRat]

Structure Killers are extremely useful, when attacking targets such as enemy scanners.

[Paisley]

Structure killers are only for the people with serious grudges.

[Neferti]

I didnt make a single structure killer last round. Didnt make single Bs, for that matter, (was cath) but thats not relevant.

As for Xand names, I'm glad their abbreviated again. Those long 'lyvidian' 'xentrallis' crap sounded stupid, and besides I have a habit of typing ships into bcalcs cos its quicker for me that way, but I couldnt remember how to spell half the xand ships

[Fyodor]

Originally Posted by TheRat

Structure Killers are extremely useful, when attacking targets such as enemy scanners.

Agreed, but to many people use structure killers with the idea that they will gain either xp or score and there bye hit planets that are a bit smaller and in essence wipe them out and drive them from the game.

[xtothez]

Structures killers have no real place outside of a grudge fleet. Perhaps if they had super armour as flak for the astropod of the same class, or killing structures gave high XP, they'd be worth it. But before that, they really need to fix the whole structure killing priorites first (factories always blowing up before amps, etc).

Originally Posted by Neferti

As for Xand names, I'm glad their abbreviated again. Those long 'lyvidian' 'xentrallis' crap sounded stupid, and besides I have a habit of typing ships into bcalcs cos its quicker for me that way, but I couldnt remember how to spell half the xand ships

Quoted for agreement. Since that auto-hide thing in bcalcs quickly learned how to spell all ship names :\

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally Posted by shanebratt

Hi, I am wondering, do many of you create structure destroying ships?

Yes, however as mentioned above their primary use is to cripple alliance scanners or kill the factories of critical planets to stop them from building new ships for following raids and so on. An alternative use for them last round was for Ziks to include structure killers in their fleets - as it made it costly for a defender to run as they would loose their roids (reletively easily recoverable), but also loose 20% of their structures - thus encouraging battle and thus the Zik could steal ships.

Unfortunately, Structure killers tend to be used by players in their general roiding fleet which typically benefits no-one and just makes it extremely frustrating for the people who have their structures killed repeatedly.

Last round I didn't create any because they seemed fairly useless. It doesn't help me to win if I destroy one person's structure. I realized though that destroying structures has a score bonus. Is the score bonus worth it?

This round, structure killers are even more useless. Their armour and firepower have roughly been halved - so now including them in a general attacking fleet means that you will take significantly more losses (as they were weak before their armour was halved). In this way, appoco and i are hoping that the use of SKs will be reduced when people see them dying by the score .

btw, i am pretty sure that Xans need to research Siege Weapons (last ship tech) to be able to build Structure killers - even though they are FR classed. You needed Siege weapons last round and Predators were FI then. I hope so, anyway. As for what construction you need for them, i am not so sure.

btw, i like the shortened names, as most people called them 'sents' or 'pulsars' etc anyway. The only one i miss is the TBT - Tzen Bolt Thrower - and i will keep calling them TBT as i like being old skool .

[Ferretus]

I agree with what everyone has said here with Struct killers being simply grudge fleets.

For that reason I suggest (and have done before) that the struct killers be of a different class to any pod that fleet uses. That way you need to find a way of working into a fleet, rather than combining it as a freebie. Last round I didnt ever build struct killers, but I stole plenty of them to use them well.

I have never liked them, or encourage there use. Regardless of score etc, they do unnescesary damage to player morale which can only lead to more player retirements.

[The Real Arfy]

Originally Posted by Ferretus

I agree with what everyone has said here with Struct killers being simply grudge fleets.

For that reason I suggest (and have done before) that the struct killers be of a different class to any pod that fleet uses. That way you need to find a way of working into a fleet, rather than combining it as a freebie. Last round I didnt ever build struct killers, but I stole plenty of them to use them well.

I have never liked them, or encourage there use. Regardless of score etc, they do unnescesary damage to player morale which can only lead to more player retirements.

Doing this means that people have to put more of their resources towards anti-SKs and would defeat the point.

[Neferti]

Originally Posted by The Real Arfy

Doing this means that people have to put more of their resources towards anti-SKs and would defeat the point.

No, I think he meant having SK's as another class to pods, not a class on its own. Obviously zik would have to be an exception, but terrans could have SK's as cruisers, for example.

[The Real Arfy]

Oh I see, so for example Terrans might have a CR SK? gotcha

[Makhil]

Many people agree on SKs and don't build them at first. However after being hit a few times by others who do send SKs, those same people start building them for retals, then they use them in normal attacks because they see little reason in being mister nice guy while everyone around is playing naughty boy. IRC claims such as 'wow I killed a lot of structures and got a major score boost' have led people to believe that you do gain XP with your SKs...

[Grog]

Personally I try an awful lot harder to get defence when i'm getting hit by fleets with SKs in them.

If I have 3 waves hitting me, 1 fleet with SKs in it & can only find enough D to cover 1 wave, well then ofc I'm gonna get the SK wave defended.

If i'm DCing, get 4 def calls & FA scans, then any fleets with SKs in em get a higher priority.

I think that if you include em in your fleet regularly, you'll be able to land a little less often then if you didn't have them.

[Neferti]

Originally Posted by Makhil

Many people agree on SKs and don't build them at first. However after being hit a few times by others who do send SKs, those same people start building them for retals, then they use them in normal attacks because they see little reason in being mister nice guy while everyone around is playing naughty boy. IRC claims such as 'wow I killed a lot of structures and got a major score boost' have led people to believe that you do gain XP with your SKs...

Actually, I think you did get xp for killing structures in round 10. Or was that just the beta...

[ironhell]

They are a wasted of resources, better build some usefull roidshippies or some for alliance def...

[Orion Treet]

Originally Posted by wakey

They can cripple a target pretty well, however as far as i'm concerned they are a feature iof this game that have little place in a persons normal fleet. Those people whom place them in a fleet thats your normal roiding fleet do a great damage to the game by crippling players for no reason and very little score gain

They are ships that should be reserved for Alliance wars only

[Appocomaster]

Xan structure killers do need Siege Weapons to work. Being Xan myself, and having done the first 2 ship resources and not having our structure killer, I can happily vouch for this :-)
Structure killers, as mentioned above, are pretty weak (it takes 32 Predators, 80k of each resource, to kill 1 structure). Due to their weak armour, they're rather expensive flak. However, I think we have to be wary of turning them into almost pointless ships. It's hard to guess the price of a structure, with building time and costs to take into consideration, plus things like knocking out factories. I don't think it's too bad at the moment, though it'll be interesting to see how many people use them this round

[higginz]

think theyd be well worth buying if theres some sort of planet defence like in old skool pa, but atm its jus for if u have a serious grudge or are at war really...

[Ferretus]

What about making all struct killers BS regardless of race?

That will at least give you up to 2hrs more prep time.