Give bugs a small chance to Ram automatically when they die

posted on September 27th, 2011, 11:21 pm

I was thinking about ways to make different specials easier to use, and I was also thinking about random things that could go into the game to make it more interesting, and I came up with this idea.

Give the bug a new ability, call it "Desperation" or whatever.  Basically whenever a bug dies, it has a chance (20% or so) to use its ram ability instead.

The ability only triggers if an enemy ship is within short range of the dying bug.  Mechanically, it replaces the bug with a copy that has heavy hull damage and a lower defensive value than other bugs.  This means that the enemy will focus fire on the bug, after all it set a collision course for one of their ships.  The bug has no weapons, cannot receive orders and will explode if it fails to ram an enemy after 3 seconds or so.

Story-wise, the Jem'Hadar refuse to give up, and sacrifice themselves for the glory of the Founders.

Gameplay-wise, right now the Ram ability is basically impossible to use with a damaged bug during a big fight.  This extends the usefulness of the bug and makes the enemy think twice about fighting in close quarters.

What do you guys think?  I was thinking that other races' ships could have similar abilities like escape pods, or extra shots fired for Klingons, etc.  But while those would be complicated and wouldn't really add much to the game, I think with the bug it's worth it.

posted on September 27th, 2011, 11:22 pm

Why not just have it ram the nearest ship when set to auto autonomy?

posted on September 27th, 2011, 11:26 pm

Wasn't that stopped because it made it hard for Bugs to escape with auto-ramming?

Either way, I'd rather just ram them at the start.

posted on September 27th, 2011, 11:31 pm

Hmm, I haven't used autonomy for bugs before.  Does the current autonomy wait for their health to get low or does it just ram?

The idea I had was to make the bug ram feel more unstoppable, like in the show.  A bug that gets alpha-struck still gets a chance to ram with this.  Of course, I know the ram ability works instantly if a target is already in range but I've never seen it go off in a big fight.  Maybe that just because the fight was too cluttered to see it happen, I don't know.

posted on September 27th, 2011, 11:59 pm

I think this is a good idea.  suicide ram seemed like something they did a lot, and was something you would do if your ships was about to blow.  might as well get as close as you can when you go down.

posted on September 28th, 2011, 1:54 am

I really like this idea, I find it very hard to use ram when a bug has lost it's shields and is near death.

posted on September 28th, 2011, 1:59 am

I agree with Majestic, its a hard ability to use in those big battles. You simply don't have time to micromanage them the way youd want to. It would be nice to have an auto-ram ability too, I don't think setting to auto works for them at the moment. Plus, it can keep the Dominion's signature ship useful throughout the game

posted on September 28th, 2011, 3:24 am

Remove the current ram ability, replace it tryptics idea, prehaps.

However if it becomes more automatic like that, remove the engine disabler effect, not only does this glitch a ships from yellow (Disabled) to red (offline) if they are allready damaged (if a damaged system is disabled, it goes offline until repaired) but it seems silly that the ship is without engines for that long.

That or make the disabled engines a 1-2 second thing.

posted on September 28th, 2011, 12:00 pm

I agree that if they get auto ram that disabling should last less time. They still have is bomb.

posted on September 28th, 2011, 12:08 pm

hm, i dont know if auto-ram is a good idea. there are situations where one wants to save a bug instead of having it go havoc. yet, i will take a look at it.

posted on September 28th, 2011, 1:00 pm

saving bugs is a real pain anyway. they counter the griffin with adai, but two of my griffins once chased a bug down and killed it before it could get to a yard i chased it from the start of the middle asteroid belts in duel 2, back to home base and managed to kill it. the bug is so defensively fragile that you almost have to accept that they are fodder, u just gotta make sure you get kills with them. in very early game a couple bugs can be great for ramming things that dont super counter it. like scubes, prevent them from running from your s2s.

posted on September 28th, 2011, 1:06 pm

hm, i dont know if auto-ram is a good idea. there are situations where one wants to save a bug instead of having it go havoc. yet, i will take a look at it.

There's a solution: Auto-ram should be a replace-weapon that can be activated. Auto-ram-active bugs shouldn't be able to ram manually but they wait (30-60 seconds) until their hull gets under around 33% and then they'll start ramming the last attacker.

posted on September 28th, 2011, 3:07 pm

Auto ram has been brought up before, and if decoupled from Autonomy settings is a very bad idea for just that reason (being unable to control your own units). I would only support such a change if it was affect solely by autonomies 

posted on September 28th, 2011, 3:11 pm

Auto ram has been brought up before, and if decoupled from Autonomy settings is a very bad idea for just that reason (being unable to control your own units). I would only support such a change if it was affect solely by autonomies 

Yeah, that was my problem with it. If you can set your individual ships to ram or not, then you'll be able to have greater control over your forces, especially in those battles where you wouldn't be able to react in time before your Bugs are destroyed.

posted on September 28th, 2011, 3:43 pm

If you guys could read my original post instead of the thread of responses afterward, I did foresee your concerns.

By having the emergency ram ability activate AFTER the ship dies, there is no loss of control over the ship.  Your bug will never turn around when it's running away, and if it dies without any nearby enemies it will simply explode.  The auto-ram is simply a small chance to get a "bonus" ram when one of your bugs dies in close proximity to an enemy.

Also, the ram might not even happen.  If one of your ships dies and tries to ram but is just out of range, all enemy ships will autotarget it because of its low defensive value.  This is sort of like the target ship sending out an SOS so that its allies will save it from being rammed.  That half-second switch of dps could be really helpful when the rest of your bugs are trying to escape, for example.