The video demonstrates that due to recent engineering changes in Star Citizen, causing a ship’s hard death through sustained gunfire is now difficult, making ramming a viable and effective alternative, especially for heavily armored or larger ships. Through various tests, the creator shows that while smaller ships struggle to damage capital ships by ramming, larger ships can decisively destroy targets by collision, highlighting ramming’s strategic value in combat.
In this video, the creator continues exploring the new engineering mechanics in Star Citizen, focusing on the concept of ship “hard death” and whether ramming is a viable method to destroy ships in the current patch. The video begins by demonstrating that simply shooting at a ship, even with continuous laser fire, no longer easily causes a hard death due to recent rebalances making components much harder to damage. Despite severe damage to shields, armor, and hull, the ship’s power plant health remains high, preventing the ship from exploding and making it very difficult to kill a ship solely through sustained gunfire.
The host then tests ramming as an alternative method to achieve hard death, comparing outcomes when a heavily armored ship rams a lighter fighter and vice versa. The results show that heavier armored ships tend to survive ramming impacts while destroying lighter ships, confirming that ramming can indeed cause hard deaths. However, in some cases, both ships involved in the collision are destroyed, indicating that ramming damage depends on the relative armor and speed of the ships involved.
Further tests involve ramming various ship types, including capital ships like the Hammerhead, Polaris, and Idris, with smaller fighters or torpedoes. The tests reveal that small fighters cause minimal damage to capital ships when ramming, suggesting that capital ships are resilient to such attacks. However, capital ships ramming each other or launching torpedoes can result in significant damage or destruction, with some ships going critical or exploding after just a few hits.
One notable test shows the Idris capital ship successfully destroying a Polaris by ramming twice, while sustaining minimal damage itself. This demonstrates that ramming remains a powerful tactic for larger ships to eliminate targets, especially when traditional weapon damage is less effective or slower to cause a hard death. The video highlights the strategic implications of these mechanics in PvP scenarios, where players with crime stats may find it difficult to be killed by shooting alone but could be vulnerable to ramming.
In conclusion, the video emphasizes that while shooting at ships is less effective in causing hard deaths due to engineering changes, ramming remains a viable and sometimes preferable option, particularly for heavily armored ships. The creator’s thorough testing provides valuable insights into the current state of ship destruction mechanics in Star Citizen, encouraging players to consider ramming as a tactical choice in combat situations. The video ends with a promise to continue exploring engineering mechanics in future content.