Are Riot Starships worth using?

[Orelius]

I've seen lots of posts here about people using riot control starships, but I've never really found the appeal.  What makes riot control starships so good or appealing?  Is it worth the few thousand knowledge to unlock them?

[keith.lamothe]

It's generally possible to use them to engine-kill a fairly ridiculously large number of AI fleet ships from long range, contributing significantly to defense (particularly a rolling defense across multiple planets).  This part of their utility is not as great as it once was with some of the recent changes to engine-damage rules, but it's still pretty good.

The tazers available to the mkIIs can be extremely useful in the right circumstances, locking down a huge group of AI ships in a small area or at least reducing their firepower by a huge percent via paralysis.

If you mount the onboard shields, particularly the higher mark variant, there's a bunch of tricks you can pull with those in shielding other ships of yours, etc.

Also, some people like using them just for the modular aspect.

[Red Spot]

(particularly a rolling defense across multiple planets)

Mainly that. With few fronts I never unlock them, if I have shield-bearers I might still not unlock them but they become quite usefull.

[zoutzakje]

I have never used them yet.... not even once. I should try them out sometime

[Weapon Master]

The only starships I think are useless as of right now are the Neinzul Mobile Factories, I just think they would be too fragile to use out in enemy planets. I also don't like using them because the engineers could be targeted and killed by the AI, making any factory ships you have with you much less useful.

Edit: Maybe if they had a way to protect their engineers they would be a bit more useful in my mind. (I don't say use a forcefield because that would mean people would use them as mobile shield barrier starships.)

[Commiesalami]

Just Curious, was there any reason for the design decision that only Mk2 Riot Ships get the Tazer?

[keith.lamothe]

Just Curious, was there any reason for the design decision that only Mk2 Riot Ships get the Tazer?

Yes, MkIIs get them instead of tractors.  The tractors probably need to be better for that really to balance out, but the MkIIIs have the advantage of simply being better in the other usages.

Also, if you had more tazers I'd have to make them shorter or have a longer recharge.  As it is, if you're playing multiplayer or multi-homeworld you can get enough MkIIs with tazers to permanently lock down any number of AI fleet ships in a small enough range (like just coming out of a wormhole).  But that particular technique hasn't seen enough abuse to demand a nerf, so I'm content with the way it is

[Sunshine!]

The only starships I think are useless as of right now are the Neinzul Mobile Factories, I just think they would be too fragile to use out in enemy planets. I also don't like using them because the engineers could be targeted and killed by the AI, making any factory ships you have with you much less useful.

You can't pair them with engineers if you do this, but stick your enclave starships with cloaker starships to keep them safe.  With how many enclave starships you can actually get (8 mk1, 2 mk2, 2 mk3, 2 mk4), you'll have enough of a mk1 meatshield to keep your higher mark replacements from getting blown up too fast, and you probably won't even notice the lack of engineers.  Of course, spamming enclaves like that is super expensive given the cost of the 6 mercenary mk1 enclaves, but even without you've still got 8 enclaves total.  This is especially true if you're using something like Laser Gatlings, Teleport Raiders*, or any of the other Neinzul ships. 

*Before anyone says teleport raiders are useless, they come up to a bit above 3/4 the DPS of bombers against forcefields and other ships they have a bonus against.  That's a pretty ridiculous pile of damage, just be sure to keep them away from AOE.

[Orelius]

The only starships I think are useless as of right now are the Neinzul Mobile Factories, I just think they would be too fragile to use out in enemy planets. I also don't like using them because the engineers could be targeted and killed by the AI, making any factory ships you have with you much less useful.

You can't pair them with engineers if you do this, but stick your enclave starships with cloaker starships to keep them safe.  With how many enclave starships you can actually get (8 mk1, 2 mk2, 2 mk3, 2 mk4), you'll have enough of a mk1 meatshield to keep your higher mark replacements from getting blown up too fast, and you probably won't even notice the lack of engineers.  Of course, spamming enclaves like that is super expensive given the cost of the 6 mercenary mk1 enclaves, but even without you've still got 8 enclaves total.  This is especially true if you're using something like Laser Gatlings, Teleport Raiders*, or any of the other Neinzul ships. 

*Before anyone says teleport raiders are useless, they come up to a bit above 3/4 the DPS of bombers against forcefields and other ships they have a bonus against.  That's a pretty ridiculous pile of damage, just be sure to keep them away from AOE.

True, but I can't see anyone spending that much knowledge on neinzul enclave ships; if I recall correctly, the mark IV ship costs 10k knowledge.  Surely, that can't be worth it.  I'd rather spend all that knowledge on some resource upgrades or something.

Also, I didn't think to use enclave starships with teleport raiders or other low-cost ships!  You've just given me many, many ideas.

[TechSY730]

Also, I didn't think to use enclave starships with teleport raiders or other low-cost ships!  You've just given me many, many ideas.

Yep, whenever I get neinzul ships or another very cheap ship type, I usually go ahead and unlock enclaves too. These cheap ships can be built really fast even with engineer assistance.

[keith.lamothe]

I imagine that the enclaves producing nanoswarms or autobombs are fairly terrifying.  Or at least hilarious.

[Wingflier]

Are Riot Starships worth using?

What is this blasphemy?  How else can you swarm a planet with an Eye and still take no damage?

[Tharrick]

I always unlock riot ships for the same reason I tend to use a lot of Spire capital ships - I *love* having capital ships with shielding. Seriously, being able to move a small force around (or a big force if you've got the Spire ships there as well) without risking too much damage is awesome

[Solarity]

Are Riot Starships worth using?

What is this blasphemy?  How else can you swarm a planet with an Eye and still take no damage?

Use a few spire fleet ships, or you know, just nuke it?

[Fleet]

At one point in development, I distinctly remember the riots were worth using. They dished out tremendous amounts of engine damage with great effect, immobilizing large numbers of targets, within a short time frame. However, I do not use them now for two primary reasons.

1. The effects on large groups of enemy ships seems negligible now. They simply don't have the stopping power they used to (maybe the change was made around the Unity switch, I don't recall). The riots take too long to do slow down large number or ships before they get to my important facilities (planets are not all that large, it does not take long).

2. The auto-build mechanic does not work properly. Specifically, it does not preserve different modules at the same tech level (for example, if I manually build one laser and one machine gun, if one is destroyed, it does not automatically rebuild the destroyed modules. I may end up with two lasers instead).

They seem a bit more effective if I move *really* close in range, so more of the guns hit, but if I'm that desperate to stop the enemy it is probably a wave of bombers or something, that are capable of destroying my riot when I move in.