Proposed update for the Orbital Mass Driver

[chemical_art]

The poor mass driver has suffered as expansions has been released. It was at one time a game changer in battles, and still is somewhat in the base game.

However, it is trashed by larger things like spire capital ships.

I propose that OMD's get a multiplier to ultra heavy and structural hulls. It would keep it from smashing starships too fast, but against golems and other huge things it does more then scratch the paint.

[Hearteater]

I still keep waiting for Ions and OMD to get Turret hull type. Raid Starships have a 0.2 multiplier against Turrets.  Suddenly raiding them becomes much tougher.  I'm just not sure if it is more fun or not.

[Draco18s]

I approve of both ideas!

[Kahuna]

OMDs with Turret hull would destroying AI OMDs pain in the ass. They almost 1 shot MarkI Raid SSs.

[Mánagarmr]

OMDs with Turret hull would destroying AI OMDs pain in the ass. They almost 1 shot MarkI Raid SSs.

Yes?

[Kahuna]

OMDs with Turret hull would destroying AI OMDs pain in the ass. They almost 1 shot MarkI Raid SSs.

Yes?

Pretty much. Raid SS shot by an OMD = doomed to be destroyed.

[Mánagarmr]

I fail to see the problem. It forces one to use a different strategy to deal with the OMD. How is that a bad thing? The Raid SSs aren't supposed to be your swiss army knife for everything

[Kahuna]

I fail to see the problem. It forces one to use a different strategy to deal with the OMD. How is that a bad thing? The Raid SSs aren't supposed to be your swiss army knife for everything

I didn't say that's a problem.
Raid SSs having 0,2 multiplier vs OMDs AND OMDs nearly 1 shotting Raid SSs IS  problem

[Hearteater]

OMD takes 2 shots to kill a Raid Starship I, with a 10 second reload
Raid Starship I takes 17.58 shots to kill an OMD (ignore hull multipliers), with a 3 second reload

So if you close with a Transport, unload Raids and attack, you get 3 shots from a Raid Starship before it dies.  Using an entire cap of Raid Starships gives 50 seconds until wipe.  That's 3 shots from the first, 10 shots from the second, and 16 from the third.  So in an isolated attack (which you won't have when raiding an OMD), two Raid Starships die and the third is undamaged.

Since Raid Starships currently get x4 damage, they only take 4.4 shots to kill, or death from a cap at 3 seconds with no deaths because the OMD got only one shot off.  You'll probably lose the damaged Raid Starship from other things though unless you have a Transport to hide it in.

With a hull type of Turret, the OMD takes a whopping 87.9 shots to kill.  In other words, just a fraction over 3 full-cap Raid Starship I attacks.  At that point, Raid Starships aren't the answer to OMDs, at least just Mark I.  So if that's the goal, Turret hull type does it pretty well.  You could still take them out with Raid Starships, you'd just want to unlock at least Mark IIs if not Mark IIIs (depending on what other problems are in the system).

OMDs could get Heavy armor instead, which just removes the Raid Starship's x4 multiplier, so that's the 17.58 hits-to-kill durability.  That would pretty much require a Transport insertion and probably a little fleet ship support just to keep other damage off the Raids to get the OMD down in one attack if you don't unlock IIs or IIIs.  I'm not sure what other ships would be affected by that change though.

Overall, I think given I can get all the raiding I need with just Mark I Raid Starships, having OMDs require different tactics or higher Raid Starship unlocks may not be a bad idea.  Whether that's as extreme as Turret hull type, or just Heavy hull type, I'm not sure.

EDIT: These number discount the OMD taking 1/4 damage from Lasers, which Raid Starships use.  This puts them at 17.58 shots to kill OMDs currently, not 4.4 as shown above.  With Turret hull type, the shots-to-kill becomes an insane 351.6.

[KDR_11k]

Raid Starships probably shouldn't counter OMDs, these are fairly rare and specialized weapons, there are already not that many times when they get to do anything useful.

[Draco18s]

I fail to see the problem. It forces one to use a different strategy to deal with the OMD. How is that a bad thing? The Raid SSs aren't supposed to be your swiss army knife for everything

I didn't say that's a problem.
Raid SSs having 0,2 multiplier vs OMDs AND OMDs nearly 1 shotting Raid SSs IS  problem

"I use Raid STARSHIPS to destroy OMDs, which is designed to kill STARSHIPS."

What.

[Martyn van Buren]

Yeah surely the OMD is supposed to be a hard counter to raid starships?  And surely a transport full of bombers ought to be able to deal with it as long as it's not under a forcefield?  If it is than maybe you have to fight through that world without starships, which doesn't seem like a terrible thing to happen occasionally.

[Lancefighter]

hard counter to starships? Meh. Take your entire fleet, load them into transports, and hope you blow up the omd (and the nearby ai home command station) before you die.

Seriously though - OMDs are still somwhat valid, I just dont think they are as valid as they used to be.I think honestly part of that is because there are now more starships to field.. and honestly, the champion doesnt care AT ALL about omds.

[chemical_art]

hard counter to starships? Meh. Take your entire fleet, load them into transports, and hope you blow up the omd (and the nearby ai home command station) before you die.

Seriously though - OMDs are still somwhat valid, I just dont think they are as valid as they used to be.I think honestly part of that is because there are now more starships to field.. and honestly, the champion doesnt care AT ALL about omds.

Maybe champions cruiser and above could have the "ultra-heavy" hull, which if combined with the OMD getting a bonus to ultra-heavy, gives the OMD more bite.


I was thinking that the OMD could use a buff overall, but I was unsure how much players would like it if the OMD was popping your 100k champions every 20 seconds instead of the current situation of every 30 or 40 seconds. So I went cautious and asked for a multiplier against things with tens of millions (or more) of HP.

[Mánagarmr]

"I use Raid STARSHIPS to destroy OMDs, which is designed to kill STARSHIPS."

What.

Kind of my thought as well.