Duo Deck Hammerhead

Shadow Reaper

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I wonder if I should buy another one.
I would bet a single Eclipse is more than a match for the Hammerhead, and might not even need a second missile. Beware. It's a gunboat. They die easy and it is 4 times the target size of a Redeemer.

IMHO, the Scimitar from Next Great Starship was a better design than the Hammerhead. They nerfed the Scimitar to make the Hammerhead, by making it super vulnerable with the dual hallways. No real designer would see the Hammerhead design as viable. It duplicates the low utility access volume of the hallways, and moves the mass from the center where it can be rotated quickly and easily to the periphery where it cannot. It is not a good design, IMHO.

Save your money and get a Polaris. Now THAT is a well designed ship!
 
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Bambooza

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Until it goes into gray box and grows in size and has its hallways modified to make a more interesting fps shooting space.
 
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I would bet a single Eclipse is more than a match for the Hammerhead, and might not even need a second missile. Beware. It's a gunboat. They die easy and it is 4 times the target size of a Redeemer.

IMHO, the Scimitar from Next Great Starship was a better design than the Hammerhead. They nerfed the Scimitar to make the Hammerhead, by making it super vulnerable with the dual hallways. No real designer would see the Hammerhead design as viable. It duplicates the low utility access volume of the hallways, and moves the mass from the center where it can be rotated quickly and easily to the periphery where it cannot. It is not a good design, IMHO.

Save your money and get a Polaris. Now THAT is a well designed ship!
I have one of each. They seem like a good hunting pair.
 
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Citadel

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I would bet a single Eclipse is more than a match for the Hammerhead, and might not even need a second missile. Beware. It's a gunboat. They die easy and it is 4 times the target size of a Redeemer.

IMHO, the Scimitar from Next Great Starship was a better design than the Hammerhead. They nerfed the Scimitar to make the Hammerhead, by making it super vulnerable with the dual hallways. No real designer would see the Hammerhead design as viable. It duplicates the low utility access volume of the hallways, and moves the mass from the center where it can be rotated quickly and easily to the periphery where it cannot. It is not a good design, IMHO.

Save your money and get a Polaris. Now THAT is a well designed ship!
I was and still am a huge fan of the Scimitar from TNGS and I wish it had one out over the Redeemer even though I have one anyway I think the Scimitar fits into what CiG are doing better and wouldn't have been shelved until further notice as the Redeemer has been

Saying that the whole dual corridors idea with the HH is a strange one to me but I'm no expert - However the Polaris crew requirements compared to the HH is double the minimum and not far off double the max, for me that gives the HH a nice little niche for it's size between the Polaris and Connie's!
 

Shadow Reaper

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Gunboats have always excited me. I do love speed! The thing that concerns me though, is that if there is no way to stop the larger torps, the fragility of a ship like a gunboat, especially when it is so large, is going to make it disappointing in some ways.

There's no doubt all those quad guns appeal. And if you had a Hammerhead up close on a Polaris, it might kill the Polaris. If however, the Polaris had a bead on several Hammerheads before they came in range of their guns, seems to me the Gunboat that could would go up in a fireball pretty quickly.

Now who knows? Maybe they'll give the gunboats an unusual amount of armor, but i would not count on this. Odds are even the Polaris will not have much armor. I think they'll give the HH good shields, but these won't last loing against a torp wielding opponent like an Eclipse. I'm liking the Eclipse more and more as I see just how low those sigs are.
 

Bambooza

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It really does depend on how effective AI in a HH turret does against torpedoes. Make it so it can handle one or two incoming torpedoes and then only a Polaris will make it fearful.
 
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Hammerhead is a fleet ship. It has weaknesses which can only really be solved by other vessels - don’t assume it’s meant to travel around on its own.
 
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Shadow Reaper

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They do say it is designed to combat fighters, so one suspects it has good shields. Of course those don't matter if what is shooting at it has ballistics, missiles or torps.

Traditionally, the anti-fighter role usually goes to Corvettes. I am concerned they will nerf the Polaris top speed now that they have assigned the anti-fighter role to the Hammerheads.
 
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Bambooza

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Not sure why they would nerf the Polaris top speed as it was never designed to go after fighters. It was meant to use its speed to allow for attack runs on Idris's and Javelins. Were its not going to be able to stand toe to toe with these ships its speed should allow it to get into position fire a volley of torpedoes and then disengage to position for another attack run.

For me the Hammerhead continues to play a wild horse roll and it really all revolves around how effective it will be against torpedoes. To effective and it removes the effectiveness of bombers like the Eclipse, Gladiator and Retaliator from fleet engagements, shifting fleets to being mostly Polaris with Hammerheads backup in a battle of attrition. Weak to torpedoes and the Hammerhead has a purpose in the fleet but does not usurp fighters and bombers allowing for dynamic fleet designs, ship positioning and pilot skill to dictate outcomes.

My hope continues to be while the Hammerhead decimates fighters who get in range (unable to chance down) its weak to torpedoes and thus like all large ships still needs a fighter interceptor group escorting it.
 

Shadow Reaper

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My concern about the Polaris speed is that it was designed as a patrol vessel, which is the traditional Corvette role. Gunboats do not usually fill that role. The role of a gunboat is usually to attack much larger vessels. Think of the WWII era PT boats. It's just an unarmored speedboat with torpedoes on. Dangerous as can be for its crew but punches way over its class.

Corvettes have traditionally punched best below their class. They use their speed to chase down smaller ships and dominate them. So for instance, the best representative of this today is the US Littoral class combat ship. It is not a "ship of the line". It's made of aluminum and so is very fast, but it cannot engage even the smallest of frigates. Instead, what it can do is be where no frigate can be because of its speed, and so it is a true patrol vessel. Littoral class combat ships were designed to hunt pirates in much smaller vessels and it's chief distinguishing feature is that of any true Corvette--it is FAST.

What CIG did when they created the Polaris was broke the mold by giving it serious torp capability. That is what makes it able to punch over its class, but it can only do this from great distance and needs to cut and run against any real ship of the line. You would not for example, want to pit it against a Void Bomber's spinal mounts, for it would not take long for the Vanduul Corvette class to cut the Polaris to ribbons. Yeah, a Polaris should be able to kill a Void Bomber, but it needs to strike first and from out of range of the Vanduul heavy weapons.
 
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