Hammerhead vs Polaris

Nightlane

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Polaris all way along. And thanks th Hammerhead price increase you can obtain a cheaper Polaris.
Polaris will go up in price, probably 950$ or more.

Polaris can do all the Hammerhead does but it is just slower killing fighters unless you bring more fighter which is easier with a Polaris. And it can bring a fighter and/or small ships full squadron, help to control space, work as a forward operations base, be used in the Vanduul war, do torpedo runs, probably scans/detect ships better, etc.

And of course it will be profitable. Much more than Hammerhead.

And of course you can manage it with you and your NPCs. (Fighters would need their own players/NPCs)
 

Phil

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Polaris but that is my preference, depends on what you want to do. I think Polaris will fit nicer into a fleet activity.
 
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Egotistic88

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My .02 is the Hammerhead is easier to manage crew wise and size wise. The hammerhead will also probably be in need more often for escort missions as that is its design purpose. Screen large slow moving targets from the fighters and fighter type ships, cutlass and the like.

The Polaris is a warfighter. Its a true corvette the smallest ship of the line. A fighting frigate. I think it will find it uses in front line operations in org wars and big expeditions to hostile territory.

While i know they said they are gonna make missions that scale to whatever ship you are using so you can always make a profit. I just do not see a Polaris or anything larger rolling out on a daily basis to make money. I can see the Hammerhead doing that, so I own a Hammerhead.
 

Shadow Reaper

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I think I agree with what you're saying save that I think we will see the Polaris is easy to crew under some circumstances.

The HH is intended to fight smaller ships. Since the power of the ship is in the turrets, you really need PC gunners. The Polaris is intended to fight larger ships. If you are hunting larger ships, maybe you can get by without using the turrets, so maybe you can get by with NPCs in them or AI. . .though you're betting that fighters won't come in on you, and that's a risky bet.

So since the Polaris' point is the torp lanchers, you can get by in that bird with a very small crew. . .methinks. We'll have to wait and see. It matters a great deal whether the Polaris gets full EM warfare station, real sick bay, real brig, etc. The original stats did say you want 11 crew minimum, but notice they changed that back some months ago to 6 persons, so methinks it may come with turret AI.

I'm still hoping they go to twin 5s on the manned Polaris turrets and twin 6 on the remote chin mount, as well as the twin S3 missile launchers ventral and dorsal (total of 4). All of that was reset after they were sold and I'm not sure it was done on purpose. I think they just had trouble getting it onto the ships page without error.

. . .but as stands, either bird is manageable with just 6 crew.
 

Kiladyn

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Its a true corvette the smallest ship of the line. A fighting frigate.
a corvette and frigate are two different classifications :P

That being said personally I would prefer a Polaris due to the versatility. You can somewhat fight, you can go off on your own, you can have cargo, a small fighter ect.
 
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Egotistic88

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a corvette and frigate are two different classifications :P

That being said personally I would prefer a Polaris due to the versatility. You can somewhat fight, you can go off on your own, you can have cargo, a small fighter ect.
This is the definition of a Corvette. The two are actually closer together than people realize. Especially in modern terms. If you want to use the old wooden definition it is even more muddied. I did not mean to say frigate that was a mistake. I meant to say the fighting sloop. In fact its so convoluted there are many arguments as to what actually defines it other than simply weight.

"A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or "rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop-of-war. The modern types of ship below a corvette are coastal patrol craft and fast attack craft. In modern terms, a corvette is typically between 500 tons and 2,000 tons[1] although recent designs may approach 3,000 tons, which might instead be considered a small frigate."

Edit: Just to add flavor a Frigate in old wooden terms was actually not considered able to fight in battle formations. It was not equipped for ship to ship combat. They were built for speed and designed to flank while larger war vessels took care of line combat. The size of the guns it could carry very much depended on the weight and size of the vessel. So we still use weight today but its a bit out dated.

The hammerhead isn't a corvette because it isn't designed to fight line vessels or even pose a threat. Its a high endurance cutter by modern standards. Designed to screen and protect not brawl with equal or larger vessels.
 
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Kiladyn

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Ego, can I call you Ego? I was more trying to poke fun at it because CIG has them labeled and its not super clear how they mean it. I would love a fully fleshed out classification list for futuristic spaceships ect. As far as I know it goes Corvette -> Frigate -> Destroyer -> Cruiser(L,M,H,B) -> Battleship -> Dreadnought
 
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Egotistic88

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Ego, can I call you Ego? I was more trying to poke fun at it because CIG has them labeled and its not super clear how they mean it. I would love a fully fleshed out classification list for futuristic spaceships ect. As far as I know it goes Corvette -> Frigate -> Destroyer -> Cruiser(L,M,H,B) -> Battleship -> Dreadnought
Everybody calls me Ego lol.

And yes I agree completely. To be fair like my last post says its not a clear subject even in real life. Its just to convoluted. In this game they really need to clarify for the sake of game play what they mean with these loose terms they keep using. Hell just say what era you are basing these terms on. 16th century to WW2 changes drastically. Modern times changes even more.

I added an edit to my last post because it made more sense to put there to me.
 
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Bambooza

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I agree. They will be used together a lot. But I kinda think the Hammerhead will almost always be with a larger capital class ship in almost any major operation. The hammerhead fills the gap in their armor.
It really depends on how effective the Hammerhead will be at torpedo prevention. If it can counter the Polaris and Retaliator's torpedoes over say 70% of the time then the larger ships will be used otherwise they are to much of a liability and you'll end up seeing only groups of Polaris with a few Hammerheads.
 

Egotistic88

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It really depends on how effective the Hammerhead will be at torpedo prevention. If it can counter the Polaris and Retaliator's torpedoes over say 70% of the time then the larger ships will be used otherwise they are to much of a liability and you'll end up seeing only groups of Polaris with a few Hammerheads.
Also true. I mean some of this is all speculation anyway till numerous game mechanics get ironed out and aren't just speculative plans. At the moment the Hammerhead's job is escort and protect. So its safe to assume it will excel at escort and protect. If it doesn't it will be a total waste of a ship. If a polaris can do the same job just as well then why own a hammerhead. The hammerhead is extremely purpose built. Too purpose built if you ask me.
 
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glockjs

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I recently bought a HH because it was relatively cheap and am now having the same debate. For now I just have a CCU in buybacks for a Polaris. HH is for protecting against smaller ships and Polaris is a Cap killer. I also think the HH will be useful in large battles for protection and also pushing lines.

One thing I'm kinda scratching my head on is the front part that opens. They say in the Q&A that they don't condone ramming but Aegis did reinforce the front? Could the HH be designed to ram a cap ship and board through the front? That would be kinda awesome.
 

Egotistic88

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I recently bought a HH because it was relatively cheap and am now having the same debate. For now I just have a CCU in buybacks for a Polaris. HH is for protecting against smaller ships and Polaris is a Cap killer. I also think the HH will be useful in large battles for protection and also pushing lines.

One thing I'm kinda scratching my head on is the front part that opens. They say in the Q&A that they don't condone ramming but Aegis did reinforce the front? Could the HH be designed to ram a cap ship and board through the front? That would be kinda awesome.
I have no idea but I have been thinking on these two ships a lot. One thing that keeps getting brought up by CIG is that the Hammerhead and Polaris are in the same class. Which is just, inane, there is no way these two vessels are in the same class. The Polaris is clearly the superior in terms of versatility. The real question is how efficient it is.

I mean the HH is supposedly very fast, and it is slower than a Reclaimer which is 155m to the HH's 115m. I assume that the Polaris will be slower than a HH. Which makes the Polaris have a non AFB speed less than 100 M/S. So it makes me think the Polaris will be weak to fighter bomber groups and groups of coordinated fighter attacks.

As far as the front part goes I have no idea. That would be pretty sweet but the HH seems to be lacking the accommodations for more than the crew. If you are correct then I suppose you load up a couple HH's with a ton of marines just before the battle, to the point where the place smells like crayons, then ram the biggest threat and fill their ship with marines. I just wonder how the HH would stay attached to cut open the hull.
 
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