Wings as shields

[mrx]

Anyones else using wings as shields to block fire while you attack a base. Place them in front to take hits. Seems like they take a lot of hits and are cheap to make.

[GTO]

whatever works I guess.

[BlazeD]

12x9 wing = 1150hp = 10.6 hp / block area
12x9 hardened steel blocks = 21600hp = 200 hp / block area

[Palad1n]

numbers don't do a lot of good when you have to consider a lot of other factors, such as:

The area of space the wing is able to defend
How much mass does a wing contribute towards compared to a hardened steel block?

a hardened steel block provides a very small amount of coverage compared to a wing and its weight / mass is significantly heavier as well.

These are things I would look at, as the OP made a good point, wings are cheap to make and replace and use a lot less resources vs a hardened steel block, not to mention the amount of blocks being protected behind the wing(s).

[kevin398_727]

hmmm....elephant ear shields lol

[BlazeD]

If you have 1 wing covering 12 blocks of space being taken out from enemy fire that leaves 12 blocks behind it exposed to further fire. One block of HS takes 20x the ammount of damage to be destroyed and, once gone, only exposes 1 block to further fire. The HP vs weight argument is worthless in the face of actual combat-worthiness.

The OPs craft would be obliterated by advanced bases and player bases and would be fit only for light PvE vs bases defended by sentry turrets or other low-tier turrets.

The choice is simple: Do you want 1 block with 1150hp protecting your ship or 108 with 21600hp?

[Baracka]

depends on the type of craft your making for a small fighter wiings are prettly useful using small wings= can wack on weapons that you can replce but as Blaze said you plan your ship for purpose :)

[JokerThief]

HS wall + wing wall. That should work better.

[RedArcus]

i good solution, if they made flying more aerodynamic you schould probably fall out the sky, only in space with your Capital ship it maybe worked , Then your space ship much bigger then the wing parts. If you place wings like that it would/must be impact a lot on your pitch and roll and more like that and maybe you need a lot of truster power extra to fly?

[BlazeD]

Making the wings provide lift when moving forward would put them in a lot more blueprints i'd bet. I'd use 'em more.

[piddlefoot]

Probably ok for PvE battle with POIs and such but in PvP thats going to get torn to shreds in seconds.
Wings should give the ship a better turn rate, then they would be on alot more SVs for sure, but without proper flight controls first thats worthless in the games current form anyway, giving them the ability to provide more lift is a good idea.

[RedArcus]

Originally posted by BlazeD:

Making the wings provide lift when moving forward would put them in a lot more blueprints i'd bet. I'd use 'em more.

Does some know how to make a big wingspan, like windows they have some shape, very big but for the wings they are tiny little wings. I worked for my very little small vessel. but bigger wings must do much more like the artifical weightblock, stabilise if you have airspeed. Maybe difficualt to implement?

[Xango2000]

What if you factor in splash damage?

1 block gets hit with a rocket, the adjacent blocks get hit by splash damage. Does the same happen with wing blocks?

Personally, I'd rather use docked vessels as shields. They die, then all you do is spawn a replacement and fly it into place.