New Guide on the same topic here: http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=844943905

THIS GUIDE WILL BE KEPT PUBLIC FOR ARCHIVE PURPOSES AS THIS WAS ONE OF THE FIRST FtD GUIDES WHEN FtD FIRST CAME INTO EARLY ACCESS.

The point of this guide is to point out the different attack styles I have figured to be from the easiest to do to the hardest but worthy attacks. Classes are displayed below.

Contributors:
soldierfast90 (Creator, Some Pictures).
Jacko (Author, The "FTD STYLES" sign, Some other pictures)

Refers to Building Skills (Ship types) OR how hard it is to execute the tactic/strategy.
Beginner - Easy to Build
Medium - Experienced Building skills
Hard - Requires extensive knowledge of building and usually requires a combat-ready player
Expert - Applying God-Tier knowledge and ships to the test.

GUIDE STATUS: Yeh this is really dead, Like VERY dead
Data: *SLIGHTLY* unreliable.

Major Revisions 27 Sep - 30 Sep (Abandoned)

DONT EXPECT THIS TO BE FINISHED AT ALL

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED (I guess)

Ships that will have focused weaponry

Step by step baby instructions.
1. Get a ship that can move.
2. Attach rams EVERYWHERE! to the side of intended collision.
3. Ram enemy on the side of intended collision.
4. Die because your Ramming ship was too slow or it got destroyed by gunfire.
5. Realise ramming is a bad idea.

A ram-based ship will have rams on a fast boat. You can use a prefab engine or a custom one but it's recommended that a ram will be a case of: Disposable Missile.

There is no Ramming AI which means that for an effective rammer you'll need to control the ship yourself (or fiddle around with the ai for a bit).

General Tips:
- Don't expect a rammer to survive the first ram.
- Don't overly armour the ram as it'll slow it down.

This refers to speedboats

Build or steal a boat with a fast propulsion system. Easy peasy.
*classed as medium as new players may not be able to build an efficient speedboat from the
get-go.

Normally a ship like this will just be faster than an average boat but normally less armoured than say, A light battleship.

Normally it'll need to have some sort of propulsion spamming which involves attaching jets and propellors all over the ship.

General Tips:
- Have a streamlined front to reduce drag.
- Tweak the AI to compensate for a faster vehicle.
- Don't armour it too much with too little propulsion or you'll end up dead in the waters!

Ships designed to essentially be "Snipers"

The weapons for long range would be the Advanced Cannons as the extremely customisable functionalities allow for railguns, Sabot, HE or a wide arrange of F*ckery with the shells.

Also the Gauge Increasers are good too if you want bigger cannons.

*recommended that on ships with cannons designed for long range engagements that the whole ship be classed as a "Battleship" armed with atleast an AA and Short-Range Cannon.

Pros:
Can take down "Infantry" Ships rather well.
Should be designed to combat other Battleships which if it is, makes a good medium ship.

Cons:
If it isn't protected by secondary turrets and is being attacked by a close-range ship then you're pretty much gonna hope that every shot the cannon makes, counts.

Variable:
Range is dependent on how the cannon is customised (pay attention to the Ammo Customiser on the recommendations for the cannon itself on the type of shell you've created).
Armour is dependent on how much you put on it.


Not the minimum example but eh heres one with weapons all over it (theres 3 more on the underside).

As the name very well suggests, Aircraft are flying vehicles that are usually as a support but a large enough air fleet can lead to a very mobile attack force that can both attack and mobilise in a short time.

Rapid Fire Aircraft - Aircraft that'll bombard the enemy vehicles with projectiles, such as having your ship "CRAMmed" full of shells or having Explosive Advanced Shells slowly pick off that Riverhome in the distance. Not only does this type function as a great attack vehicle for wooden ships but also doubles as an air-fighter. Most of these types of Aircraft are fast and in the case of an enemy RF Aircraft can reach your fleet/base in a short amount of time.

Bomber - A larger plane designed to fire off missiles for "Massive damage"

Wellington Mk/L Recreation (Wing is too far back)


Tips for allied aircraft:
- Avoid using balloons as they can be easily shot down and significantly slow down horizontal speed.
- Use a jet engine for faster aircraft or (Hard) create a jet-prop hybrid for a more efficient aircraft.
- Unless you're using dangerous waters aircraft, don't expect the plane to act like a ww2 one, it won't be able to use non-turreted guns effectively as it won't know how to strafe run. Unless you can LUA (Expert).
- Wings are weak, so in some circumstances you may need to use Helicopter Spin Blocks to substitute for vertical propulsion.
- The more armour and weapons you place the more vertical propulsion you

Cannons that shoot fast

Pros:


Cons:


Variable:

You spam missiles at the enemy, like lots of them.

Pros:
Insane damage (Depending on missile type)
High splash effect (Ditto)

Cons:
Uses a lot of Ammo (depending on how many and how long each missile launcher is)
Not usually stealthable
Fuel pods take up missile space
Missiles left in gantries will explode if damaged

Requires a minimum of 3 blocks for an effective "Launcher" so an 9-missile pod will require 36 blocks of space (not including controller or connectors). Of course there's mothing to stop you from making dumb-fired missiles.

Spoderman Pointed out a "Mothership/Beacon" Style ship in which the ship would simply have a large amount of defense and essentially act as a command center.
FIX UP!

After Fixing Up things as CrushedEmber pointed out that its pretty much a Mothership style ship but with either lots of weapons or lacking weapons which means it has 2 variants. The Style also means that it has to stay in that one fleet if it is drone, even though you seriously should make sure ALL of your ships are there

Armed And Dangerous Variant
Has Weapons attached to such mothership.

Weapons May Include: Anything thats a weapon.

Weaponless Variant

Not dangerous on its own but has most likely a larger fleet than the A.D Variant.

Easy peasy

Acknowledger: Jacko
Info Provider: CrushedEmber
Writer: soldierfast90 (Author)

Uncommon ships that are very specific on weapons.

These type of ships use drills as their main style of attack, drills are VERY strong, but semi complicated. So these are advantageous for fast ships with lots of drills.

Pros: Good attack strength

Cons: Semi complicated

Idea by: Jacko
Writer: Jacko

This type of player uses either multiple AI sky fortresses or a single, built up and fortified one with alot of cannons and defenses to attack enemies and claim more zones.

Pros: Very hard to defeat, destroys everything.

Cons: Rescource unfriendly (depends on size and power), not recommended for first time campaigners or a new campaign.

Idea by: Jacko
Writer: Jacko

Below Is a bunch of strategies.

*not all may be viable strategies and should resort to being used as a one-off tactic.

This attack style is straightforward... You attack head on with your only vehicle or that starting fortress at the start of a Campaign. You merely charge at the enemy and shoot.

This is standard with AI and requires no effort in any tactical or strategical planning and thus is usually the best option for most battles which it just ends up with which ship is better and how effectively tuned you've set the AI for broadsiding.

Essentially you either have the ship attack from the front or just broadside normally.

The most important factor in attacking (If you like being hit with massive cannonballs) is to have a strong ship armour

Recommended ship class: Battleship OR Dreadnaught

Pros:
Easier to hit enemies
Strong in Numbers
Standard attack method

Cons:
Enemy hits more often.
Vulnerable
Usually weaker when not in groups


"First Try" Boat, Back in the olden days. Now if you used this design that would be like trying to punch a bear with cotton balls.

Flank - Attack the enemy from the side while they're busy attacking your fleet at the front.

Pros:
Can surround the enemy
Larger fleets are more effective

Cons:
About as effective as attacking normally

Variable:
Fleet size.

This is the most interesting one that requires you to have unlocked atleast SMG or Shotgun.
You need almost no materials but you need to have unlocked those weapons do it properly which means levelling up prior

You first go grab your fleet and march it straight towards the enemy and engage with the enemy fleet. Then you board the enemy ship by any means and locate the AI Mainframe and shoot it. In most situations you'll have to shoot your way to it. There is an urgency however so it is vital to not waste time and locate the Mainframe as fast as possible. You should memorise each ships Mainframe Location to reduce wasted time when "Stealing".

*recommended Minigun for anything thats bigger than a Wanderlust

Pros:
Almost No Building Materials.
Effective (88% proven effective!)

Cons:
Chance Of Dying
PermaDeath if no respawn point
Requires Smg, Grenade launcher or Minigun
If all of your fleet is destroyed the enemies will be "Out of Play" making it impossible to steal them

Variable:
Enemy Repair Bots will impede progress and lots of them may make it time-consuming.
Aircraft and speedboats will be hard to actually board without an aircraft of your own (or land) to jump off.

This guide will be very dead until I become bored enough to edit this.

Also R.I.P Crystal Resource, you were my only bribing resource I mass farmed :(







Fact: This guide was created in the Early days of FTD's Steam Early Access and I saw that there were only 4 other guides. So in an attempt to gain possibly some popularity I spent time creating a long wall of text known is this monstrosity and yeah.