I don't see why the ships speed is a factor at all.  This seems to be a total unnecessary complication.  If ships were rated for agility that might make sense (what the ships yaw or pitch rate is) as it is in Attack Vector Tactical or Squadron Strike but absolute maximum or current velocity plays little role in bringing a hardpoint to bear.

There is no separate agility rating for ships in Aurora so the speed is used as the agility instead. I could add an agility rating and use that instead of speed but I thought that would be an unnecessary complication . I guess it might be worth revisiting at some point though.

Steve

I don't see why the ships speed is a factor at all.  This seems to be a total unnecessary complication.  If ships were rated for agility that might make sense (what the ships yaw or pitch rate is) as it is in Attack Vector Tactical or Squadron Strike but absolute maximum or current velocity plays little role in bringing a hardpoint to bear.

It was to avoid adding the complication of maintaining a separate agility rating for ships - the agility (both for dodging and for tracking) is modeled as being proportional to the ship's speed.

John

The above is exactly the way it works. The reason for the base fire control speed being used if it is higher than the ships speed is that otherwise bases wouldn't be able to hit anything.

Is that a change?

I recall the ship's speed being a limiting factor.

FWIW, I don't see a problem with making bases put their weapons in turrets.  Either that or put 1/10th sized engines on bases for rotation speed.  Note that most of the "engine" is the inertial dampener to keep the people from getting squished as the base spins.

The base tracking speed of a weapon is the higher of the ship speed or the reasearched tracking speed.  For example if you have reasearched tracking speed 5000km/s and your ship moves at 3300km/s then the weapons tracking speed would be 5000km/s. If the ship speed was 6600km/s then the weapon tracking speed would be 6600km/s.  All of this is based on fixed mounts.  If you have a turret then the weapon tracking speed is the speed of the turret.  

The weapon tracking speed is then compared to the fire control tracking speed.  The lower of the weapon and fire control tracking speed is then used for determining the chance to hit.  For example if you only had a x1 tracking speed fire control and your weapon was at 6600km/s then the actual fire control speed would be used.  If instead you had a x2 tracking speed fire control then the comparision would be between the weapons 6600km/s and the fire controls 10000km/s.  The limit would be the weapons 6600km/s.  

A note for point defense.  If your ship speed is significantly faster than the base tracking speed of your fire control, small railguns become effective point defense.  This is because they get 4 shots for slightly less total tonnage than a comparable turreted weapon would and the base chance to hit is going to be better than 1/4th the tracking speed.  Example using above 6600km/s movement.  A 10cm laser in a turret needs about 4hs the 10cm railgun uses 3hs.  Each railgun shot has 1/3 the chance of hitting that the laser has, but you get 4 shots total.  In other words this is an effective pd weapon.  Untill gaus cannon get to 6 shots per round the 10cm railgun is going to be more effective, and probably slightly longer range.  The 12cm railgun is more effective untill you get 5 shots per round with the gauss cannon. (you need to factor in the power requirements of the railguns vs the extra range and damage from the 12cm).

Brian

Quote from: "Charlie Beeler"

Unless Steve has changed it, for fixed mounts max tracking speed is the lower value between ship max speed and fire control tracking speed.  If the beam is turret mounted then it's the lower between fire control and turret tracking speed.  

I think there is a bug in 4.00b displaying the fixed mount tracking speeds incorrectly.

I copied and pasted the following from tutorial part-3

Code: [Select]

Enterprise class Cruiser    8800 tons     850 Crew     1334 BP      TCS 176  TH 66  EM 300
1562 km/s     Armour 1     Shields 10-150     Sensors 8/5/5/0/0     Damage Control 1-1     PPV 26
Flag Bridge    Magazine 400    Replacement Parts 10    

Nuclear Thermal Engine E8 (11)    Power 25    Efficiency 0.80    Signature 6    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 61.3 billion km   (454 days at full power)
Alpha R150/8 Shields (10)   Total Fuel Cost  80 Litres per day

25cm C1 Plasma Carronade (1)    Range 80,000km     TS: 2400 km/s     Power 16-1     RM 1    ROF 80        16 8 5 4 3 2 2 2 0 0
Twin R3/C1 Meson Cannon Turret (1x2)    Range 30,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 6-2     RM 3    ROF 15        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S04 40-2400 (1)    Max Range: 80,000 km   TS: 2400 km/s     88 75 62 50 38 25 12 0 0 0
Pressurised Water Reactor PB-1 AR-0 P20 (1)     Total Power Output 20    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Missile Launcher 04-040 (2)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 40
Missile Fire Control S01-040 (1)    Range: 400k km

Thermal Sensor TH1-8 (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Signature 100: 0.8m km
Active Sensor MR112000-R80 (1)     GPS 11200     Range 112.0m km    Resolution 80
Grav Pulse Detection Sensor GPD1-5 (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Strength 100: 0.5m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-5 (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Strength 100: 0.5m km
As you can see, this cruiser has a maximum speed of 1562 km/s, but his Plasma Carronades have a max. tracking speed of 2400 km/s.
With the tutorial not up to 4.0, it doesn´t seem to be a display bug.

That actually demostrates that the display issue has been around for some time.  My description above goes back to when turrets where added (back on the Diary mailing list?).  The purpose of turrets is to facilitate beams to engage targets that are travelling faster than the ships max speed.  

If this has changed I don't recall when.  Steve??  I think we need you to weigh in with which is correct?

Unless Steve has changed it, for fixed mounts max tracking speed is the lower value between ship max speed and fire control tracking speed.  If the beam is turret mounted then it's the lower between fire control and turret tracking speed.  

I think there is a bug in 4.00b displaying the fixed mount tracking speeds incorrectly.

It is higher, for the very purpose of not forking over bases.  But I agree, the implementation of turrets, while a nice idea, serves mainly as a massive penalty to any weapon that can't be mounted in one.