Author Topic: Missile Theory  (Read 1801 times)

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Offline Erik L (OP)

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Missile Theory
« on: May 25, 2008, 07:23:09 PM »
When a missile loses its target due to catastrophic booms on the target, I've noticed they just tend to sit there and look stupid as opposed to tracking other targets in the same fleet.

Would putting sensors on a missile change this behavior? The firing ships are within sensor range of the targets.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »
 

Offline Kurt

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Re: Missile Theory
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2008, 08:45:53 AM »
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
When a missile loses its target due to catastrophic booms on the target, I've noticed they just tend to sit there and look stupid as opposed to tracking other targets in the same fleet.

Would putting sensors on a missile change this behavior? The firing ships are within sensor range of the targets.


The way I understand it, the missile will remain in place until the launching ship acquires a new target, at which time the missile will begin moving towards that target.  

I haven't used sensors on missiles before, but I would expect that they would acquire targets on their own.  

Kurt
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Kurt »
 

Offline Erik L (OP)

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Re: Missile Theory
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2008, 12:05:44 PM »
Quote from: "Kurt"
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
When a missile loses its target due to catastrophic booms on the target, I've noticed they just tend to sit there and look stupid as opposed to tracking other targets in the same fleet.

Would putting sensors on a missile change this behavior? The firing ships are within sensor range of the targets.

The way I understand it, the missile will remain in place until the launching ship acquires a new target, at which time the missile will begin moving towards that target.  

I haven't used sensors on missiles before, but I would expect that they would acquire targets on their own.  

Kurt


If this is the case, it's not a 100% effect. I had missiles that sat there for a good 2-3 minutes while the launching ships acquired other targets (and destroyed them). Missiles in flight seem to change targets 100%, but the stationary ones do not.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »
 

Offline Valhawk

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Re: Missile Theory
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2008, 04:10:19 PM »
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
Quote from: "Kurt"
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
When a missile loses its target due to catastrophic booms on the target, I've noticed they just tend to sit there and look stupid as opposed to tracking other targets in the same fleet.

Would putting sensors on a missile change this behavior? The firing ships are within sensor range of the targets.

The way I understand it, the missile will remain in place until the launching ship acquires a new target, at which time the missile will begin moving towards that target.  

I haven't used sensors on missiles before, but I would expect that they would acquire targets on their own.  

Kurt

If this is the case, it's not a 100% effect. I had missiles that sat there for a good 2-3 minutes while the launching ships acquired other targets (and destroyed them). Missiles in flight seem to change targets 100%, but the stationary ones do not.


Did it burn though all its fuel perhaps.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Valhawk »
 

Offline Erik L (OP)

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Re: Missile Theory
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2008, 06:01:51 PM »
Quote from: "Valhawk"
Did it burn though all its fuel perhaps.


Nope. They still had minimum 6+ minutes on the fuel clock. The larger missiles launch with a ~13 minute fuel tank, and the smaller ones with nearly 30 minutes. Flight times were in the 4 minute range.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »
 

Offline Steve Walmsley

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Re: Missile Theory
« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2008, 11:16:02 AM »
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
When a missile loses its target due to catastrophic booms on the target, I've noticed they just tend to sit there and look stupid as opposed to tracking other targets in the same fleet.

Would putting sensors on a missile change this behavior? The firing ships are within sensor range of the targets.

The missiles will target whatever the fire control linked to their launchers is targeted upon. Once a target is destroyed, the missiles will hold position waiting for a new target to be selected.

Missiles with onboard sensors will use them to select a target if they are not currently under shipboard control

Steve
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Steve Walmsley »
 

Offline Steve Walmsley

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Re: Missile Theory
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2008, 11:18:34 AM »
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
If this is the case, it's not a 100% effect. I had missiles that sat there for a good 2-3 minutes while the launching ships acquired other targets (and destroyed them). Missiles in flight seem to change targets 100%, but the stationary ones do not.

I haven't seen this problem in my own game and the situation has occurred a few times. One change in v3.0 is that fire controls are automatically set to no target if they cannot lock their selected target (due to range or target destruction). Not sure how this would cause the missiles to ignore a new target though. Another possibility is if you have multiple fire controls on a ship, make sure the fire control linked to the missiles is the one that selects a new target.

Steve
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Steve Walmsley »
 

Offline Erik L (OP)

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Re: Missile Theory
« Reply #7 on: June 04, 2008, 12:28:58 AM »
Quote from: "Steve Walmsley"
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
If this is the case, it's not a 100% effect. I had missiles that sat there for a good 2-3 minutes while the launching ships acquired other targets (and destroyed them). Missiles in flight seem to change targets 100%, but the stationary ones do not.
I haven't seen this problem in my own game and the situation has occurred a few times. One change in v3.0 is that fire controls are automatically set to no target if they cannot lock their selected target (due to range or target destruction). Not sure how this would cause the missiles to ignore a new target though. Another possibility is if you have multiple fire controls on a ship, make sure the fire control linked to the missiles is the one that selects a new target.

Steve


The designs did include multiple fire controls, but I did retarget both controls to new targets. The only thing I can think of is the incoming missiles took priority, and one or two salvoes was enough to destroy the targets, but flight time was enough to put 4-5 salvoes in flight. So that just compounded the error.

Of course, the other side will start to deploy more PD suites.

Hmm... There's an interesting tactic. Launch oversized salvoes, cease firing and let the existing salvoes take care of business.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »
 

Offline Father Tim

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Re: Missile Theory
« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2008, 05:07:45 PM »
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
Hmm... There's an interesting tactic. Launch oversized salvoes, cease firing and let the existing salvoes take care of business.


That won't quite work - oversize salvoes will simply make their target extra-dead.  However, launching multiple waves (from box-launchers, for example) five or ten seconds apart will let you 'ripple' through your targets.  To me, such a tactic seems required if your flight time is longer than your reload rate.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Father Tim »
 

Offline Erik L (OP)

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Re: Missile Theory
« Reply #9 on: June 05, 2008, 06:29:54 PM »
Quote from: "Father Tim"
Quote from: "Erik Luken"
Hmm... There's an interesting tactic. Launch oversized salvoes, cease firing and let the existing salvoes take care of business.

That won't quite work - oversize salvoes will simply make their target extra-dead.  However, launching multiple waves (from box-launchers, for example) five or ten seconds apart will let you 'ripple' through your targets.  To me, such a tactic seems required if your flight time is longer than your reload rate.


The flight time on the salvoes was in the 8-10 minute range. The reload time was (at the time) around 90 seconds for the smaller missiles and 180 sec for the larger.

One salvo of 3 large missiles usually obliterated 1 ship. If I recall those missiles mounted a 20pt warhead. The current generation of comparable missiles is still 20pt warhead, but the flight time is nearly an hour with a max range of ~40m km. Or about 3x the endurance and 2x the range.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Erik Luken »