Posted by: Paul M
« on: October 16, 2019, 01:00:42 AM »This would require a complete change of game mechanics. Or at least a significant rewrite because of how Steve originally wrote the game to work. Every mobile object moves from point A to B, and only after that are others things checked. Inserting a minimum distance for AMMs is probably easier and faster.
I agree with you here, it is easier. I have issues with the way the game basically does the "one stat to rule them all" (in this case speed). I've never been a fan of munchkin-isms in games. My personal view on the situation is that the use of (inbound_speed/tracking_speed) as a modifier to PD chance to hit makes sense but after that missiles should not benefit from higher speed to hit their targets, it should be a flat chance up to a point then fall off as the closing speed exceeds the accuracy of the fuse mechanism. Basically detonating in the "blast radius" gets harder the faster the objects are moving with respect to each other. But much like my desire for laser damage to be based on wavelength and range on size...I don't hold my breath on this.
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Correct, it's broken in 7.1 but fixed for C#. This is one reason why tracking speed issues exist. But even with tracking speed issues, it isn't impossible to create impossible to penetrate PD screens by stacking cheap railguns.
The NCN uses lasers and frankly against a super salvo I'm dubious about lots of low hit chances. I had 12 shots with chances ranging from 7% to 21% (if memory serves) and the number of times no missile got hit were higher than when 1+ missile did. The time when a CLE engaged one of these wolver ships it survived without even going below 50% shield strength...the key is to have enough PD fire (in that case 12 shots on 3 inbounds) to give a reasonable average intercept chance. Also there long range interceptions were happening. The super salvo just requires both improvements in the Dart series, plus overall better DPPD turrets and lots of them. Even the 9th Squadron (6 CLEs) has only 36 dual DPPD turrets. The view is collapsing on 5 impacts on a CLE every 5 s would be acceptable (30 s to kill its shields, then 150 s to sandblast the armour belt, then 50 s or more of internals...that has to be more missiles than they have onboard). But that requires stopping 90% of the inbounds one way or another.
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Yes, intercepting AMMs is probably THE most annoying thing in Aurora combat currently. And even if they do cause only 1 point of damage per missile, NPRs/spoilers often fire thousands of them at you meaning that sandblasting eventually gets through any and every player ship. And Steve can't just have the AI not use size 1 missiles offensively, because what if they are the only weapon available to the AI in certain situations? There are solutions to counter it, especially from orbital bases, where you soak the damage by sending in cheap commercial ships that are nothing but massive engines and cargo holds - or any other high HTK cheap BP components. Remember that large engines can survive, due to how HTK and damage are calculated, extraordinary amount of punishment.
The "soaking" the damage is a lot too gamey for me. I am wondering if I should maybe make a armoured brick design with 12 CWIS systems (not that the NCN has developed the tech for that) and try that... The main frustration is that anti-ship missiles are not a threat at the moment...counter missile barrages are... Plus they fired on pinnaces at 39.2m km from the bases...that means a sensor and fire control that makes things like fighters unworkable. And I still don't get a passive detection of the sensor itself...that is backwards...a high resolution scan should be easier to detect then a low resolution system. But that must be one heck of a system...my current best CM systems have ranges only about a sixth what the wolvers are using. Looking like Wolf 359 and Ross 128 are both going to take a long time more before the NCN can challenge the bases. The only good news is that the salvage operations (part 2 of Olympic) should work and hopefully some more Wolver tech is recovered...if nothing else it gives me a better idea what they can do...but the salvage ship is inbound on Earth with 10x3-space box launcher systems and I'm currently researching them so they will be taken appart for reverse engineering purposes.