Author Topic: Dummy missles  (Read 2299 times)

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Offline particlehavoc (OP)

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Dummy missles
« on: December 07, 2011, 08:32:20 PM »
I was wondering if you can use large amounts of size 1 missiles to clog up enemy PD while the bigger missiles go unnoticed and cause damage, unless the AI goes for the big ones first.  I was thinking maybe putting armor onto them to take up space and to bog down PD even more, but I don't know if this will work.
 

Offline nafaho7

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2011, 09:42:19 PM »
You could do it, but the mineral cost involved, as well as the factory time diverted from constructing missiles that could actually inflict harm, would almost certainly make it more efficient to use only damage dealing missiles.   If your enemies are capable of swatting far too many of your missiles out of the sky, then you may be better off using more missiles of a smaller size.   This would require you sacrificing either range, or warhead size per missile, but will let you direct heavier salvos at your enemies.
 

Offline Brian Neumann

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2011, 09:55:06 PM »
A differrent option from downsizing your missiles is to go for the reduced size launchers.  If you use the 1/4 size launcher you can get in one very big salvo and then take a very long time to reload.  The key here is to be faster and longer ranged than your opponent.  If so then you can afford to pick apart his fleet with a few very large salvo's.

If you really want to use lots of small missiles to overload his point defense then make a special size 1 missile.  As long as it has the same speed and range of your heavy missiles you can make this work.  Fire 1 salvo of the small missiles 1 cycle before you fire the heavy missiles and then have a second salvo when your heavy missiles fire.  After that keep the small missiles firing in the same pattern.  It is a lot of micromanagement so be warned. 

What you are doing is shooting lots of small missiles that hopefully absorb several salvo's of his counter missiles.  This allows the rest of the missiles to close at least part of the way through his long range intercept area.  Then the extra small missiles traveling with the heavy missiles spreads his fire out and hopefully lets some of the big guys through.  It helps if all of your fire controls have more small missiles assigned than the heavy missiles.  This is because each set of missiles is considered a seperate salvo.  If you have three fire controls on a ship then by splitting your launchers between the three fire controls you get three seperate salvo's.

Good luck doing this as it is a tough battle to control.
Brian
 

Offline particlehavoc (OP)

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2011, 09:59:19 PM »
Thanks guys.  I think this is more of a 'You can, but why would you want to' scenario than I first thought.
 

Offline Girlinhat

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #4 on: December 08, 2011, 12:38:51 AM »
If you can reduce the cost enough, then missiles might only require fuel to produce.  Pack those into a series of Size 1 reduced/box launchers and just saturate.  Get in a solid, hard salvo of decoy missiles, and follow your warheads shortly behind.  I've done it once or twice, it's a great "clusterfrakk of point defense apocalypse" if you can pull it off just right.

Alternatively, armor your missiles.  Traditional AMM have 1 warhead strength.  Fast engines and 2 points of armor might let you slide in before they can get a second shot at you.
 

Offline ZimRathbone

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2011, 06:02:01 AM »
Remember however that armour on missiles is not ablative - ie 2pts of armour does not mean that it will take 2 hits - it means that each 1pt hit has a 50% chance of killing the missile - it may take only one such hit to kill or it may take more than 4, as i saw with a single siz24 missile that  shook off 4 intercepts and then imolated an 8Kt DDG - the single missile was launched from a minelayer, which happened to transit 5secs ahead of the main battlefleet (oops!)
Slàinte,

Mike
 

Offline TheDeadlyShoe

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2011, 02:48:54 PM »
Size 24? What was the warhead size on that sucker?
 

Offline PTTG

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #7 on: December 08, 2011, 04:25:01 PM »
I'm kinda thinking I have to try out a 100-point warhead bomb, just because. Is it possible to actually turn planets into debris clouds?
 

Offline Brian Neumann

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #8 on: December 08, 2011, 05:03:55 PM »
I'm kinda thinking I have to try out a 100-point warhead bomb, just because. Is it possible to actually turn planets into debris clouds?
Unfortunately there is no way to turn a planet into a debris field, although enough radiation and dust gives a close approximation to a barren rock.

If you do make that large of a warhead let us know what size missile you fit it into and what your relevent techs were.

Brian
 

Offline ZimRathbone

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #9 on: December 08, 2011, 06:14:40 PM »
Size 24? What was the warhead size on that sucker?

from memory, either 36pt or 48pt, depending on which generation it was - it was certainly enough to go all the way through the armour, and blow at least 2 magazines and an engine room from the secondary explosions.   In the same campaign I had fighters armed with a single one of these as planetary defence units which helped wipe out an invader incursion in the home system.

@PTTG:  No.  Damage to planetary bodies is not recorded - only dust/radiation damage to the environment - all system bodies (even asteroids) are indestructible by any means at your disposal
Slàinte,

Mike
 

Offline Panopticon

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #10 on: December 08, 2011, 08:25:12 PM »
In one game I put a few box launchers with some huge missile on my survey vessels, it actually worked when they would run across the swarm or something, not so much against a fleet with real missile defenses, they were size 40 missiles if I recall, and therefore could be detected at massively long range.
 

Offline dgibso29

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #11 on: December 08, 2011, 08:30:54 PM »
Dear Steve,

Please allow us to destroy planets and asteroids. Spoiler race!?

Love,
Me and anyone else who agrees

PS: Here's what I got at my tech levels. I look forward to using it.
Code: [Select]
Missile Size: 24 MSP  (1.2 HS)     Warhead: 60    Armour: 4     Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 20000 km/s    Endurance: 31 minutes   Range: 37.5m km
Cost Per Missile: 24
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 200%   3k km/s 60%   5k km/s 40%   10k km/s 20%
Materials Required:    16x Tritanium   7.75x Gallicite   Fuel x10000
« Last Edit: December 08, 2011, 08:42:14 PM by Admiral666 »
 

Offline Girlinhat

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #12 on: December 08, 2011, 08:54:31 PM »
I may work to make an enormous missile with no fuel, a planetary bomb that will crack open the crust like Thor's Hammer itself!  For those times when you don't care about stealing installations, population, or the planet itself.  Just blast the damn rock into a wasteland and move on, a century-long reminder that "we do not tolerate hostilities."
 

Offline dgibso29

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #13 on: December 08, 2011, 09:30:25 PM »
A size 100 launcher at standard reload is only 5k tons. Toss a couple of those on a dedicated platform, add magazines and engines.. 16 minute reload at reload rate 3. Granted, you would need 14k tons of magazine space (at my current tech) to have just 50 of them. Of course, "Just 50" would be an understatement...
 

Offline PTTG

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Re: Dummy missles
« Reply #14 on: December 09, 2011, 12:10:04 AM »
Dear Steve,

Please allow us to destroy planets and asteroids. Spoiler race!?

Love,
Me and anyone else who agrees

PS: Here's what I got at my tech levels. I look forward to using it.
Code: [Select]
Missile Size: 24 MSP  (1.2 HS)     Warhead: 60    Armour: 4     Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 20000 km/s    Endurance: 31 minutes   Range: 37.5m km
Cost Per Missile: 24
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 200%   3k km/s 60%   5k km/s 40%   10k km/s 20%
Materials Required:    16x Tritanium   7.75x Gallicite   Fuel x10000

I'm anyone who agrees! Even if it was a top-of-the-tech-tree type project, something where you'd need a size 100, 100% warhead antimatter bomb with enhanced radiation and a cherry on top. It'd just be nice once in a while to disintegrate a planet into a little scattering of asteroids with an earth-shattering kaboom.