So, I got several questions regarding possible design directions.
1. What happens with a MIRV missile if I fire the missile below it's separation range?
Will it immediately release the sub-munitions, or not at all?
Immediate release.
2. Do the submunitions need their own sensors, or will they inherit the targeting information of the parent missile? if that one is still guided from the ship.
Submunitions use the same fire control as the parent. If contact with the original target is lost (or the original target was a waypoint), they'll need their own homing heads - they do not have a telemetry link from the parent. In other words, they act exactly as if they were fired individually from the ship. (Note - this answer is based on knowing how things evolved, not actual knowledge of the code.)
3. Will the Carrier Missile drop in size when they release their sub-munitions? I guess not.
They will not.
4. Whats the use of "Orbital Bombs", Missiles with no fuel?
Will they do anything at all? I don't quite get it.
Nuking a planet from orbit 'til it glows. Same as an ICBM.
5. If the carrier and submunitions have different speeds, will they still count as one salvo, or as two?
They'll always count as different salvos (even if they have the same speed), since they're different types.
6. Will passive Sensor guided missiles always home for the strongest contact, or the closest? Once they can detect them all.
Or will they home for the first they see?
Dunno.
7. To confuse enemy AM defenses, would you prefer a lot of small missiles, large armored missiles, or a Cluster-Missile releasing feint missiles?
Depends on the circumstances. A lot of small missiles has a RoF advantage over cluster missiles, but cluster missiles (probably) have a range advantage and can be thrown from anti-shipping launchers. Large armored missiles have their biggest advantage attacking moderately armored targets (where their penetration depth is greater than the armor level) which use AMM as a defense (since AMM usually have a strength-1 warhead).
8. Are drones really just extra long lasting missiles with fixed engine and maneuverability? Or is there something special to them?
I haven't used drones yet, but I think that's a good characterization, except for the offensive aspect of the "missile" part. My understanding is that their cost and lower speed makes them much less efficient than a missile for attacking shipping - I'm not sure if you can MIRV them with missiles to make an ultra-long range delivery vehicle, though. I think they're mainly used for delivering probes across long ranges.
9. Is it just me, or does the efficiency of Missile Armor decrease with increasing tech levels of enemy weaponry?
My impression is that your own armor tech doesn't change the efficiency of your missile armor. I think there are suggestions in the queue to change this.
10. Is there a way to place mines without a bazillion of waypoints?
Dunno - think I might remember something like this in a discussion thread.
11. What exactly do Laser Warheads do, I've read a lot about them that wasn't so coherent, like that they reduce effective enemy armor (how?), that they hit multiple targets in the same location, etc... I suspect they just have some sort of Laser damage template.
Dunno, but I suspect you're correct.
12. Will missiles targeted at PDCs also kill population, or can I fire without risking people?
I suspect it will still result in a hell of radiation.
I don't think there's a difference (vs. targetting the pop) but could be wrong.
13. Will Laser Warheads work through atmosphere?
It's 0 range, after all.
I would say they shouldn't, but don't know what Steve coded up (they probably do work). And planetary attack isn't zero range - anything more than a few 10s of km away is actually going through
more atmosphere than a beam shot straight up. So for laser warheads, you then devolve into a conversation about what the stand-off range is....
14. Magazines or Box Launchers?
I found that the total capacity for using a Magazine and a Launcher isn't much higher than an eqaul HS of Box launchers. Though they have 0 HTK, whatever that will specifically mean.
That's not a question. 0 HTK (Hit-To-Kill) means that if they get hit, then they're destroyed without weakening the remaining damage points in the hit (or something close to that). In other words, a ship whose internal systems all had 0 HTK would be destroyed by the first point of damage to penetrate the armor.
15. Should I rather go for weaker missiles that are likely to hit, or stronger payload with higher miss chance.
I've used the first so far.
You'll need to do the math for this one, i.e. "it depends". I assume you're talking about same-size missile designs, since you can simply doubly everything on a "non-fancy" (no armor, sensors, etc.) missile and get the same performance with double the warhead. The two questions are: "How strong do I expect the target's armor to be (equivalent to 'am I doing sand-blasting or penetration?')" and "What kind of defenses do I expect?". If you're going for penetration, then stronger payloads are better if they're enough to kick you to the next level of penetration. If you're going for sand-blasting, then you just need to run the numbers to see what the highest rate of damage/second or damage/cost is. The "What kind of defenses" question comes in because increasing the hit probability by increasing speed also increases the probability of misses by the defense - the probability of a single defense shot hitting is lowered by the speed ratio, which can add up to a pretty big difference if the enemy is taking multiple shots at your missiles.
In practice, though, the math isn't so complicated, because of the way the damage templates for missiles work. N levels of penetration requires an N^2 warhead, so I always design my missiles with strength 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, etc. So I first choose the warhead side, then optimize hit probability vs. range given the remaining mass.
John
