Question about Fire Controls.

[Usarius (OP)]

Hi guys, I found aurora about 2 weeks ago and have been loving it so far.   I have a few questions about missile fire controls, particularly for point-defense.

I've been trying to design a Point defense ship that uses missiles to provide protection for my fleets, I've already designed a good Anti-Missile Missile.  It has a range of 10. 2m KM and can hit pretty much any ASM missile the NPRs have.   I've been trying to design a Missile FC for my PD missiles but can't quite get the range on them to match up perfectly with my AMM's range.   Will the fact that my Missile FC's max range is short by 100,000km be detrimental to the performance of my PD defense ship or won't it make much of a difference?

Thanks,
-Usarius

[Icecoon]

Don't be afraid to make the fire controls reach bigger than your AAM/ASMs range. You will not have to design new fire controls when your missiles develop and gain more range.

By the way make sure that your missile range corresponds with the minimal targeting range for size 6 missiles and not the maximal targeting range  for 1 HS object. Missiles are much smaller than 1 Hull Space(50 tons).

[Nathan_]

Range doesn't have to match up, and on the flip side of having longer ranged FCs, having larger ranged missiles lets your missiles persue targets that are running from you when launched at maximum range.

[Jorgen_CAB]

There is usually no point in trying to match the range of your FC and AMM for the purpose of shooting down ASM. When you fire and intercept an ASM you will likely have travelled about half the range of your FC since the ASM usually have equal or greater speed than your AMM and comes straight at you.

Ther might be other reasons though that I can't think of at the moment.

For ASM it is usually recommended to overbuild it slightly. You might design a new missile with greater range or you might encounter a ship with ECM. I see no reason to build your FC shorter than your missile range even if you always want a buffer between when you fire and the farthest reach of your missile. Adding another few fractions of a HS or point in worst case can certainly mean the difference between victory and defeat.

[Usarius (OP)]

So what I'm taking away from this is that its fine to have your Fire Controls have longer range than your Missiles.   On the flip side, what happens if your Fire Controls are shorter range than your missiles?  Do the missiles just stop tracking things once they get past that range?

[Nathan_]

You can't target anything beyond an FC's range, but in a chase even if you hold the range steady, your missile has to travel further than that distance due to movement and extra range will allow it to do so. it is still generally worthwhile to overbuild fcs due to ECM if possible, but neither situation is truly a problem.