- I agree more with seven of carina, large missiles already have an advantage in range over small missiles. They suffer mostly from throw weight, or rather their lack of it. However, I would think being able to add an additional to hit chance via a communications module would be nice. Better yet, have Thermal Reduction / Cloak work on missiles and bring back armored missiles. I also think armor should add HtK like turret armor does, but also add the % chance to not take damage while being unable to be added in amounts of less than 1 MSP. So no 1.5 or 0.5 MSP of armor.
- The main issue I can see with larger missiles, sans the issue of saturating enemy PD, is the lack of something to do with them. ECM/ECCM isn't very big, and neither are Active or Passive Sensors. Engines automatically use the best fuel consumption, so even range stops being a big deal after a certain level of tech. The other big issue is accuracy, there is no reason to make slow missiles... at all. Slow probes? Yes, but slow missiles? No.
- Seven of Carina's idea has in fact already been implemented by Steve to a point, larger launchers reload much, much faster than before. However, they do not yet scale their tonnage to capacity like Reactors and Shields now do, so big launchers are still ton for ton as efficient as smaller ones. Jorgen_CAB's idea would give big missiles something to do that small missiles can't. Even ECM/ECCM can be mounted comfortably in a Size 6 or 9 missile, while Active Sensors really don't matter much for ASMs.
- Giving the big ones the ability to load up on accuracy gives them more of a reason to exist, as the whole advantage of a biger missile woudl be more room to put stuff. Sol there needs to be stuff to make them better. I am more in favor of an Advanced FCS Module though, which is tied to sensors on the missile itself. Two such FCS Modules in fact, one for Active and one for Passive, with each FCS conferring a bonus based on it's type.
- The Active FCS would confer an accuracy bonus that would work identically to Missile Tracking Speed Bonus, the longer the missile is tracking the target the better the bonus. The Passive FCS would provide the same kind of bonus as the Active FCS, but would scale based on enemy EM/TH output versus the missile's ability to detect said output. So a really hot target would confer a much higher bonus regardless of the passive sensor strength of the missile, while a really good passive sensor suite on the missile would confer a high bonus despite the target being relatively "cold".
- When you combine those ideas with Cloak / Thermal Reduction and add back in armor, suddenly all kinds of new options exist for all the different missile sizes. Want slow, but accurate torpedoes for Commerce Raiding? Use a combination of Passive TH Sensors with Passive FCS and add Armor. Want a speedy shield buster? Big engines, Passive FCS and Passive EM Sensors. Want an ASM to cut through enemy PD? Size 8 with 75% Cloak to appears as a Size 6 and 1 layer of Armor to help deal with Meson / Gauss / Railguns. Want a super accurate mega missile of DOOM? Just cram a crap ton of Active Sensors, Passive Sensors and FCS, add ECM/ECCM, armor and so on and so forth.
- Under that model, missiles get deadlier as they get bigger, but they also get more expensive. Medium sized missiles become more useful, while Cloaked Missiles get more powerful as Cloaking Tech increases. At 50% Cloak, a Size 12 is as hard to see as a Size 6, but would cost more. A slow torpedo would benefit from the Thermal Reduction and the Passive FCS, while everything that is big enough to mount a credible Active Sensor would benefit greatly from an Active FCS. Armor would make big missiles even more viable, as by adding HtK suddenly Railguns and Gauss become less powerful against small salvos, while AMMs will need to be more powerful to compensate.
- Incidentally, Mesons should ignore missile armor's % chance to block incoming damage, and just deal HtK against any missiles they hit. Conversely, AMMs should suffer a flat reduction proportional to the number of layers, and then deal the rest to HtK. So the % chance to ignore damage only involves Non-Meson Beam PD and CIWS. As an aside, Missile Stages should have an option to "Deploy Sub munitions on..." and then two check boxes that read, "Launch" and "Sensor Contact" respectively. This would allow the player to designate something as a mine or a bus w/o the fiddly bits, while a lack of designation in this regard would allow booster stages, armored shells to carry them past Fighter PD, or to create buses for Orbital Bombs
