Point Defence Not Working :O

[firsal (OP)]

I've got the fire controls, the turrets, the gauss cannons, and the sensors. I just can't seem to make them hit anything using Final Defensive Fire Mode the incoming missiles just sail through without the PD ships firing a shot

Which is sad, since a score of missiles broke through my AMM screen and are now heading towards my fleet; good thing I savescummed

[Vandermeer]

Can you post the design schematics of one of your PD ships? Otherwise we can only speculate on possible mistakes.

[firsal (OP)]

Of course. Here's my primary railgun combatant, which works in tandem with a missile-based frigate and a sensor platform.

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Wolf II class Frigate    7,500 tons     179 Crew     1432.4 BP      TCS 150  TH 360  EM 0
4800 km/s     Armour 6-34     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 14     PPV 48.46
Maint Life 2.51 Years     MSP 477    AFR 112%    IFR 1.6%    1YR 105    5YR 1581    Max Repair 180 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 9 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 72   

Federal Drive Systems 240 EP-S Military Magneto Plasma Drive (3)    Power 240    Fuel Use 42.5%    Signature 120    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 750,000 Litres    Range 42.4 billion km   (102 days at full power)

Triple Federal Armaments Type-410 Gauss Cannon  Turret Mk1 (1x9)    Range 30,000km     TS: 12000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Federal Kinetics Type-710 10cm Dual Purpose Railgun (2x4)    Range 30,000km     TS: 4800 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Federal Kinetics Type-740 20cm Naval Railgun (1x4)    Range 120,000km     TS: 4800 km/s     Power 12-3     RM 3    ROF 20        4 4 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 1
Federal Fire Control Systems Type-246 Railgun Fire Control  (1)    Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 4500 km/s     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Federal Fire Control Systems Type-202 Point Defence Fire Control (1)    Max Range: 48,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
Federal Powerplants SPP-2 Stellarator Fusion Reactor  (1)     Total Power Output 6.6    Armour 0    Exp 10%
Federal Powerplants SPP-22 Stellarator Fusion Reactor (1)     Total Power Output 3    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Federal Armaments Type-600 Torpedo Box Launcher (6)    Missile Size 12    Hangar Reload 90 minutes    MF Reload 15 hours
Federal Fire Control Systems Torpedo Fire Control (2)     Range 10.1m km    Resolution 100
S-12 Mjolnir Torpedo (6)  Speed: 44,500 km/s   End: 1.3m    Range: 3.6m km   WH: 16    Size: 12    TH: 163/98/49

Federal Sensor Systems Type-112 Auxillary Missile Scanning Array (1)     GPS 21     Range 1.7m km    MCR 183k km    Resolution 1
Federal Sensor Systems Type-101 Auxillary Ship Scanning Array (1)     GPS 2100     Range 16.8m km    Resolution 100

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Also here's a copy of one of the ship's combat summaries in the combat screen

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Federal Fire Control Systems Type-246 Railgun Fire Control  #1:   No Target Assignment
Federal Kinetics Type-740 20cm Naval Railgun #1 (Ready To Fire)

Federal Fire Control Systems Type-202 Point Defence Fire Control #1 (Point Blank PD Mode 5):   No Target Assignment
Triple Federal Armaments Type-410 Gauss Cannon  Turret Mk1 #1 (Ready To Fire)
Federal Kinetics Type-710 10cm Dual Purpose Railgun #1 (Ready To Fire)
Federal Kinetics Type-710 10cm Dual Purpose Railgun #2 (Ready To Fire)

[SteelChicken]

How do you have the fire controls setup?  Thats usually where I make mistakes.

[Vandermeer]

How do you have the fire controls setup?  Thats usually where I make mistakes.

He posted that too.

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Well, the tech is definitely solid, so no error there. The only thing I can see is that the PD fire is rigged to trigger at up to 50k (which is the fire control's maximum), while the actual weapons only fire up to 30k. That might or might not cause an issue, though I have never had it myself despite relying on automated settings there too all the time.

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Just looked into two older games of mine, and some of the controls there also used farther ranges than the weapons could do, yet always worked fine. I have not had any confirmation in 7.x about this though, so it might be different now.
I also vaguely remember people here having that kind of problem sometimes, but I don't recall how it was resolved.

Maybe you can upload your Stevefire.mdb somewhere (e.g. Google Drive or Zippyshare etc.), so we can take a closer look and test? That is if the change in PD range above didn't already resolve it of course.(but unlikely)

[Zook]

What do the combat logs say? Anything about targeting problems?

[jem]

Have you pressed 'open fire' after setting your PD? Yes that is needed and no the game does not tell you this.

[Andrew]

Are your final defensive fire ships separate from the ships which are being targeted?
If they are then final defensive fire won't help as the ships will only fire if their taskgroup is the target

[jem]

Are your final defensive fire ships separate from the ships which are being targeted?
If they are then final defensive fire won't help as the ships will only fire if their taskgroup is the target

They fire just fine as long as they are in the same location.

[Garfunkel]

If the missiles are launched and cross the entire distance between launcher and target in under 5 seconds, not even Final Defensive Fire has enough time to react - only CIWS do as they are handled separate. So make sure that you are far enough. This is a common problem with multi-faction starts but can also happen if you're getting close to certain spoilers.

[83athom]

Questions; Do you have an active sensor contact on the missiles? How fast are the enemies missiles? Did you try this with the Final Fire PD mode or the Area Defense mode? Can you post a screenshot(s) of the combat log showing the missiles hitting you?

@Garfunkel He is using Point blank so it should have the same mechanic of shooting as CIWS.

[firsal (OP)]

Alright, here are some screencaps of the whole situation.

http://imgur.com/a/n4WoQ

Have you pressed 'open fire' after setting your PD? Yes that is needed and no the game does not tell you this.

Yes I have.

What do the combat logs say? Anything about targeting problems?

None

If the missiles are launched and cross the entire distance between launcher and target in under 5 seconds, not even Final Defensive Fire has enough time to react - only CIWS do as they are handled separate. So make sure that you are far enough. This is a common problem with multi-faction starts but can also happen if you're getting close to certain spoilers.

Nope, these were detected really far out; enough time to get some AMM salvoes in

[firsal (OP)]

So after a fair bit of fiddling and savescumming, the PD guns started firing and engaging incoming targets

I assume this is due to the fact that I forgot to tell the PD FCs to open fire, though I'm not entirely sure about that

[Zook]

No, in PD mode they should work automatically.

[jem]

No, in PD mode they should work automatically.

Should.