Could somebody explain tracking speed to me?
I think you might be in the wrong board
.
But tracking speed acts to modify beam weapon hit chance. A fire control has a tracking speed rating, and a beam weapon ALSO has a tracking speed.
If the beam weapon is not turreted, the weapon tracking speed is the larger of the ship's speed (whcih may decrease due to destroyed engines) and the racial tracking speed (which is just the highest level of beam fire control tracking speed tech you have researched).
If the weapon is turreted, the tracking speed is the turret tracking speed.
When you shoot at something, the smaller of the weapon tracking speed and the tracking speed of the fire control is used. This tracking speed is compared to the current speed of the target. If the target is slower than the tracking speed, you shoot with full accuracy. If the target is FASTER than the tracking speed, your accuracy is reduced by the ratio of target speed to tracking speed.
An example:
A 4000 km/s tracking speed beam fire control is mounted on a ship that goes 2500km/s. The ship has a hull-mounted laser, a turreted laser with a turret speed of 4000km/s, and a turreted laser with a turret speed of 8000km/s. The race has a 2000km/s racial tracking speed.
The hull-mounted laser will get a tracking speed of 2500km/s, because the ship moves that fast. Thus, the BFC has "excess" tracking speed. However, if the ship loses an engine and drops to 1250 km/s, the tracking speed will drop only to 2000km/s because the racial tracking speed acts as a floor. It would have full accuracy against anything going slower than 2500km/s. When the engine is lost, this drops to only 2000km/s. Its accuracy would be halved against a 5000km/s target (or a 4000km/s target once the engine goes).
The 4000km/s turret gets a tracking speed of 4000km/s, regardless of how fast the ship moves. Full accuracy against 4000km/s or less. Half accuracy against 8000km/s, 1/4 against 16000, etc.
The 8000 km/s turret ALSO gets a tracking speed of 4000km/s, because the fire control only goes so fast. Same accuracy pattern as the 4000km/s turret.
One last wrinkle: there is a tech for "missile tracking bonus." What this does is provide a bonus to the tracking speed of beam weapons (I'm not sure if this affects the fire control value, the weapon value, or the final tracking speed value that is normally the minimum of the fire control and weapon values). The bonus increases the longer the missile has been detected on active sensors. I've never used this and I'm not sure if it's actually implemented.
EDIT: literally unplayable typos