Anti Ship Mines

[se5a (OP)]

Has anyone actually managed to get these to work?
I've managed to design and deploy successful sensor Buoys, but a similar thing with missiles as second stage on the buoy seems to make them disappear when they get to their destination.

This is my Successful Sensor Buoy:

Missile Size: 4.00 MSP  (10.000 Tons)     Warhead: 0    Radiation Damage: 0    Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 7,850 km/s     Fuel: 225     1st Stage Flight Time: 4 hours    1st Stage Range: 100.8m km
2nd Stage Flight Time: 1 seconds    2nd Stage Range: 0k km
Cost Per Missile: 4.076     Development Cost: 408
Second Stage: ActiveBoy-3(14m) x1
Second Stage Separation Range: 150,000 km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 78.5%   3k km/s 26.2%   5k km/s 15.7%   10k km/s 7.8%

The first stage, targeted at a waypoint will successfully deploy the buoy, which will hang around, and I'll see any ships that go past it.

However, when I attempt to do something similar as a mine, the first stage just reaches the destination, then disappears:

Missile Size: 19.00 MSP  (47.500 Tons)     Warhead: 0    Radiation Damage: 0    Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 105 km/s     Fuel: 61     1st Stage Flight Time: 172 hours    1st Stage Range: 65.3m km
2nd Stage Flight Time: 1 seconds    2nd Stage Range: 0k km
3rd Stage Flight Time: 3 seconds    3rd Stage Range: 139.7k km
Cost Per Missile: 35.3694     Development Cost: 3,537
Second Stage: 18.71-135kkm Static MissileMine x3 x1
Second Stage Separation Range: 150,000 km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 1.1%   3k km/s 0.4%   5k km/s 0.2%   10k km/s 0.1%

Second Stage:
Missile Size: 18.71 MSP  (46.775 Tons)     Warhead: 0    Radiation Damage: 0    Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 0 km/s     Fuel: 36     1st Stage Flight Time: 1 seconds    1st Stage Range: 0k km
2nd Stage Flight Time: 3 seconds    2nd Stage Range: 139.7k km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.32   EM Sensitivity Modifier: 14
Resolution: 10    Maximum Range vs 500 ton object (or larger): 2,572,746 km
ECM Modifier: 10%     
Cost Per Missile: 35.3494     Development Cost: 3,535
Second Stage: 6-139kkm XSR Seeking Warhead  x3
Second Stage Separation Range: 150,000 km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 0%   3k km/s 0%   5k km/s 0%   10k km/s 0%

And the final payload:
Missile Size: 6.000 MSP  (15.0000 Tons)     Warhead: 16    Radiation Damage: 16    Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 46,567 km/s     Fuel: 12     Flight Time: 3 seconds     Range: 139,700 km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.26   EM Sensitivity Modifier: 14
Resolution: 10    Maximum Range vs 500 ton object (or larger): 2,319,042 km
Cost Per Missile: 11.4458     Development Cost: 1,145
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 465.7%   3k km/s 155.2%   5k km/s 93.1%   10k km/s 46.6%



What I suspect is happening, is that if a missile has submuntions, it'll just destroy itself if it can't detect anything.
the Sensor buoy works because the sensor itself has no submunition.

I keep reading people talk about mines, but I don't think I've *ever* seen a working example.

[YABG]

I got mines working in VB6, what you're doing differently is deploying them via missile. What I did was just have your sensor stage and the payload stage, rather than a booster, and then I drove a minelayer to a waypoint and used the fire MSL function to lay a set of mines.

It might be some c# funkiness or something odd with the booster stage. Have you tried mines just with a sensor and a payload stage? 

[se5a (OP)]

I have a vague recollection of struggling with this same thing back in the VB days, but yes I just tried only the the second and third stage of the above missile, using the "Launch Ready Ordnance" order, however it appeared that the ordnance did not even fire.
I've tried a bunch of different ways of doing it, doing the order on the waypoint, or on the jump point, with the way point targeted or not targeted...
I just realized I didn't try opening fire on the FC with just the second/third stage. I'll try that.

Edit:
So I SM gave the ship a bunch of different options, and set 4 of the launchers:
1: basic sensor buoy. (single stage)
2: missile delivered sensor buoy (2 stage)
3: basic mine (Sensor buoy with sensor missiles as a 2nd stage)
4: missile launched mine (above but 3 stages, first just gets it to the target)

All four launched when I set the fire control which was targeted at the way-point to "Open Fire".
1: successfully sits in space as a sensor.
2: turned into the final stage and sits in space as a sensor.
3 and 4 were short lived and died almost immediately.



Has anyone else actually tried messing with this?

[se5a (OP)]

Ok so thanks to redivider who found the one little obtuse rule:

The target waypoint needs to be further away than the separation distance of the buoy and it's payload

This is with the two stage no engine approach. not sure if the missile launched option could be made to work, but this option works well enough (the reason I had the three stage approach was me failing with the two stage approach and thinking it needed an engine like the two stage probe delivery system).