6.0+ Missile/Drone/Buoy Design Questions

[Crustypeanut (OP)]

Hey guys, long time no see.  Been a while since I've been on Aurora or its forums, and I came back to it delighted about the new patch.  Anyways, been playing around with the new missile designs, and I'm having a few issues.  

First off, I'm attempting to play a game that relies heavily on missiles, and my first goal is to design mines to defend Sol's jump points.  The Mine, named 'Fletcher', was built with thermal sensors with a range of 750,000 km vs a signature strength of 1,000.  The odd thing with this was, when my minelayer launched the mine, using a waypoint set on Mercury (Was testing it there, so I could protect a mining base), the mine would automatically release its payload which would follow the Minelayer.  The payload consisted of missiles with no sensors, but the minelayer was well within thermal range of the mine.  In addition, even after releasing its payload, the mine remained indefinitely.  

My question is - what did I do wrong, how can I fix it, and how do you properly make mines, while not having the mine last indefinitely after expending its submunitions.

[niflheimr]

both mine and payload needs sensors btw.

[Conscript Gary]

Which version are you on? If it's 6.1 that's a known bug that's fixed in 6.2
Though yes, the submunitions will need sensors as well and the spent bus not sticking around is intended behavior

[Crustypeanut (OP)]

I'm using 6.2.1 right now, the latest version.  

both mine and payload needs sensors btw.

Can I get by with using only Thermal and/or EM sensors on both, or does at least one need an Active sensor? Do both?

Which version are you on? If it's 6.1 that's a known bug that's fixed in 6.2
Though yes, the submunitions will need sensors as well and the spent bus not sticking around is intended behavior

What do you mean by 'Spent bus'? Do you mean the mine itself, not including the submunitions? Because if so, that DID stick around.  I didn't want it to.  I have what basically equates to spent prototype mines that are acting solely as thermal buoys around Mercury and they're not going away, nor can I find out how to get rid of 'em.  


Edit: On that subject, how would one remove missiles with an infinite duration (buoys) nowadays? Can I get them to self-detonate..?

[Conscript Gary]

Just a thermal sensor will do if it can pick up your enemy's drive signatures.
And by spent bus I do mean the original mine after it launches its submunitions.
To get rid of mines and such use the 'missiles in flight' tab of the combat overview.
If you're on the latest version then try redesigning the mine to fix the instant deployment.

[Crustypeanut (OP)]

Just a thermal sensor will do if it can pick up your enemy's drive signatures.

Alright, will do.

And by spent bus I do mean the original mine after it launches its submunitions.

Hmm.. mine don't go away though, like they should.

To get rid of mines and such use the 'missiles in flight' tab of the combat overview.

Why did I not notice this tab.. awesome!

If you're on the latest version then try redesigning the mine to fix the instant deployment.

Redesign how, exactly? I started this game after the update, so it shouldn't be a leftover issue from this game being from before the patch, as it isn't.

Thanks for your help so far btw!

[Conscript Gary]

My point is that they aren't supposed to go away. I may be wrong.
And by redesign I mean recreate the blueprint design and reresearch it, though I would use SM mode to instant it in this case

[Crustypeanut (OP)]

Well it will be kind of annoying to see spent mines laying around, but at least I know how to get rid of them now.. I'll see about designing a new system.  Not going to instant it though, as I'll take the previous design as a failed prototype that was put into manufacture by mistake.. luckily I only made 100 of 'em.

I'll post anything else I come across here.. thanks again for your help!

Ok, here are the updated designs:

Code: [Select]

'Bodkin' Anti-Ship Submunitions Mk2

Missile Size: 2 MSP  (0.1 HS)     Warhead: 2    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 14
Speed: 6400 km/s    Engine Endurance: 7 minutes   Range: 2.7m km
Thermal Sensor Strength: 0.09    Detect Sig Strength 1000:  90,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 0.9768
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 89.6%   3k km/s 28%   5k km/s 17.9%   10k km/s 9%
Materials Required:    0.5x Tritanium   0.054x Boronide   0.09x Uridium   0.3328x Gallicite   Fuel x25


Code: [Select]

'Fletcher' Anti-Ship Thermal Mine Mk2

Missile Size: 24 MSP  (1.2 HS)     Warhead: 0    Armour: 3.58     Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 0 km/s    Engine Endurance: 0 minutes   Range: 0.0m km
Thermal Sensor Strength: 0.09    Detect Sig Strength 1000:  90,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 10.807
Second Stage: 'Bodkin' Anti-Ship Submunitions Mk2 x10
Second Stage Separation Range: 90,000 km
Overall Endurance: 7 minutes   Overall Range: 2.6m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 0%   3k km/s 0%   5k km/s 0%   10k km/s 0%
Materials Required:    5.895x Tritanium   0.594x Boronide   0.99x Uridium   3.328x Gallicite   Fuel x250
Tech's a bit low, but I'm playing a conventional start, and have yet to leave my solar system.  Both the mine and the missiles have a 90,000 km detection range vs a 1000 strength signature, with the separation range being exactly that as well.  I'm planning on deploying them around the jump points to Sol once I get around to finding them.  They may not be very fast, but hopefully they'll catch any ships jumping in unawares.

[Crustypeanut (OP)]

I think I found out the answer to the whole 'Premature Launch' bit with the previous mines.  I was targeting a waypoint set on the planet and launching them via the combat overview window.  What that seemed to do was launch the mine, which was immediately within its 'launch range' for its submunitions, and it would automatically launch the missiles at the waypoint.  This is why I believed my ship was triggering the mines, which was incorrect.

Now, I'm instead using the order on the fleet window 'Launch at X', which makes my Minelayer go to the jump point (or way point) and launch the mines, which stay there chilling out.  Hopefully I won't need to use them against enemies (As that would mean they're invading Sol), but hopefully if needed they will work properly. 

Now I just need to rework the minelayer so it can launch all of its cargo of mines at once instead of one every few hours.  Time to research Box Launchers!

[Marski]

Sorry to hijack your thread here, but it's related to the drones.

I have developed geosurvey drone and now I'm wondering how I can target planets and launch them at them from a PDC with no active sensor.

[AcidWeb]

I don't tested that but:

• Select planet on system map
• Open Waypoints tab
• Click Last button

That will create waypoint that move with planet.  And you target it.

[Marski]

Oh, thanks. Now another problem;

When launching a missile stage that releases a geosurvey buoy on a planet, how do I make the buoy last longer than 1 day?

Code: [Select]

Akegian II Geosurvey Satellite

Missile Size: 14 MSP  (0.7 HS)     Warhead: 0    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 0 km/s    Engine Endurance: 0 minutes   Range: 0.0m km
Geo Sensor Strength: 0.1372    Maximum points: 0
Cost Per Missile: 3.5137
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 0%   3k km/s 0%   5k km/s 0%   10k km/s 0%


[Conscript Gary]

In 6.x all you have to do is not put a warhead on it.
Missiles with geo sensors will stick around until their survey is done, however long that takes.

[Marski]

In 6.x all you have to do is not put a warhead on it.
Missiles with geo sensors will stick around until their survey is done, however long that takes.

Oh, thanks. I was just confused after geosurveying several system bodies without finding minerals I started to doubt if they actually surveyed the system bodies at all.

[Conscript Gary]

The System Information window (F9) has a nifty little column of whether a planet is unknown (blank), surveyed with no minerals (S), or has minerals (M) over on the left