I've literally just started playing and i'm messing about with some low-tech components. If anyone could have a look at my missiles and see if all the targeting systems work alright with them I'd appreciate it. Any improvements or ideas would be appreciated too
Basic missile:
Missile Size: 5 MSP (0. 25 HS) Warhead: 3 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 20
Speed: 6400 km/s Engine Endurance: 18. 5 hours Range: 425. 4m km
Cost Per Missile: 2. 11
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 128% 3k km/s 40% 5k km/s 25. 6% 10k km/s 12. 8%
Target system for it:
Active Sensor Strength: 24 Sensitivity Modifier: 80%
Sensor Size: 2 HS Sensor HTK: 1
Resolution: 60 Maximum Range vs 3000 ton object (or larger): 44,610,000 km
Range vs 1000 ton object: 4,956,667 km
Range vs 250 ton object: 309,791 km
Chance of destruction by electronic damage: 100%
Cost: 24 Crew: 4
Let's see...tech looks to be:
Nuclear Pulse Engine Technology
Fuel Consumption: 0.7 Litres per Engine Power Hour
Maximum Engine Power Modifier x1.25
Active Grav Sensor Strength 12
EM Sensor Sensitivity 8
Implosion Fission Warhead: Strength: 3 x MSP
Missile Agility 32 per MSP
The missile looks to be designed like this:
2msp missile engine w/Max Modifier set to x2(200%)
1msp to warhead
1.5625msp to agility
.4375msp to fuel
The Missile Fire Control (not Active Sensor, the notations about range vs target size is the tell) is as noted very short ranged compared to the missiles it's expected to guide.
First the missile:
For your tech it is way too slow for the combat environment it can be expected to operate in. Part of that is that your under utilizing the Max power modifier you have available.
Try this:
Same size 5
3.9msp missile engine w/Max Modifier set to x2.5(250%) [highest missile setting for the tech]
1msp to warhead
.1msp fuel
For offensive anti-shipping missiles I mostly stay away from applying agility to the design in favor of a larger engine for more speed.This gives you speed 15,600kps with a to hit vs 3,000kps 52% and a range 87.8m/km and a missile cost of 1.725.
You'll need a larger fire control. Size 5 with the same resolution will give you the ability to fire at 3,000ton ships with a speed of 3,000kps in a meeting engagement (id target continues to close) at a range of 104.7m/km. You'll need a supporting Active Sensor of size 15/res 60 for this to work. Note that ECM will reduce your MFC's lock range by 10% for each level you can't/don't counter with ECCM.
For missile design don't worry to much about whether you're using squares of damage. A protocol of using whole msp's for warheads works just fine.
You do need to push your warhead tech though. Mainly because the best size 1 AMM you can get with this tech looks like this:
size 1
.6 msp missile engine w/Max Modifier set to x2.5(250%) - speed 12,000kps
.3334msp to warhead (wh1)
.0469msp to agility (MR 12) (48% vs 3,000 / 28.8% vs 5,000 / 14.4% vs 10,000)
.0197 to fuel - range 24m/km
But if the warhead tech was 5 per MSP it could look like this:
size 1
.7 msp missile engine w/Max Modifier set to x2.5(250%) - speed 14,000kps
.2msp to warhead (wh1)
.0782msp to agility (MR 13) (60.7% vs 3,000 / 36.4% vs 5,000 / 18.2% vs 10,000)
.0218 to fuel - range 29.6m/km
The reason that the agility msp's aren't what you'd expect based on simple fractions has to do with rounding.
[note that size 2 AMM's can have faster speeds but lower cyclic rates]
Unless you advance to larger missiles I wouldn't be to concerned with adding sensors. With missiles this size component space is at too high a premium for the pittance of detection range they will provide, in my opinion.
Obviously you also need to push both Active Grav Sensor Strength and EM Sensor Sensitivity to increase you range and reduce the component size.