I guess what I'm trying to get at is that after my recent experiences with massed very long range missile attacks and defenses, I'm trying to "learn" from my experiences and develop better designs for missile engagements, both for offensive and defensive purposes. I need to know how anti-missile targeting works to do that. It seems to me, after reading the Events Log, that given the fact that the FC's shift targets after each missile salvo is destroyed, there is no sense in having more than one anti-missile FC per ship, at least if you are anticipating dealing with large massed salvoes. If you are dealing with numerous small seperated salvoes coming in from different bearings, that might be different, though.
FC's do shift targets quickly but you still benefit from multiple fire controls. Its slightly different for beams and missiles.
Before combat takes place, Aurora will designate targets for each beam fire control. As each one is about to fire it wil check to see if the targeted missile salvo still exists. If the salvo has already been destroyed, it will immediately look for a new target and fire at that one instead. For anti-missile salvos, as each one is about to move to its target it will check to see if the target still exists. If not, the parent fire control will immediately be assigned a new target within the PD parameters set for that fire control. If a new target can be found, the anti-missiles will head for it. If a new target can't be found, the fire control will not change target and they will continue to home on the location of the first target. The reason for this instant target switching is to simulate the fact that tactical officers and fire control computers will be constantly re-evaluating and re-assigning targets over the course of an increment.
However, this is only done at a fire control level, not a level of individual weapons or salvos (I'll cover self-guiding missiles later), which means the effectiveness of target switching is much greater if you have fewer weapons/missiles per fire control.
For example, if you have a ship with four quad turrets and a single fire control facing four incoming salvos of missiles the fire control will simply fire all the weapons at the closest or largest salvo. This may result in overkill. If the four turrets were equally split between two fire controls, the first would fire its eight weapons at the closest or largest salvo. If that first salvo was destroyed, the second fire control would then evaluate the results of the first attack and direct its eight weapons against whichever of the remaining salvos was the closest or largest. If the ship had a fire control for each turret, the weapons would fire in groups of four and the situation would be re-evaluated after each firing.
The mechanics are different for missiles under shipboard guidance but the results are similar. Assume an anti-missile ship with twelve launchers and one fire control. Those missiles are launched in salvos of twelve and the fire control directs them against incoming anti-ship salvos. If there are four incoming salvos, the single anti-missile salvo would be directed entirely against one of the incoming salvos. If the ship had two fire controls, each of which controlled six launchers, the anti-missiles would be fired in groups of six and each group of six would be directed against the incoming missiles in turn. If there were three fire controls, each assigned to four launchers, then anti-missiles would move in groups of four with a re-evaluation before each move. In a nutshell, more fire controls gives you greater granularity and results in more effective anti-missile combat with less overkill.
Self-guided missiles are slightly different as they have to make their own decisions without the benefit of shipboard control or an overall fire plan. Unfortunately I don't have the exact v4.0 code but I assume the new v4.1 is similar. If a missile has no assigned fire control, it looks for its own target. If that target doesn't exist, the target is unset and the missile does not attack. At the start of the next missile movement phase, it looks for a new target using its own sensors.
Steve