Posted by: Narmio
« on: October 31, 2013, 07:30:39 AM »Steve, can I suggest this is a design element that needs some work.
The basic problem with this has to do with missile interception. Assuming that the inbound missile is faster than the counter missile and is inside of a range where it will hit the target the next 5 s turn then the counter missile never gets a chance to intercept it. Even though, in general, the missiles are on reciprocal course and must intercept.
The above leads to yet more size 1 missile spam since the easiest way to get a missile that moves so fast interception is well nigh impossible is with a size 1. Also because detection range is so short for a size 1 missile it basically it shows up and then hits.
I would suggest the program be altered so that:
1. A check is made if first the inbound anti-ship missile salvo is targeted by counter missiles.
2. If that is a yes, then a check is made if the missiles are converging or chasing (not sure how that could be done but fairly simple ways must exist to compare headings)
3. If the missile is converging then a check should be made if the seperation of the counter missile to the anti-ship missile is < 5*(velocity_anti-ship-missile + velocity_counter-missile)
4. If the missiles are closer than the interception range then a time to intercept is calculated (seperation/(velocity_asm+velocity_aam).
5. The intercept is checked.
6. If sucessful a marker is placed at intercept_time*velocity_asm+initial location
This stops the missiles from being able to avoid being intercepted such as happens now. The heading check is fairly critical as the missiles have to be converging so the AAM has to be approaching probably in a 45° to 60° cone of the path of the ASM for this simple version to work. It might infact be easier to do the math for an actual intercept including angle between the missiles as otherwise you basicly have 5 possible choices (converging, chasing, side appraoch, more converging, more chasing) you have to find simple expressions for.
But my last battle I had CMs in space when the magic missile hit. I'm dubious I would have intercepted many but the current system changes the occasional intercept into exactly 0 intercepts. In previous battles much the same thing. Even though CMs where in space they ended up self destructing as the ASMs were faster and I was picking them up very close in.
A very simple version of this would be to add a new check immediately before a missile impacts to see if any anti-missiles were launched at the missile from the task group the missile's target is in. Those could then get an intercept chance even if they haven't moved yet, because it's assumed anything from the same TG as the target would be on a reciprocal course. Conceptually it would be a little like "final fire" PD mode, only for missiles. Theoretically that shouldn't constitute significant slowdown since there's no actual comparative heading or speed calculations, just a few lookups.
It wouldn't work if your AMM platforms were detached from the main fleet, but it would be something.