Modern flares are mimicking the actual engine signature in wavelength, not just heat, to fool heat-seeking missiles as their homing heads have gotten increasingly sophisticated. And decoy drones, most of which specs are secret, are trying to mimic the sensor signatures of real planes or ships. Same with sonar and submarine-launched decoys.

Decoys can be any size. A few, smaller decoys would give you more flexibility if want to lessen a strike rather than commit everything.

I think the confusing part is that there appears to be no reason, mechanically, to make decoy missiles that match the ship size, or in fact anything larger than the minimum decoy size. As far as I can tell, only the total mass/signature of decoys determines the fraction of missiles deflected, and cost scales linearly for both decoys and launchers.

Intuitively, I think players expect a decoy to "look like" the ship it's decoying from, i.e., to have the same signature. I can see why the actual mechanic is different, as its more flexible and less micromanage-y than requiring exact size matching (plus avoid issues with ship sizes that aren't nice, round numbers), but the fact that an infinite swarm of size-5 decoys is arguably optimal (same performance and cost as any other option, maximum flexibility) seems to eliminate what could/should be a gameplay decision point.

Decoys can be any size. A few, smaller decoys would give you more flexibility if want to lessen a strike rather than commit everything.

Quote from: Kurt on July 03, 2025, 11:06:15 AM

A quick question on decoy launchers. 

After reviewing the section on the 2.20 changes list on decoy missiles and launchers, I'm left a bit confused and wondering if I've done something wrong.  After recent reverses, my navy is looking to install decoy missiles and launchers on its capital ships.  Easy enough.  I used the missile designer to design a decoy missile for a new 30,000 ton strike cruiser design.  The resulting missile is 150 MSP (375 tons), with a decoy signature of 30,000 tons.  As intended.  The problem arises in trying to design a launcher.  The section in the create research project window for designing the decoy launcher gives the largest size launcher as 99.  This appears to mean that I cannot have a decoy missile for anything larger than 19,800 tons.  Is this correct? 

I feel like I'm missing something.  Is there a research branch I'm missing? 

Kurt

I have noticed the same thing and believe this is an oversight on Steve's part. Probably copied from the regular missile launcher designer.

I'm still a bit unclear on the mechanics, but it seems like two decoys of half the size are as effective as a single full-size decoy. I'm not sure how the size scaling is supposed to work to make "right sized" decoys the most effective.

I thought that only decoy missiles with the correct signature will defend a ship.  In other words, a 20,000 ton ship must be defended by decoys which each have a signature of 20,000, not multiple decoys with signatures that add up to 20,000. 

Hmmm...after reviewing the section on decoy missiles I can't rule out your take on it, or mine.  It isn't clear.  Arguably your take is better given the limitation on decoy launcher size, but that could be an oversight. 

A quick question on decoy launchers. 

After reviewing the section on the 2.20 changes list on decoy missiles and launchers, I'm left a bit confused and wondering if I've done something wrong.  After recent reverses, my navy is looking to install decoy missiles and launchers on its capital ships.  Easy enough.  I used the missile designer to design a decoy missile for a new 30,000 ton strike cruiser design.  The resulting missile is 150 MSP (375 tons), with a decoy signature of 30,000 tons.  As intended.  The problem arises in trying to design a launcher.  The section in the create research project window for designing the decoy launcher gives the largest size launcher as 99.  This appears to mean that I cannot have a decoy missile for anything larger than 19,800 tons.  Is this correct? 

I feel like I'm missing something.  Is there a research branch I'm missing? 

Kurt