Missile design for noobs: the Kiwi/Emu approximation

[Theokrat]

Here is a missile-design related question:

I have designed a "long lancer" missile with a high range.  Since the range is beyond what my fire controls can manage, I was hoping to compensate for this by using an active warhead, i. e.  create and target a way point at a likely interception point vs.  an enemy fleet.

1) Is is even possible to target a way point beyond the range of your fire control (but within the range of the missile)?

2) It frequently takes a while for my fleets to respond to an order (due to Task Force stuff), and when they do react it still takes them a while to actually launch missiles (not sure if this second delay is equal to load times).  The aggregated delay can be relative long (say some 40s), and more importantly is hard to estimate beforehand, so it could be 30s or 50s.  Due to this it seems difficult to determine a credible interception point and get a good firing solution.  If my missiles are launched 10 seconds early this might significantly impact the probability that the enemy will be inside the detection radius.  So the question is: can I shift the missiles towards a new target (waypoint), once they are launched?

[blue emu (OP)]

1) Yes. Tested in my Ad Astra game. A two-stage missile will even deploy the upper stage automatically when it reaches the way-point. Missiles fired at an un-observed waypoint (eg: beyond sensor range) will hover at the waypoint until they run out of fuel and get removed from play.

2) Task Force training will shorten the Orders delay, and training them up to 100% will remove the Orders delay entirely. Missiles cannot be shifted once fired... but missiles with active on-board sensors will attempt to lock onto a new target if you REMOVE the way-point after they reach it.

[Arwyn]

Waypointing missiles is actually a very good way to dispatch HIGHLY annoying targets from beyond effective sensor and targeting ranges. You can even do this with no active sensors.

Example:
I am having a hard time knocking down some Precursors hanging around a fairly valuable system. They have AMM ships up that are volleying 31 AMM's at a combined rate. I cant get missiles through in a normal engagement, and they sandblast my ships armor very effectively.

Soulution:
1) I have a scout ship sneak in close to the planet at low speeds, just close enough to spot the Precursors with Thermal sensors.
2) Set waypoint(s) out in front of the Precursor ships.
3) My warships, hanging back out of detection range, volley salvos of missiles with thermal seeker heads.
4) The missiles arrive, and the thermal seekers kick in and go after the Precursor ships.

Challenges:
1) Missile dispersal- The seekers in each salvo will lock up a single target, but multiple targets will pull different salvos, which makes saturation an issue if there are more than a few ships.
2) Salvo density- This works best as a surprise attack, once they get hit by the full salvo, their sensors and defenses come up.


Waypointing is also a really NASTY way of clobbering higher tech opponents. If you can get an enemy into a stern chase, you have a few big advantages.
1) Since his missiles are chasing, you are reducing the rate of closure of his missiles by your speed. Early in the game, with lower speeds, this is a big advantage. If your moving 5400 kms, and his missiles are coming in at 25,900 kms, his effective rate of closure is actually 20,500 kms. That means his missiles are effectively slower, and gives you longer to track and engage them. It does not make your AMM more effective, since their hit chance is based on the missiles actual speed, not the effective speed, but its a big help for beam weapons.
2) The reverse of the above is true. You missiles are effectively closing faster, since he is charging your salvos and adding his speed to the closure rate. This is what makes waypointing nasty.

So, taking advantage of #2 above, you are getting chased by an enemy you are having a hard time getting missiles through his PD. Dragging them in a stern chase will get them on a reliable bearing directly astern of you. NOTE: THIS REQUIRES MISSILES WITH SENSORS TO WORK!
1) Set a waypoint directly astern of your fleet along the bearing the enemy is coming up.
2) Start firing missiles at the waypoint.
3) As long as they have endurance, the missiles will "stack" at the waypoint looking for a target.
4) When Mr. Nasty motors up to within range of the missiles sensors, they will all engage at once, swamping the PD.

The trick with this is making sure you drop the waypoint close enough to your fleet to get a lot of missiles on the waypoint before the enemy crosses it, and making sure that your missiles have enough endurance to loiter at the waypoint waiting on the enemy.

Done right, you can have a signifigant number of salvos loitering when the bad guys come within sensor range. Multiple small salvos engaging at the same time will swamp PD.