Anti Missile FC

[Traveler (OP)]

How's this look for early game Anti missile missile FC and search sensor?
The size 1 missile I'm designing this for has a range of 15.1m km.

[Shaitan]

2 points, be aware that Active Sensors and Missile Fire control are seperate modules utilising the same components. (The final drop down on that window sets wether it is an MFC or a Search Sensor suite) Secondly, note the detection range for a size 6 missile, which is only 54,000 km. A missile travelling at 10,000km/sec (which is quite slow for missiles) would cross almost all of that distance in a single 5 sec turn, giving you only one shot to take it down.

[Traveler (OP)]

I used that drop down to design the FC with the exact same parameters.

I'm not sure of how to improve the design with my present tech.

[Erik L]

I used that drop down to design the FC with the exact same parameters.

I'm not sure of how to improve the design with my present tech.

Make them bigger. Bigger scanners = longer range.

[Paul M]

In the early game missiles move at around 2500-5000 km/s and a range of 15 million km for a counter missile is excessive.  Use less fuel...0.001 is what I have mine set at for the moment.  Depending on what you mean by early game of course.

As Erik suggests you can make the antenna larger which will increaser your range.  But I'd recommend revisting your counter missile design and revising the range downward.  In practical terms missile range will always exceed fire control effective range for early game counter missiles.

Also you need a sensor that will detect the missile at any range to speak of.  This is an even more troublesome problem then the fire control.

[sloanjh]

In the early game missiles move at around 2500-5000 km/s and a range of 15 million km for a counter missile is excessive.  Use less fuel...0.001 is what I have mine set at for the moment.  Depending on what you mean by early game of course.

Unless you want your AMMs to fill a secondary ASM role.  I haven't played since the new engines came in, but in previous versions the amount of fuel this would take was negligible, and the benefit was not insignificant.  For example your 0.001 could be changed to 0.005 or even 0.01 without causing a major impact on the missile's performance.

When possible I also introduce a "slug" version of my size-1 missiles, with strength-2 or even strength-3 warheads.  Their intent is primarily ASM, with a secondary AAM role for targetting armored missiles.

John

[Jorgen_CAB]

Given the change to missile engines and smaller size being less fuel efficient then creating dual purpose size 1 missiles are not as attractive as it was before. You will need to give up considerate speed and/or agility to gain any range of note.

[Paul M]

My Counter Missiles have a range of 3 m km or so...far longer range than I can detect an inbound missile so they can be used for a secondary ASM role.  My point could be summed up in that a Size 1 missile costs something like 50 RPs to develop while a resolution 1 fire control and/or sensor system costs ~100 RP*antenna_size (more or less) so in the early game you can end up paying say 1000 RP for a size 10 system that has any sort of range.  It is cheeper to change the missile then sensor.

I don't know how many ways there are to skin this cat but it may be specific to each game what solution is best...I don't really know.  I can only say in mine the ranges of the sensor, the fire control and the missile don't really work that well together.  Possibly later in the game they will collapse better but right now my sensors don't have the oomph they need to detect the inbounds far enough out to make use of the missiles range, the fire control is probably overkill for the missiles effective range but it would cost more than it is worth to change that...and it allows them to be used as secondary fire control for using the counter missiles against ships or fighters.

But given the cheepest element in the chain to research is the size 1 missile that is where I would suggest is the best place to work on to fix the issue that the Traveller has.

[Traveler (OP)]

What would be considered a comfortable detection range and engagement range against a size 6 and smaller enemy missile?

If I decrease the missile fuel to .0005 that results in a .8m km range with a 100.8% chance to hit at 5k km. 

That would require a .6 size FC and a size 1.6 search sensor to detect max res 1 (HS 50) at that range.

A .8m km detect and fire range seems short to me, as does a 5k km 100+ hit chance range.

[Paul M]

5k km/s do you mean?  It depends on what is shot at you.  Consider that at 5000 km/s it will take the missile 100 s to go 0.5 m km so you have lots of time to detect and engage.  Your launcher cycles every 30 s so that is 3 rounds off the racks in the time between an inbound missile was detected and it impacts.  For 0.8 m km detecton/engagement range it is 160 s or 5 launches.

That seems ok to me.   It depends on what is shot at you.  If you aren't in a war build your counter missile to stop your own missiles and hope it works against an alien is my advice (largely role playing advice admittedly).

[Charlie Beeler]

What would be considered a comfortable detection range and engagement range against a size 6 and smaller enemy missile?

If I decrease the missile fuel to .0005 that results in a .8m km range with a 100.8% chance to hit at 5k km. 

That would require a .6 size FC and a size 1.6 search sensor to detect max res 1 (HS 50) at that range.

A .8m km detect and fire range seems short to me, as does a 5k km 100+ hit chance range.

For the way I approach this it is dependent on a few details.

• Active Grav Sensor strength tech
• EM Sensor sensitivity tech
• Missile Launcher reload rate tech
• Various missile engine tech(basically expected AMM missile speed)
• Expected speed of missiles to intercept

As a rough rule I tend to design systems to allow intercept of missiles with 30 seconds of better before they impact my ship(s).

[Traveler (OP)]

5k km/s do you mean?  It depends on what is shot at you.  Consider that at 5000 km/s it will take the missile 100 s to go 0.5 m km so you have lots of time to detect and engage.  Your launcher cycles every 30 s so that is 3 rounds off the racks in the time between an inbound missile was detected and it impacts.  For 0.8 m km detecton/engagement range it is 160 s or 5 launches.

That seems ok to me.   It depends on what is shot at you.  If you aren't in a war build your counter missile to stop your own missiles and hope it works against an alien is my advice (largely role playing advice admittedly).

Ah, it is 5k km/s.  I thought that was range but it is the speed of the enemy missile!

That brings up another question.  If my AMM has a range of .8m km, with appropriately ranged FC and Detection sensors, and a 100% chance to hit a 5k km/s enemy missile, at what range is that chance calculated?  Is it the max range of the missile, in this case .8m km?

[Jorgen_CAB]

The chance for a missile to intercept another missile is not diminished by range. So in effect you have the same chance to hit at 100k as you have at 800k. Beams don't work like that though.

As a general rule I make sure that my missile detection range is enough so I can take full advantage of any tracking bonuses for my point defences. The size of my "Missile Detection Sensor" depends on the platform, but in general somewhere between 5-10 HS or 250-500 tons. I then have a small boat bay (250 tons) on each of my escort ships intended for PD duty. In these boat bays each have a small craft that carry a single 150 ton "Missile Detection Sensor" in addition to their own on-board 150 ton sensor. With this strategy I can usually get the range I need to cover all my bases to a reasonable investment in research points.

[Traveler (OP)]

For the way I approach this it is dependent on a few details.

• Active Grav Sensor strength tech
• EM Sensor sensitivity tech
• Missile Launcher reload rate tech
• Various missile engine tech(basically expected AMM missile speed)
• Expected speed of missiles to intercept

As a rough rule I tend to design systems to allow intercept of missiles with 30 seconds of better before they impact my ship(s).

Active grav sensor strength is 10
EM Sensor  sensitivity is 5
Missile Launcher reload rate is 30 seconds.    
Expected AMM speed is 25,500 km/s
Expected speed of enemy missiles is unknown.  I'm planning for a 10,000 km/s enemy missile.

Using the 30 seconds before impact rule of thumb calculates out to a 300k km intercept range for a 10k km/s enemy missile.

[chrislocke2000]

Don't forget that the range at which you detect a size 6 or below missile is approximately one ninth of the range of youbres one sensor so in the example you posted whilst you have a sensor range of 500k you won't spot the missile untill a little over 54k. Same applies for the fire control as well.