ASM Missile Types

[Borealis4x (OP)]

I understand that most people only find the need to have 1 size of ASM, perhaps another if you want to use carrier bombers. I generally stick to size 6 and size 3 myself. But is there a place for more varied types of ASMs?

I'm thinking of having three tiers:

- A fast size 3 missile with a 10m km range to be fired by quick missile boats

- An intermediate 6 size missile with 30 km range to be fired by missile destroyers

- And a 12 size missile with 300m km range to be fired from the carrier group.

Is this practical or am I better off just sticking with 1 type of ASM?

[Ulzgoroth]

To overcome fleet missile defense you want large time-on-target barrages, which I think you won't likely be able to achieve using different kinds of missiles launched from different positions.

That doesn't mean you can't have different kinds of missiles, but it means that each kind (or each platform at least) needs to be able to stand alone. A handful of size 12 long range missiles supplementing the strike-fighter mass launch will mostly just waste tonnage and resources, but a volley strong enough to damage small enemy task forces might have some utility.

I often design multiple types of ASM in the same size. My primary ASM in my game is a size 5 30mkm warhead 4 weapon that devotes all the capability it can spare from those specifications to raising speed and chance to hit. But I've got a (admittedly neglected) series of shorter-range warhead 9 weapons that fit the same launchers. With enough tech to make it feasible I might try to add a warhead 16 version that probably will have 1mkm range or less, just enough range to be fired from outside maximum beam range as a last-ditch punch against charging beam attackers or if the missile ships need to engage in a jump-point fight.

[davidb86]

I typically stick with a single size missile, but adjust the warhead, speed and range to create

• a large warhead, fast, short range (3-5 mkm) missile for killing beam ships before they can fire
• a medium warhead, fast, medium range missile for fighting missile armed ships
• a dual stage missile with a slow long range 1st stage launching 2-3 AMM from 2-3 mkm.

I have done this with Size 4 to size 9 launchers, but I tend to only use one size in a given game.

[DFNewb]

Aurora is about having fun so make your missiles however you want.

Usually for ranges I use the following:

1 million km for short ranged ships that are faster than enemy ships.

10 - 20 million km for most regular missiles.

20mkm+ for big slow ships that want to stay out of range for as long as possible.

[Shadow]

I tend to favour standard size-6 anti-ship missiles.

Theoretically, I also came up with the idea of using large missiles fired in a cloud a little dummy missiles travelling at the same speed. They'd be noise for enemy point-defense, and reduce the chance of the real warheads being struck before they hit.

Worth the effort to a significant extent?

[Jorgen_CAB]

Over time I tend to end up with a plethora of different sized ASM launchers, at least in VB6 I did when I played multi-faction campaigns. Even if I tended to standardise on some specific size they still tended to shift over time as technology changed etc and sometimes its just easier to build a new missile of the size the launcher has than refit them all as that might not go well if the numbers are not adding up from one size to the next.

There is nothing inherently wrong with many sizes as it can be good from a dynamic perspective as long as the missiles themselves are sort of matched in capabilities and targets etc...

But I would usually see anything from size 3 to 8 or even sometimes bigger missiles. It depends on the needs and the technology.

[Polestar]

Because missile launcher (and magazine) performance does not improve drastically after about tech cost 15k (possibly 30k), I find it easier to standardize launchers and magazines (total loadouts, launcher fire rate and size, etc.) earlier in the game than any other tech-dependent component. This makes it easy to "pick sizes, and stick with them", which in turn reduces micromanagement and waste in ship design, missile design, ship building, missile manufacturing, and so forth.

Nor does sticking with standard sizes necessarily lock you into one mode of missile combat. You can easily both supply shorter-range, harder-hitting and longer-range, slightly lighter-armed variants. And/or try out self-guided missiles with active sensors versus remotely-guided missiles without. And/or trade off warhead strength versus hit chance versus surviveability for any given size.

I agree with Ulzgoroth's call for large time-on-target barrages - or, at least, the ability to "dial up" large barrages at will. At anything like equal tech, small barrages get shot down. That said, I dislike dealing with very large numbers of launchers on a single ship, as you can only manipulate them all or one at a time. I also dislike having to deal with very large numbers of ships; again, the interface makes them time-consuming to control.

All of these considerations combine to suggest standardized standardized multi-warhead missiles, with each sub-munition being relatively small. My designs of almost everything else vary greatly between games, but I have noticed myself gravitating towards size 12, two-stage, triple- or quadruple-warhead, ship-killers fired from either full-size, rapid-firing launchers or highly compressed launchers with long (>1000s) intervals between salvos. If you have or can open up enough range (you're not jumping through a defended gate, say), the latter offers advantages that include lower build cost and lower fleet training requirements.

[liveware]

I've recently started using a mix of size 1 and size 9 missiles with my carrier based missile fighters and bombers. The fighters have several size 1 launchers and bombers have a single size 9 launcher. My size 1 and 9 missiles have the same speed so that if they are launched together from a single fleet they will all strike their target at once. Basically the size 1 missiles are intended to overwhelm enemy missile defences while the size 9 missiles do the damage. This setup has been working quite well for me.

[Jorgen_CAB]

I've recently started using a mix of size 1 and size 9 missiles with my carrier based missile fighters and bombers. The fighters have several size 1 launchers and bombers have a single size 9 launcher. My size 1 and 9 missiles have the same speed so that if they are launched together from a single fleet they will all strike their target at once. Basically the size 1 missiles are intended to overwhelm enemy missile defences while the size 9 missiles do the damage. This setup has been working quite well for me.

I'm sorry to be a buz kill, but this to me is too much of an abuse of an Achilles heel in the game mechanics. Any one with half a brain would target the large missiles first in any situation... unfortunately the game is setup so that larger salvos is always targets first as that give better efficiency in general to point defences and there are no way to change that or prioritise what missiles to shoot at and the NPR can't manually target AMM against the most important targets.

My house rule is to never mix sizes of missiles in the same salvo and I purposefully make differently sized missiles slightly different in speed to avoid abusing this mechanic in the game.

I want to be clear... by no means do I say this is a wrong thing to do. It's just that the mechanic was clearly not intended to use those strategies as there are no ways to counter them.