Quote from: nuclearslurpee on March 16, 2025, 08:38:48 PM

Quote from: GenStone on March 16, 2025, 07:10:10 PM

#1. Static single-target selection in a fleet setting.
When a fleet of multiple identically-sized targets of the same class enters range, every mine will fire at the top-most target, overkilling then self-destructing because even with retarget capability, they won't seek out new targets. Assuming the attached image posts, yes it is a 48,000 ton ship with 2x800 tons of escorts, but in a previous incident against 2 of the exact same ship I had the exact same problem where the mines targeted the very first ship exclusively.

Mines and for that matter any missiles that rely on sensors really, really should select targets randomly within whatever rules they work with. There's no fluff reason why all mines or missiles go after the exact same target when there are multiple identical ones on their sensors, it's purely a game mechanical issue where the "top" target is selected instead of randomly selecting from all "identical" targets.

I'd love to see a weighted random targeting chance (e.g., 67% chance of targeting the size-200 contact, 33% chance of targeting the size-100 contact), but I'd settle for simply splitting the fire between identical targets.

Missiles currently select the nearest target, but they are probably also targeting the oldest contact if more than one target is at the same distance.

Randomizing is no problem, but how should salvo target detection handle distance and size?  Should it be closest targets weighted by size, or any target within range weighted by size, or maybe targets weighted by size and range?

Bear in mind that too much dispersion will make the missiles less effective, especially against shielded targets.

I'd suggest keeping it simple and just having each missile that can see one or more targets calculate a % chance of attacking each target as that target's hull size / sum of visible targets hull size. That way:
1. You don't get overkill unless you can overkill everything
2. It handles the case of lots of small targets well.
3. If you get underkill, you either did some damage to most ships, or you didn't really have enough of a mine field to do that much damage anyway.
4. It does better in the case of one or two large targets and a bunch of small targets, in that it doesn't over-assign to the small targets like 1/count(targets) would.

I did look at some more complicated approaches. The other one that seemed to produce decent results was starting with the (smallest or largest) target and assigning missiles up to a specified number of warhead points per target hull size, then moving to the next (smallest/largest) target. That could be set as a design parameter of mines, which would allow you to adjust how much over/underkill to perform at time of design.

If we're able to set mine design parameters, it would be nice to have the option to attach or ignore commercial ships, or maybe just set a speed range for things the mine will target.

Do a job you love and you will never work a day of your life is a bit of a catch 22. I have a fair number of hobbies such as gardening but I'd never want to be a farmer so I totally understand Aurora staying a passion project.

Damaged fire control left open?

Quote from: Garfunkel on March 16, 2025, 08:11:46 PM

Your mine-missiles need active sensors to look for new targets.

Launch Ready Ordnance placed mines seem to work as long as the first stage has no engine. I tried making a 2-stage geosurvey probe to fire at habitable worlds to avoid STO fire on occupied planets but I couldn't target the planet to fire at with MFCs. Tried to deploy the probe anyways and it just permanently deployed the first "Deployment" stage of the probe which never timed out to deploy the second stage, so I just deleted the salvo. And then the probes. I regret wasting the time to develop them and I regret the time wasted building and loading them into my scouts, since they're actually useless

You need a waypoint on the planet to fire survey drones. They should hover around the waypoint. I can't remember exactly how to construct them, i.e. if you need to have a two-stage or not, but I'm reasonably sure a one-stage wouldn't work. Someone else here should have a better idea.

Missile target distribution would be nice, but it would still necessitate incrementally placed minefields because even if an enemy fleet passing through a jump point would get targeted evenly, a single ship passing through would still trigger every mine in range. A Target Size Threshold input in the missile designer governing the minimum target size per missile allocated during sensor-based targeting, similar to the Decoy Threshold setting for ship decoys we have now, would fix this. Additionally, a threshold setting would also benefit any MFC set to point defence, as currently the only way to prevent your ships from wasting AMMs on tiny salvoes is to unassign them manually every time.

Speaking of mines (and buoys), will the AI be able to handle them in 2.6.0? My Swarms that I'm containing with mines currently either rush their survey ships into the same minefield or keep them at a jump point in range of my buoys, seemingly stuck and endlessly passive. In both cases I'd love to see them attempt a recon in force, maybe provide escorts to ships heading into areas where missiles were encountered, even if no ship contacts were detected?