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So, missiles. |
Enterprise Chief Marshal Raven Warriors
Joined: May 19, 2002 Posts: 2576 From: Hawthorne, Nevada
| Posted: 2008-07-27 00:52  
Time for another rant.
Well not really a rant just a "Will you please take a look at this dammit?"
I took (read: dragged) Shigernafy into Beta for a little testing of ze missiles. They'd been bothering me in all my other tests with other ships in other battles because frankly, they were useless.
Not because they were weak, lord no. They just kept missing.
And missing and missing. So I wanted to test them accurately.
So I dragged Shig into beta, he was on UGTO and I was on ICC, in a Missile Dreadnought.
First he was in a Frigate. I wanted to see if missiles were so bad they'd miss a stationary target.
They do not. With AR and IT missiles, a clean hit.
So I asked him to go at a 90 degree angle, at 5gu/sec.
It missed by 10-15gu, and so did AR. I thought alright, I suppose it was just small...
Since destroyers aren't much larger, I asked Shig to get into a cruiser and do the same, 90 degree angle, 5gu/sec.
Missed again. Both AR and IT missed again, at the same distance too.
So in a fit of wonder, I wondered if it would happen again with Dreadnoughts.
You never know right? Well Shig didn't want to go all the way back for one (can't blame him) But I was in one and he was in a Cruiser with AR missiles.
So I went 90 degrees, 5gu/sec.
Well thankfully it didn't miss, but it hit the rear of the ship, it was very precarious.
So I ramped it up to 10gu/sec, and they... missed. Missed by a couple gu, but still a miss. Since AR missiles are supposedly better turning, theres no way an IT would have hit.
At the end Shig decided to charge at 15gu/sec in his cruiser directly at my MD. He dodged all but the PCMs (which basically exploded nearby).
Yeah so...
This isn't good. Not good at all. Considering all missiles basically use the same code (I would imagine) I could reasonably conjecture that Psi and Shredder face the same issues too.
So what am I saying? Well I'm saying that missiles could really do with their improvements. Lets face it, in actual fleet combat, if someone is spamming missiles everyone is going max speed and at an angle. Theres no way those missiles are going to hit anything but a Station.
Considering that smaller ships are better designed at taking out ships of their own class, how in the heck are they going to hit other ships with missiles? In truth, its like wasted firepower.
Currently as is, missiles seem to aim for the rear of a ship, which seems counter intutitve, since it makes them exceptionally easy to dodge. Unless they had a higher turn rate, they're pretty much going to miss all but the largest and most stationary of targets.
So I think, IT should get a moderate boost (they should at least hit cruisers at half speed, in my opinion), and ARs should really be meaner. It would give some use for them for smaller ships to actually use them against other smaller ships.
-Ent
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Leonide Grand Admiral Templar Knights
Joined: October 01, 2005 Posts: 1553 From: Newport News, Virginia
| Posted: 2008-07-27 04:45  
agreed, missiles from planetary and platform launches were missing me in a battle dread...and i was not turning at all, i was just going normal battle speed (10 - 11GU/s), and they just curved around me. it's almost like they are coded to miss.
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captain of the ICC Assault Cruiser C.S.S. Sledgehammer
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Axianda The Royal Fleet Admiral Terra Squadron
Joined: November 20, 2001 Posts: 4273 From: Axianda
| Posted: 2008-07-27 06:26  
If i understand the missiles correctly after spamming em for the last couple of versions they target the center of you ship. the target reticule that you get for targetting an enemy/friend.
if i observed correctly a missile will change it course every few seconds. mix that with an odd angle and speed and you got a recipe of miss.
cvurrently missiles do not update the trajectory often enough to keep aligned with the center of the ship making them miss.
possible fixes?
(a) make them target the front of a ship
(b) make them update the trajectory more orften.
(c) Increase the turn rate so they can try to hit the ship better.
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- Axi
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Fattierob Vice Admiral
Joined: April 25, 2003 Posts: 4059
| Posted: 2008-07-27 10:39  
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On 2008-07-27 06:26, Axianda The Royal wrote:
(a) make them target the front of a ship
(b) make them update the trajectory more orften.
(c) Increase the turn rate so they can try to hit the ship better.
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A results in a change of math of how missiles target a ship (Adding the vector velocity of the ships direction). That would take some math and time to do.
b results in more cpu time per missile. I doubt thats going to happen.
c results in really sharp turning missiles that are able to hit fast moving scouts. I don't think thats their intended purpose.
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Sixkiller Marshal Courageous Elite Commandos
Joined: May 11, 2005 Posts: 1786 From: Netherlands
| Posted: 2008-07-27 12:48  
do missiles in the current version have the same targetting problems? what was changed?
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Enterprise Chief Marshal Raven Warriors
Joined: May 19, 2002 Posts: 2576 From: Hawthorne, Nevada
| Posted: 2008-07-27 13:44  
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On 2008-07-27 12:48, Sixkiller *CL* wrote:
do missiles in the current version have the same targetting problems? what was changed?
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In the current version missiles at least hit a Dreadnought, without a doubt.
Cruisers can dodge them, as long as they keep going fast enough.
Missiles wont hit anything smaller usually unless its going very, very slow.
No idea what was changed though, perhaps simply it has something to do with the turning rate. I wouldn't mind if ARs got a massive boost so they'd be useful for targeting smaller ships. ITs need some boost, to at least hit hte larger...
-Ent
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BackSlash Marshal Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003 Posts: 11183 From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2008-07-27 15:09  
I've been saying for a long time that missiles need some work in the turning department.
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Shigernafy Admiral
Joined: May 29, 2001 Posts: 5726 From: The Land of Taxation without Representation
| Posted: 2008-07-28 18:55  
I think they're not properly firing towards where ships are expected to be like most weapons do but instead heading for where ships are, and then correcting with their awesome turning skillz when ships end up moving... as they always do.
Granted, having them aim for the expected destination might cause just as many miss problems, but I feel like it'll be a slightly better guess. Then again, over long distance, they're likely to correct before they get there... which means I'm not sure how to manage that.
In any case, they're stupid. And broken for real use.
_________________ * [S.W]AdmBito @55321 Sent \"I dunno; the French had a few missteps. But they're on the right track, one headbutt at a time.\"
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