Missiles and actual combat

[Errant.Venture]

i agree with the missiles should be scary, fast, and deadly....and i know i posted about cap ships using torpedo broadsides....in another post...but i think that disco should have capital ship killing missiles or torpedoes.....


ok an example....take fletchers shrieker idea, and input a scene from wing commander, the one with the skipper missile....the whole crew of the tiger claw has pretty much accepted death, willingly or not, and await the impact of this ship killing, skipping, cloaked missile...


ok now apply that to freelancer......


we all know you can dodge/shoot missiles....but think of a missile that actually acted like one...i.e. a fast missile, capable of actually following a ship, no matter how fancy its manuevers, and one that isnt always going to be tricked by chaff or cm's......so instead of this missile exploing on impact, why not incorporate that shotgun idea, from the above mentioned post, so that when a missile closes to withing lets say like 200m it detonates, and sends out flechete shrapnel towards the ship....like a real missile


now for a capital class ship killer, think a torpedo, bigger then the sunslayer....make it the size of like a cruiser missile turret....then make it ramp up in speed....wait thats putting the carriage in front of the horse....when launched from a capital ship/gunboat/cruiser/bomber it has to be launched from outside of....lets say 2 klicks.....so that makes it slow moving....until it hits about 1 klick...or less.....at this point (within a 1.5 or 1klick range) then your ship ai starts stating incoming missile....so at this point it slowly ramps up speed to say the speed of a sidewinder, and homes for about 3-5 seconds....for two reasons


1.at this point the missile has locked onto the targets "last known" position...and has shut down its tracking units, to shift all power towards increasing its speed...this allows the torpedo to make sure it is still actually locked on, before reaching its maximum velocity.....

2. it makes it semi fair in a pvp fight, seeing as the captain of the targeted vessel then has a few options...go down with his ship....or try to engage cruise engines intime, and bug out.....


now i know alot of people willl say "oh great just what we need, another toy for missile spammers" thats understandable, but the price for one of these missiles/torpedoes should cost realisticly, like 20 million...and have a limited capacity, to maybe like 2 for bombers, 4 for gunboats, 8 for cruisers, and 12 for cap ships, BS and bigger

now expanding on this thought...the missile itself should totally bypass shields....basically because it would be using sheer kinetic energy, overloading or overwhelming the ships shield generators.....also this missile would be a 1 hit kill, for any ship, lets say at 70% health or less....it would be like firing a cruise missile at an aircraft carrier, that has been ravaged by 3 torpedo barrages already.....but if people were against that, then it could bypass shields by becoming lodged in the shield barrier itself, and then launching the warhead into the hull...like a bunker buster missile...or even have a primary charge to lower the shields, and the secondary delivers the killing blow


with that said, this missile would not be effective against anything smaller then a battleship or cap ship, because all other ships, have thrusters, and the captain of a smaller vessel would just afterburn at the last second, removing itself from the blast radius.....

so thats my 2 cents on fletchers already great idea

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[Friday]

I really like the idea of slow acceleration, good tracking for longer range missiles.

You could also apply this idea to torpedoes, so that they have less utility against fighters at close range - where a large blast radius should also take you out as well!

At longer ranges, the torp could be shot down, CM'd, or dodged if you are lucky. Otherwise if you are too slow or stupid to get out of the way too bad!

There is already a limited range available of damage vs. tracking - this idea put added variety into the mix, and makes it possible for missiles/torps to act in the manner they were intended to.

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[Errant.Venture]

I really like the idea of slow acceleration, good tracking for longer range missiles.

You could also apply this idea to torpedoes, so that they have less utility against fighters at close range - where a large blast radius should also take you out as well!

At longer ranges, the torp could be shot down, CM'd, or dodged if you are lucky. Otherwise if you are too slow or stupid to get out of the way too bad!

There is already a limited range available of damage vs. tracking - this idea put added variety into the mix, and makes it possible for missiles/torps to act in the manner they were intended to.

i agree with you here....i have noticed that in pvp some1 always uses a torp to kill a fighter...usually waiting until their opponent turns, and then gets minimal splash damage....i think that your idea about a larger blast radius is a good one, becasue it would force one to think, rather then act.....

as an edit to the cap ship killer torp idea, i have heard rumors that the dev team are trying to think up a way for ai ships to circle around the capital ships, kind of making mini fleets or drones....i think that if that actually came into play, then the captain of the ship could also make an executive decision....lose his ship and crew, or sacrifice a escort, to save his life....think the f-15 that flew in front of the missile in the movie air force one.....obviously a blast that size, would damage the players ship, but also would give him a chance to pullout, or continue fighting knowing he would not survive another....


ultimately though....for this or any of the other great ideas listed before mine, in particular fletchers shrieker missiles....to avoid massive missile spamming....these "special" weapons would have to be limited, realisticly, to a payload size for bombers, and other ships, and be very costly...

that would accomplish 2 things:

1. the player with these weapons, would wait for the right moment to fire, not just spam...and also would get the wheels spinning for a judgement call....like "ok i spent 20 mil on this torpedo...and i have 2, so is it really worth it to try to fire this at that GB/cruiser...seeing as they are outnumbered....do i really want the pvp kill that bad?"....and from a larger ships point of view: do i really want to risk firing this missile, knowing that if a fighter or turret gets a lucky shot, right after launch i will be dead....

2. limiting range, i.e making it so you have to fire outside of 2klicks for it to work properly, would ensure that players did not use this to pwn player fighters or bombers in pvp fights....i.e. launching at the center and killing everyone....and if it did happen, then the said player would be destroyed too

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[Dusty Lens]

It's funny. We cannot use missiles in the traditional sense on the test server because there is virtually no lag.

As such, they are absurdly deadly. They simply do not miss unless you commit yourself to dodging the dang things.

These are the same missiles that we're using right now. Lag is the predominant factor in limiting the efficacy of missiles, something that very little can resolve short of manufacturing something on par with a CD.

If we performed that action the relative potency of missiles versus guns would become so out of balance as to dramatically shift the focus even further in favor of missiles.

Right now they are frighteningly powerful against vanilla ships, equipment breaking terrors against non and overall extremely useful when used properly.

Missiles next mod will be extremely entertaining, but not show stealers. I can't help but feel that's the best sort of balance we can strive for in our simulated environment.

[sempai17]

is it possible to have a "missle pod"? fires 6 shots rapidly the a reload time for the next set. medium damage and traking. I've heard rumors about this type of weapon in the next mod, but it may just be that.

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[swift]

What Dusty said about lag problems with tracking.

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[Jinx]

one can make missiles that do not work in a joust and are superior in tracking the enemy.

we can make it so that missiles are sort of "spat out" and are drifting away from the firing ship for x seconds ( mayby 3 - 5 seconds ) - all this time, they are immobile and harmless.

after that time, they start to thrust with tremendous speed ( maybe 450 ) and firestalker like tracking.

in a joust that d mean that the missiles could be dropped, but due to a joust not taking very long - the missile wouldn t find its target around by the time it activates ( it needs the target to be in its line of sight when it activates )

in a chase however, the target stays in the missiles line of sight - and so it can start tracking.

it is possible - but a balancing nightmare.

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[Friday]

How about an increase in tracking and speed for lower level missiles?

Lower level missiles could then have increased utility - keeping their current damage ratings.

Increased speed, tracking, refire rate, but with lesser damage output and chewing up the ammo faster.

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[rayne]

With torpedoes you could have it so they dont arm until 1km away from the launcher, dont know if its possible though. That way torps would be used for what they are supposed to be for.

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[Friday]

I dont know about delayed arming - but you can delay the missile lock for an amount of time.

It would just be a dumb-firing missile until then.

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