The idea for "chaff" has been proposed several times before. A component that tosses out a 'puff' of chaff every few turns, with a certain chance that a missile would go for that instead of the originating ship, is a logical idea and probably not hard to do. However, if you haven't noticed there are already problems with the effectiveness of missiles. Now that the various AIs have been modded to use lots of PDC it's nearly impossible for a missile-only using race to be a great power in a game. Until balance problems with missiles are worked out, don't expect any new features in the missile area of combat.
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 08 September 2001).]