Missiles as units (a.k.a microdrones)

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Batman:
1) AFHAWKi fighter missile. Should be easy to do.

Yeah, no problem. You can put PDC on them at least. You may be able to put an actual warhead that targets fighters only. Not sure about that.

2) SBMHAWK:warp-capable missiles (might need to model them as ships, which, if I recall, means they can't be cargo. Catch-22)

Drones are warp capable, so no problem. Well, little problem. You have to have something on the other side of the warp point painting the target for you.

3) AMBAM. Anti-mine missiles (in the books they were described as low strength missiles with a large bLast radius, just enough to set off mines)

No problem. Drones hit mines just fine. In fact you could probably even put a minesweeper component on a drone. Haven't heard of anyone trying that. But if it doesn't work, just make it with low damage warheads and high structure fo the missle to soak up lots of mine damage. The only problem is, as with the warp missles, you can't simply tell a drone, "Go hither and sweep those mines.", you have to give it an attack order. Which means there will ahve to be an enemy in the minefield the drone can see, or one on the other side so the minefield is in the drones attack path.

Geoschmo

[AeoN2]

Could these mini-drones possibly be a good idea to use instead of the "point defense missiles" idea that someone came up with? The trouble was that with missiles that targets seekers that all missiles would fire at the same target since it wasn't "destroyed" yet since the missiles don't move immediately...

But if the drones can target missiles they could work like pd-drones... probably wouldn't be worth it unless pd guns were removed in the mod though...

--
AeoN2
--
Law of Selective Gravity:
An object will fall so as to do the most damage.

[Lemmy]

how about including a small space yard component, so you can build to missiles on your ship?
about 100kt, produces on avg 1-3 missiles/turn

[geoschmo]

That is certainly a possibility. The problem is there is no convienent way to only allow the constructor to build missles, they could build fighters, mines, or even ships given enough time.

I think that in a mod with these microdrones though it would be common practice to send a space yard ship with the battle fleet so you don't have to keep going back for more missles.

Geo

[Baron Munchausen]

Remember that if you mod 'micro' drones you won't be able to use standard size drones anymore. There's no way the AI can keep the two classes of components straight in design, or keep the different sizes straight in combat. It's one or the other.

We've been asking for a 'units only' space yard for some time. If MM could just add a setting to restrict the size of vehicle that a space yard can build you could mod one easily enough. Or some way to set the 'flags' that mark a planet-only space yard as different from a space yard facility or a space yard component

[ June 13, 2002, 21:51: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Lobo7922]

I read all about minidrones, missiles, etc. and I just remember how much I enjoy preparing my squadron before a battle when I play XCOM; do you remember?, armor, ammunition, weapons, etc.
that was very funny, it's micromanagement, all we love micromanagement, but how much it's enough?

[jimbob]

For starters, this would be great!! The design possiblities and introduction of resource management are a great great great idea!

You could make the "missiles" have all sorts of different modifiable attributes, like different speeds, different ranges, etc. by introducing different components. Combat only engines (ie various levels of afterburners) would keep the missiles from zooming through wormholes and across sectors. Higher speed engines/aftrerburners could use more supplies, giving a shorter range for example. Later technologies could allow for improved engines/afterburners and eventually very expensive (and gas guzzling?) engines that would have normal movement, letting missiles move across systems and through worm holes. This would allow a player to essentially enter combat without entering combat! Now missile cruisers have an entirely different value (I'm a missile freak, but I'm always disheartened by the strength of my enemy's PD weaponry. In the same breath, I wouldn't want missiles to become too strong).

Some players will design missiles with extra supply storage to reach across the entire combat screen, while others will let loose a volley of short range, high velocity missiles, while others will push slower, high yield "turtle missiles" out of the bomb-bay doors. Some will opt for the expensive missiles with normal movement Ratings, while others will go for the cheapest drives possible.

As far as the "fire em all at once" problem,
i) can't you limit the number of drones launched from a "drone bay"? (I don't know, cause I don't have gold... yet)
ii) if you can launch a swack of missiles (but not all) in one shot, I figure that's okay. The player will now have to deeply consider whether or not their ships will survive combat. If not, fire em all! If so, then they'll need to apply restraint.
iii) as to missiles taking out their primary target, and the extras going after secondary targets... I guess everyone will just have to be careful as to how many they drop over the side

Edit: oh, maybe you could make components that can fire only at certain targets. This way, you could design a missile that only attacks ships. Now you won't harpoon that planet by mistake. Sort of a hardcoded smart missile if you will.

My Last comment for the night. Missiles cannot attack satellites right now. To keep this important game balance, I think it would be important to only design weapons that can attack ships/bases/planets for these new missile types.

Ciao all
Good night

[ June 14, 2002, 07:42: Message edited by: jimbob ]