Seekers ability to hit a target.

[Marty Ward]

I think there should always be a chance for any weapon to miss, even just a tiny one. It make things a little more interesting.

[Tomgs]

Missles should perhaps have a chance to do half damage on a percentage basis instead of missing to simulate a near miss. That would even it up a bit.

Missles are nearly unbeatable in the early game against the AI, but are almost worthless against a human ship (but not so worthless against planets) in tactical combat, what a difference. The ability to run out of range would be a major liability of missles if the AI would just do that a bit more often.

[Zanthis]

I dislike missiles (seekers) having a 100% to hit chance (I also dislike the error in displaying to hit chances). This is my suggestion:

1) Add to the Settings file, a "Seeker Base To Hit Value" that is the chance to hit for all seeking weapons.

2) Seekers would not have their Base To Hit Value reduced by range (i.e., there is not Seeker To Hit Modifier Per Square Distance). Only Combat To Hit Offensive/Defensive Plus/Minus abilities would matter[1].

3) Modify the "Weapons Always Hit" ability to work differently when added to actual weapons. Only THAT weapon always hits. I believe this is how the "Combat To Hit..." set of abilities work: all weapons if not on a weapon, just that weapon when on a weapon.

4) The default \Data\Components.txt file should have all seekers having the ability "Weapons Always Hit", thereby duplicating the current seekers always hitting.

This would allow those of us who want it to work differently to change things. On top of that, we'd always be able to make auto-hit weapons (rather than kludge of +500 to hit).

[1] I'd actually lean toward only taking the "Combat To Hit..." abilities from the firing weapon and all "Combat To Hit..." abilities from the targeted ship. This would mean the firing ships Combat Sensors wouldn't help its seekers to hit, but if you put +40 to hit on the launcher, that would apply. Or, that could be an option in Settings.

[Emperor Zodd]

How about chaff dispensers that can fire multiple times a turn and will cause missles to sometimes miss?!
They would be 10kt in size,and be a Last ditch defense against seekers.


[This message has been edited by Emperor Zodd (edited 25 January 2001).]

[Aegis]

Base 100% to hit at all ranges is fine I think. However, ECM's should reduce this chance, just as Ship size should adjust it also. Small ships with ECM's would thus be very difficult to target with them.
If anyone were then to introduce anti-fighter missiles these could have a bast to hit of over 100%, to reflect their increased manouverability, but also do less than 30 damage so that high level warships can always ignore them (w. em.armour).

-Aegis

[dmm]

It is STUPID that seekers always hit. Homing torpedos don't always hit subs or ships. AA missiles don't always hit aircraft. Smart bombs don't always hit tanks. While it is true that part of the reason is that our seeker technology is crude, the other part is that countermeasures are easier to make than seekers. Flares, chaff, decoys, etc. are small enough, crude enough, and effective enough that ALL warships would have them.

What are these seekers using to seek!? They never miss, and they never divert from their initial target. Explosions and weapons fire all around? No problem. Countermeasures? No effect. Identical ship crosses path of missile? It can't be tricked. Target goes behind other ships or planet? You can't hide. Debris, asteroids, storm, or nebula? No effect. ECM? Don't bother.

Instead of CSM it should be SCM, for Santa Claus Missile, in honor of their omniscience.

[dmm]

quote:

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Originally posted by Drake:
Ummmm, wouldn't that just make them really slow beam weapons?

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What beam weapon has a range of 12 or more and does damage of 50 or more?