A solution to the heat-seeking missile problem

[Proxima_Centauri]

There is currently a problem with heat seeking missiles, in that they are more or less useless in the current state of the game.

Right now, when heat seeking missiles are shot, they split off in a "swarm" and start chasing targets right out of the barrel. This is a problem because they'll almost always chase one of your own turrets or allied ships instead of attacking the enemy. The default Isanth with heat seekers is more of a liability to have in a pirate fleet because it kills so many of the other pirates this way.

I think a solution to this problem would be to have a cluster bomb of sorts.
The idea is that you shoot it and it flies in the direction you shot at (I.E. the same way as a plain d1000 shoots). When it reaches a certain range, the missile then breaks off into the smaller heat seeking missile swarm and resumes its ordinary mechanic of chasing the closest entities.

The range of the missile split off could be adjusted in the weapons menu.

I think this would make heat seekers actually useful again.

 

[starhaiden]

what if the missiles hit something in the clump does the ship receive the damage of all the missiles

 

[Megacrafter127]

would you be able to chose the range that the missile does that

The range of the missile split off could be adjusted in the weapons menu.

 

[Rhyunix]

So, what your suggesting is the IRL heat seeker, fire and forget, where it travels forward a while and ignores targets behind its "peripheral vision"

 

[ImperialDonut]

So, what your suggesting is the IRL heat seeker, fire and forget, where it travels forward a while and ignores targets behind its "peripheral vision"

"ignores targets behind its peripheral vision" - There's your answer I think, just restrict the missiles to targeting targets in front of it. The dumbfire with eventual splitoff sounds good too however, but involves a bit more work.

 

[ltmauve]

More like it should go through and check the targets, then launch the missiles at each target after checking that they aren't in the same faction.

 

[matheod]

Why not have to first launch a tracer ? If the tracer is on the good target, then you launch the missile.

 

[matheod]

The range of the missile split off could be adjusted in the weapons menu.

Why not just have to activate two time the weapon ? First to launch, then to enable the heat tracking ?

 

[Rhyunix]

Why not just have to activate two time the weapon ? First to launch, then to enable the heath tracking ?

This would suggest that the heat seeking system is much smarter than just track- requiring more computers

 

[NeonSturm]

Why not have to first launch a tracer ? If the tracer is on the good target, then you launch the missile.

Ships may move between the tracer and weapon launch.
I prefer:

"ignores targets behind its peripheral vision" - There's your answer I think, just restrict the missiles to targeting targets in front of it. The dumbfire with eventual splitoff sounds good too however, but involves a bit more work.

or

Why not just have to activate two time the weapon ? First to launch, then to enable the heat tracking ?

 

[jayman38]

I think a solution to this problem would be to have a cluster bomb of sorts.
The idea is that you shoot it and it flies in the direction you shot at (I.E. the same way as a plain d1000 shoots). When it reaches a certain range, the missile then breaks off into the smaller heat seeking missile swarm and resumes its ordinary mechanic of chasing the closest entities.

The range of the missile split off could be adjusted in the weapons menu.

This would be a neat mechanic to simulate torpedos. "Set safety range to 400 meters and fire tube 2!" In miscellaneous other games, there is a game mechanic to either charge up the weapon or alter range, depending on how long you hold down the fire button before releasing. This would be useful for this purpose. Have a "marker" on your minimap that goes out from the center (your ship), which shows where the missile group will split up after it has gone straight out for that distance. I think this would add a fun new player-skill mechanic to weapons.