Read by Council Fleets and Heat seeking missiles.

[Bladeriker]

One of the issues I have run into with fleets and for that matter having more than one ship in combat in the same sector is that (Missile+Missile) "Heat Seeking Missiles" will target my own ships. While I mainly use this system to over whelm AMS (Anti Missile Systems) and drain Shields/Energy having it hit my own ships has caused me to hesitate in using this weapon combination on my ships.

There are several ways this issue could be addressed.

1: Making a Fleet causes the (M+M) Missiles to not target the fleet members the same way they do not target docked entities on ships (Turrets/Shuttles...ECT), on current ships.

2: Add an IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) Block, or cause the Faction block to add this function to so that M+M systems do not target ships with it active.

3: The last option is to change the Logic in the Missile computer so that when it is linked (M+M) it does not populate Fleet members or friendly targets when activated. Thus not directly attacking them.

 

[kiraen]

The pro of swarm missiles is the swarm.
The con is the uncontrolable targeting.

They are heat seekers and will target any 'heat' source. If you want smart missiles use Mb or Mp
If you want to swarm a ships point defense I suggest using low damage Mm, single barrel. PD does not care about the damage potential and will still target the missiles. For draining shields I believe the weapon of choice is Cc.

This has been brought up before, and will undoubtably be brought up again. It is also unlikely to change.

 

[Nickizzy]

The pro of swarm missiles is the swarm.
The con is the uncontrolable targeting.

They are heat seekers and will target any 'heat' source. If you want smart missiles use Mb or Mp
If you want to swarm a ships point defense I suggest using low damage Mm, single barrel. PD does not care about the damage potential and will still target the missiles. For draining shields I believe the weapon of choice is Cc.

This has been brought up before, and will undoubtably be brought up again. It is also unlikely to change.

Yes, if you want targeted fleet swarms for antipoint defense I would suggest a bunch of 1 block missile beam combos. Not bad damage either.

For shields just use something like beam pulse ion. It's insane how much alpha damage you can do with it.

 

[StarWars1981]

Yes, if you want targeted fleet swarms for antipoint defense I would suggest a bunch of 1 block missile beam combos. Not bad damage either.

For shields just use something like beam pulse ion. It's insane how much alpha damage you can do with it.

Power req is psychotic though. It's like build a ship of capacitors and regen, then attach second ship with max regen. And that's for only a few (relative) blocks... xD.
However, can't argue with effect, I guess.

 

[Bladeriker]

The concept is to not do harm to one's own fleet while still getting the utility of Swarm missiles. Friendly fire is not friendly LOL.

In fleet operations as it is there is a chance for Fratricide where a drone or light ship gets between the main turrets and the target, that cannot be helped as much. Having a weapon system that will directly harm ones own fleet and which will be spammed by the A.I. for ships equipped with it is counter productive to say the least.

Both kinds of lock on missiles have their place, but for dealing with swarms of small ships swarms of missiles is one of the ways to deal with them.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

The benefit of Swarms is they are tracking missiles that do not have a lock on time. This gives them a clear advantage over every other missiles system. If you take away that disadvantage then there is almost never a reason to use MB or MP over MM. If we had a hard counter to heat seeking weapons such as a flare system then changing the mechanic might be more feasible.

 

[Reilly Reese]

This is beating around the dead horse.

 

[Bladeriker]

There is yet another option that came to me.

Have the M+M combination allow for multiple target locks. Much like the current M+B or M+P add a lock on function except that it can populate multiple targets in line of sight, the number of missiles that go to each target is random but they are focused on the targeted units when they launch. If the pilot decides to just fire without lock then they are back to being heat seeking.

Given that this weapon combination in its current state is by far the weakest of the Missile combinations, and that its uses are mostly for taking out swarms, and over whelming AMS, being used by a single non-fleet ship, or in general causing lag.

The issue is that before fleets were added the PVE player did not worry about this kind of thing as his ships/ship were only in danger from Pirates. With fleets the question is asked of why to bother using a weapon system that will knowingly hurt/damage the fleet members.