Make heat-seeker missiles ignore astronauts

[TheKingOfSpace]

Pretty annoying to have a defensive array that will glitch through your ship and murder your own passengers.

 

[Ithirahad]

Better solution; have missiles fired by a ship not lock on to astronauts aboard it. Not ignore all astronauts.

 

[Gasboy]

Or not use heat-seeking missiles. :P

 

[PizzaPress]

Or not use heat-seeking missiles. :p

Sadly, that's kinda the way swarmers are right now(are they really even good anyway?)...

 

[Ithirahad]

Sadly, that's kinda the way swarmers are right now(are they really even good anyway?)...

They're really great for stopping people's point defense from working, and of course they're okay at taking out tons of little ships.

 

[SuperWookie]

They're really great for stopping people's point defense from working, and of course they're okay at taking out tons of little ships.

Also great for taking out astronauts who decide to board you :D

 

[Ithirahad]

Also great for taking out astronauts who decide to board you :D

Yeah, but that should change: Not only do things like that make it way too easy to repel boarders, but they're also really great for accidentally killing your passengers. IMO turrets and damage pulses should be the only ship weapons that should ever hit astronauts aligned to or in gravity of the same ship.

 

[Gasboy]

Sadly, that's kinda the way swarmers are right now(are they really even good anyway?)...

They're great if you're by yourself and have a multitude of targets, like a pirate wave or a drone wave.

 

[SuperWookie]

Yeah, but that should change: Not only do things like that make it way too easy to repel boarders, but they're also really great for accidentally killing your passengers. IMO turrets and damage pulses should be the only ship weapons that should ever hit astronauts aligned to or in gravity of the same ship.

I agree its way too difficult to successfully board a ship, especially with swarmers. Either making them not target astronauts on ships, or fixing missiles so they don't fly through blocks would be best. Even then though, its really easy to be quickly murdered by interior turrets and pulse weapons. Maybe something like a personal shield (similar to Halo for example, with a recharge after waiting a few seconds) or armour could be added to the game to increase chances of survival against ship defenses. I guess in the future though it'll probably be NPC boarders and defenders or something doing the fighting anyway. For now though your best bet is to just get your passengers into a build block or weapons computer to keep them safe.

 

[Gasboy]

Yeah, but that should change: Not only do things like that make it way too easy to repel boarders, but they're also really great for accidentally killing your passengers. IMO turrets and damage pulses should be the only ship weapons that should ever hit astronauts aligned to or in gravity of the same ship.

Get your passengers into computers, or turrets, then. Heat seekers were made to be fire and forget, but with a downside of not being able to identify between friend or foe. I seriously doubt they will change how heat seekers will operate. They could fix it so that heatseekers hit your ship instead of glitching inside to kill your passengers, which would be fair.

That or like... don't use swarm missiles on your passenger craft.

 

[Panpiper]

Sadly, that's kinda the way swarmers are right now(are they really even good anyway?)...

They are the perfect weapon for battle miners.

 

[Bogdan]

Why not have heatseekers that only target enemy ships in their range? Wouldn't that a) get rid of chance of hitting your own ships b) get rid of chance of hitting yourself or your friends c) not affect boarding as it will target ships not astronauts.

 

[FatCobra]

Why not have heatseekers that only target enemy ships in their range? Wouldn't that a) get rid of chance of hitting your own ships b) get rid of chance of hitting yourself or your friends c) not affect boarding as it will target ships not astronauts.

That would sort of defeat the purpose of a heat seeker. They are "dumb" missiles with the exception of locking on to a heat source. It would be nice though if they locked on to the "hottest" heat source that they were pointed at.

 

[Bogdan]

That would sort of defeat the purpose of a heat seeker. They are "dumb" missiles with the exception of locking on to a heat source. It would be nice though if they locked on to the "hottest" heat source that they were pointed at.

But then you'd have to determine what was hotter, the roaring flames of the ship's exhaust system or the dashing astronaut standing on a rock ^^. :D.


No but seriously, you'd have to then implement a system for determining 'scales of heat' which would be a bother.

 

[FatCobra]

But then you'd have to determine what was hotter, the roaring flames of the ship's exhaust system or the dashing astronaut standing on a rock ^^. :D

Since we all pretty much look like Dave its an easy choice. :p

 

[Bogdan]

I'm sure somebody will turn up looking like that and then, following a collective gasp, the turrets would rotate on their rails and the missiles would strike home at poor old superman here. ^^

 

[Winterhome]

Swarm missiles are the weapon of choice for serverside newbie capital pilots. You know, the guys that deserve to be boarded the most? :P

Remember, guys, it's really hard to make a turret that works well, but really easy to slap down 10^3 bricks of missile tubes to hit things behind you. Swarm missiles do not lose enough DPS to make up for their PD overwhelming and omnidirectional murder capabilities.

Removing astronaut targeting from them would be a step in the right direction. If you need a logical reason for it, just say "Astronauts don't put out enough heat to register as a valid target" or something.

 

[FatCobra]

Swarm missiles are the weapon of choice for serverside newbie capital pilots. You know, the guys that deserve to be boarded the most? :p

Remember, guys, it's really hard to make a turret that works well, but really easy to slap down 10^3 bricks of missile tubes to hit things behind you. Swarm missiles do not lose enough DPS to make up for their PD overwhelming and omnidirectional murder capabilities.

Removing astronaut targeting from them would be a step in the right direction. If you need a logical reason for it, just say "Astronauts don't put out enough heat to register as a valid target" or something.

All kidding aside. I do agree that an Astronaut shouldn't be warm enough to attract a heat seeker. I would think that they would prioritize thrusters first followed by cannons (that are firing), power generators, and power tanks.

 

[Gasboy]

Swarm missiles are the weapon of choice for serverside newbie capital pilots. You know, the guys that deserve to be boarded the most? :p

Remember, guys, it's really hard to make a turret that works well, but really easy to slap down 10^3 bricks of missile tubes to hit things behind you. Swarm missiles do not lose enough DPS to make up for their PD overwhelming and omnidirectional murder capabilities.

Removing astronaut targeting from them would be a step in the right direction. If you need a logical reason for it, just say "Astronauts don't put out enough heat to register as a valid target" or something.

You don't really need a logical reason. For astronauts inside a ship, the missiles can just hit the ship.

If the astronauts are outside a ship, then they should be fair game for swarm missiles.

If you can't figure out that using swarm missiles around friendlies is a bad idea, then you deserve the anger and annoyance that will be directed at you.
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All kidding aside. I do agree that an Astronaut shouldn't be warm enough to attract a heat seeker. I would think that they would prioritize thrusters first followed by cannons (that are firing), power generators, and power tanks.

All depends on what "heatseekers" are really seeking. How does an astronaut move through space? Has to be putting out something, yeah? So I would say there's enough for a heatseeker to lock onto.

 

[FatCobra]

Our current equipment used by NASA uses nitrogen gas and wouldn't produce heat during its use.