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This is merly ment to provoke thought, and possibly work on a valid solution to making missile play and counter play more engaging and balanced for both parties.
To re-do missiles I would suggest something along the lines of:
-Missiles now have HP values, whith their hp being tied to their damage via log growth. Thus different sized point defense turrets become standed practice [Fig 1]
-Small point defense turrets gain increased accuracy, thus are easily and reliably able to hit missiles. The larger the point defense turret, the smaller the accuracy bonus (via either via game design or chambers). [Fig 2]
-A new option is added to bobby AI moduals. They can be set to target Weakest/Strongest/Random and also Closest/Furtherst/Random. [Fig 3]
-Missile damage upon impact is directly related to the % of HP remaining. This means that Point Defense can be used for damage mitigation even if they don't have enough damage to shoot it down. [Fig 4] Alternative would be reversing the HP/Dmage Log to make high damage missiles tougher as in [Fig 1]
[Fig 1] Missle Damage setting missiles orgional HP
[Fig 2] Turret accuracy bonus VS Mass/weapon size
[Fig 3] New AI options
[Fig 4] Direct Relationship between missile HP and the damage it deals on impact.
(Alternative would be reversing the HP/Dmage Log to make high damage missiles tougher as in [Fig 1])
What this acheives:
-Large missile swarms of low output are easily delt with by a decent ammount of small point defense thanks to their increased accuracy.
-Higher damage missiles that take substaial power no longer evapourate due to a no cost Point defense hit. (Think along the line with trying to shoot down a Balistic missile with a BB Gun, it might work fine for insects but not for large objects)
-AI can be specificatly set to target their ideal 'target'. E.g you would want a 1-1 PD turret shooting at all the weak missile spam, not a large pulse 'nuke'. You can have your heavier PD turrets focusing down the heavier missiles instead of shooting at spam.
-Various sized Point defense turrets will become common. Due to the Logorithmic curve for missile HP, there is essientialy a min HP and max HP (1 to x) they can have, thus players can easily plan their PD turrets around this since they know how much damage a turret needs to haveto kill various sized missiles.
-Large missiles HP will eassientialy 'cap out' due to the log growth to prevent extremly high damage missiles not being able to be shot down. This allows players to build PD turrets around this.
-Missile damage on impact relates to missile HP on impact. This results in Point Defense being able to to mitigate damage even if they dont have enough damage to kill it.
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Potiential Q and A:
-Wouldn't this prevent missile spam?
I would hope so. Still I think being able to overwhelm their point defense should be a thing, however should require actual system investment rather than 100 1/1 missile outlets.
-Doesn't this make missiles useless?
That is not the intention. Larger PD turrets do not recive accuracy bonuses and would need to deal noticeable damage to knock out a 3 mill damage missile. Doing so would require some larger spcealised Point Defense turrets set to target large missiles.
-Wouldn't this cause performance issues?
That is not the intention. Each missile would recive an extra value upon creation alongside where it's damage is recorded called hp. When hit, instead of being destroyed it's damage is applied to the HP pool. When the missile impacts the hp modifier is applied before damage is calculated. The performance impact would be minnor, especially compared to the lag from missile spam currently.
Feedback is appreciated, with other systems such as Shielding and power being re-vamped I feel that this aspect of gameplay also needs an update.
