So after an unfortunate accident on a server that I play on, I got to thinking. Heatseekers, as the name implies, target the hottest thing in the area. It goes without saying that a ship that is "powered down" e.g hasn't been moving for a while would lose it's heat signature. Therefore, perhaps something to look into would be to make it so that heatseekers won't target inactive ships, since there's no heatsource. A ship that's flying around would be producing a decently sized heat signature whereas one that's docked or simply "parked" (nobody in the core) wouldn't be producing much (if any) heat. Perhaps something to think about for the future?
Regarding heat seeking missiles
- Thread starter Adamusa
- Start date
Minor problem with your thinking:
So... You think the generators produce no heat? Computers produce no heat? A block which controls the entire ship produces no heat? As long as the ship has power, it produces heat. So it\'s not going to have \"no heat\".
However, there is something to be said for this. If there was some calculation which could be made that determined heat, it would make sense to have the missile seek out the nearest, largest, heat source. Therefore, seeing a ship fire a heat seeker at you, then standing still, could be a viable option.
So... You think the generators produce no heat? Computers produce no heat? A block which controls the entire ship produces no heat? As long as the ship has power, it produces heat. So it\'s not going to have \"no heat\".
However, there is something to be said for this. If there was some calculation which could be made that determined heat, it would make sense to have the missile seek out the nearest, largest, heat source. Therefore, seeing a ship fire a heat seeker at you, then standing still, could be a viable option.
I think you missed my point here. If the ship is \"inactive\" that is to say, hasn\'t been used for a while (would be longer in the case of larger ships) then the generators and whatnot would be offline or at the very least in a power-saving state where they would emit less heat than usual. Same thing for computer banks. I\'m not saying that larger ships wouldnt\' emit heat signatures at all, just that they\'d be low enough for a heatseeker to not bother with it unless it was the only target in the area.
Another thing to this could be making blocks heat up as they are hit. Say for example an enemy fires a heatseeker at you. You\'ve not got any countermeasures and there\'s no other heatsources around. So what d\'you do? You make one. Whack some AMC rounds into that nearby asteroid and heat up the rock to a point where the missile changes target (could also factor in that some asteroids contain lava; this would make heatseekers less effective near them as they would be extremely hot). As for the turrets, it wouldn\'t make them invincible. They\'d emit heat like everything else, especially as they fired and built up heat.
Another thing to this could be making blocks heat up as they are hit. Say for example an enemy fires a heatseeker at you. You\'ve not got any countermeasures and there\'s no other heatsources around. So what d\'you do? You make one. Whack some AMC rounds into that nearby asteroid and heat up the rock to a point where the missile changes target (could also factor in that some asteroids contain lava; this would make heatseekers less effective near them as they would be extremely hot). As for the turrets, it wouldn\'t make them invincible. They\'d emit heat like everything else, especially as they fired and built up heat.
So by that logic a heatseeker fired any where near a sun would just veer off and head for the sun because.... its a sun.
I\'m not saying that\'s bad in fact i rather like it. Also, i love the idea of firing at an asteroid and expsosing lava, or just heating up the rock.
The only issue i have with this suggestion is that it would probably be fairly difficult for the game to calculate quickly, especially with the addition of things being fired at being hot
I\'m not saying that\'s bad in fact i rather like it. Also, i love the idea of firing at an asteroid and expsosing lava, or just heating up the rock.
The only issue i have with this suggestion is that it would probably be fairly difficult for the game to calculate quickly, especially with the addition of things being fired at being hot
I built a carrier which had two dozen of SK bays... i wondered why the hell they don\'t fire until i saw the missilies circling around my invincible (because they were docked) fighters. The moment i undocked one just to test if they are realy that stupid i got blown up^^
Perhaps a fix to that would be to make it so that ships of your own faction aren\'t factored into the missile\'s targeting routines. They\'d simply not exist as far as the missile is concerned. As to the sun thing, if you were ridiculously close then yes I\'d say it would, but maybe a way around that is to limit the range that the missile can detect heat signatures in? That kinda thing would prevent that and could also make for some pretty cool looking \"curveball\" shots where you fire one at long range in a different direction, then as it gets closer it swings around and heads for the target it\'s found.
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2013
- Messages
- 51
- Reaction score
- 0
Perhaps a fix to that would be to make it so that ships of your own faction aren\'t factored into the missile\'s targeting routines. They\'d simply not exist.
Well this is an idea i\'ve had for a while wouldnt it be handy to make this an enhancer/Expansion for a ship?
I think it\'d be better if you could lock a target on the radar in the Navigation menu. like you Select an Asteroid on your Navigation and then just use a SD-BB missile launcher (other launchers are available) it will fire it at what you currently have selected, and of course by using F when looking at a target it will auto-select it (its implemented already :P). that means that there is no need to open the navigation menu over and over again. problem solved!
Well this is an idea i\'ve had for a while wouldnt it be handy to make this an enhancer/Expansion for a ship?
I think it\'d be better if you could lock a target on the radar in the Navigation menu. like you Select an Asteroid on your Navigation and then just use a SD-BB missile launcher (other launchers are available) it will fire it at what you currently have selected, and of course by using F when looking at a target it will auto-select it (its implemented already :P). that means that there is no need to open the navigation menu over and over again. problem solved!
Good idea!
That would be great. I bought the heat-seeking missiles so that I twould be easier for me to take down pirates.
But when I use them they just fly in random routes - is there a way to fix this? If no, could the devs fix this? Or am I just doing it wrong?
That would be great. I bought the heat-seeking missiles so that I twould be easier for me to take down pirates.
But when I use them they just fly in random routes - is there a way to fix this? If no, could the devs fix this? Or am I just doing it wrong?
Adamusa: Your orignal wording had confused me, and seemed to be implying that heet seeking missiles would simply ignore an inactive ship, even if it was the only target. I understand this now.
I can\'t decide on whether or not heet seekers should be able to target allies (for the sake of amusement), However: The missiles should not lock on to a ship within \"x\" radius of your ship (where x is a number defined by the size of your ship). This includes enemies, for the sake of convenience. The radius should be calculated in such a way that it extends ~5 blocks from the sides of your ships, hopefully covering any turrets in the radius.
I like the idea of Lava producing heat, and being able to use asteroids as an alternate heat source. AMC\'s heating up blocks they hit could be hard/annoying to calculate, and might cause rediculous lag on some large ships. I\'m not totally against the idea, but it seems like there would be trouble with it.
I can\'t decide on whether or not heet seekers should be able to target allies (for the sake of amusement), However: The missiles should not lock on to a ship within \"x\" radius of your ship (where x is a number defined by the size of your ship). This includes enemies, for the sake of convenience. The radius should be calculated in such a way that it extends ~5 blocks from the sides of your ships, hopefully covering any turrets in the radius.
I like the idea of Lava producing heat, and being able to use asteroids as an alternate heat source. AMC\'s heating up blocks they hit could be hard/annoying to calculate, and might cause rediculous lag on some large ships. I\'m not totally against the idea, but it seems like there would be trouble with it.
I seem to confuse people a lot, don\'t worry about it :P
As to the AMCs heating up blocks, I\'d have said it\'s a fairly simple calculation. Assign each block a value named \"heat\". Each time something happens that would cause that value to rise (being hit by a shot, flying too close to the sun, etc) then it rises by however much that event would cause. Being near the sun would cause a gradual rise, whereas being hit with an AMC shot would increase it exponentially. This value then lingers there for a couple of seconds before slowly ticking back down (quite slowly, maybe one or two points per second).
The radius is a good idea, I hadn\'t thought of that. If it\'s only five or so blocks then I could possibly foresee issues on larger ships as some of mine often have very large turrets (my dumbfire missile turrets, for example).
As to the AMCs heating up blocks, I\'d have said it\'s a fairly simple calculation. Assign each block a value named \"heat\". Each time something happens that would cause that value to rise (being hit by a shot, flying too close to the sun, etc) then it rises by however much that event would cause. Being near the sun would cause a gradual rise, whereas being hit with an AMC shot would increase it exponentially. This value then lingers there for a couple of seconds before slowly ticking back down (quite slowly, maybe one or two points per second).
The radius is a good idea, I hadn\'t thought of that. If it\'s only five or so blocks then I could possibly foresee issues on larger ships as some of mine often have very large turrets (my dumbfire missile turrets, for example).
That\'s true, I was forgetting that AMC\'s already have reasonably good block hit detection. I was thinking more in the way of lag. On a large ship, keeping track of another extra value, a timer, and a tick PER BLOCK could be fairly nasty.
Thinking about this further: For the purposes of game mechanics, assigning a heat value to the entire ship, instead of an individual block, might make significantly more sense.
In addition: Heat sensors. Detect heat from ships, and as a result trigger some reaction (interaction with a computer/block, for example. Sets off an alarm when anything warm enters its field of view)
Thinking about this further: For the purposes of game mechanics, assigning a heat value to the entire ship, instead of an individual block, might make significantly more sense.
In addition: Heat sensors. Detect heat from ships, and as a result trigger some reaction (interaction with a computer/block, for example. Sets off an alarm when anything warm enters its field of view)
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2013
- Messages
- 58
- Reaction score
- 0
You have a good point.. a ship that is inactive will not have the same heat signature.. so if you power down the missile will then not find a target and just fly off in the distance? this however would make you a still target.. heatseekers arent the only thing you have to watch out for..
As for one comment saying this would make turrets invincible, no.. this will just make it so heatseeking missiles cant lock on to it.. they can still hit it providing the one that shot is is skilled.. and the turrets are able to be hit by antimatter cannons and the smart missiles that dont require these \"heat signatures\" and even the missiles that fly straight.. which would be good if the other ship is dumb enough to sit still in a gunfight xD
As for one comment saying this would make turrets invincible, no.. this will just make it so heatseeking missiles cant lock on to it.. they can still hit it providing the one that shot is is skilled.. and the turrets are able to be hit by antimatter cannons and the smart missiles that dont require these \"heat signatures\" and even the missiles that fly straight.. which would be good if the other ship is dumb enough to sit still in a gunfight xD
The missiles seek to the nearest heat source- this can be your turrets, another nearby ship, or even an asteroid (I think). They do not go for the one that you\'re pointing at/have selected with F.
This can lead to them seeking towards a target, following it as best they can (pathing and animations are a bit buggy, leading to jumping around a little) and can be intterupted by a closer heat source
This can lead to them seeking towards a target, following it as best they can (pathing and animations are a bit buggy, leading to jumping around a little) and can be intterupted by a closer heat source
I think a way of getting around that was previously mentioned: they don\'t detect anything that\'s attached to your ship. Or, maybe an idea would be to make it so that the targeting doesn\'t kick in until a few seconds after they fire. So for example, they\'d be fired as dumb missiles, but 4-5 seconds later would go for the nearest heat source instead.
Far as I can tell, each engine comes with a built in battery. Using thrust, or firing weapons takes some of this energy, and the array of engines then work to resupply. If enough engines are presesnt, they refill fast enough that the bar doesn\'t animate, but the process still happens.
The point I\'m getting at is that the act of the engines activly refueling the batteries could be what is consitered as heat generation. Sitting inside the core alone would do nothing, while an empty AI-controlled turret firing would have it\'s engines on constant use.
The point I\'m getting at is that the act of the engines activly refueling the batteries could be what is consitered as heat generation. Sitting inside the core alone would do nothing, while an empty AI-controlled turret firing would have it\'s engines on constant use.
i did some of my own tests with heat seekers to try and figure out how they work. i just cant figure out how they choose their targets, its obviously not heat, its not distance, its not faction (neutral, pirate or friendly)
if i fire one in the middle of nowhere and follow it, it will seek out a random npc. they also consistantly target the same thing until it doesnt appear on your navigation list anymore. i thought at one point that they target whatver ship is at the top of the nav list, but then i had one target the bottom. some clearification if anybody has some would be great.
since how it works now is probably just a placeholder anyway, we can expect it to change. until then we might as well call them \"XYZ seeking missiles\"
if i fire one in the middle of nowhere and follow it, it will seek out a random npc. they also consistantly target the same thing until it doesnt appear on your navigation list anymore. i thought at one point that they target whatver ship is at the top of the nav list, but then i had one target the bottom. some clearification if anybody has some would be great.
since how it works now is probably just a placeholder anyway, we can expect it to change. until then we might as well call them \"XYZ seeking missiles\"
As stupid as it sounds, that\'s exactly what heatseeking missiles would do. That\'s exactly what a heatseeking missile is made to do. Of course, it should prioritize the hottest target withing a R radius area. Otherwise it would -always- escape towards the stars. Literally.