When will the AI ​​start choosing the type of missile it fires based on the target it's shooting at?

[abc0000]

When will it be possible to normally use the flexibility of rocket launchers in fleets?

Now I cannot load different missiles into the ship and tell which target to shoot with.

It makes sense to shoot light guided missiles only at fighters, damage to M is already rather weak, high consumption

It makes sense to launch light classers only at M, they hit the fighter badly due to the logic of the flight, the damage to the destroyer is too weak

Heavy missiles can only catch up and hit the destroyer.

Now a question! How will the ship behave if I load 3 types of missiles into it?
The answer is simple, he will fire missiles according to the list as they are stored in his hold ...

Are you going to do something about it?

[abc0000]

Is everyone satisfied with the behavior of missiles in the game?

[GCU Grey Area]

Don't have a problem with this myself.

Generally have two distinct groups of missile-using ships in my fleets:
1. Frigates (intercept role), operating alongside fast fighter interceptors, which spam light smart missiles at enemy fighters.
2. Heavy fighters (attack role), operating alongside the fleet's destroyers, launching starburst missiles at enemy capital ship subsystems.

Would not want either of these types of ships to load the other sort of missile. Frigates just get torn apart if they fly within turret range of enemy capitals, whereas fighters lack the capacity to effectively saturate the area with light smart missiles. Reload time for light smart is 2 seconds, so a fighter would expend their entire stock in around 40 seconds, whereas a frigate's good for about 3½ minutes before it has to head back to a carrier (or aux) for resupply.

Trying to get either of these ship types to do both jobs would not be an effective use of them - they'd literally be half as good at their primary role (due to ½ the capacity of their missile bays being filled with the wrong sort of missile) & vastly inferior to the alternative ship type if they attempted to do the other job.

[KextV8]

Is everyone satisfied with the behavior of missiles in the game?

No. They are insanely slow compared to the targets they are intended to hit. I dont consider them worth the added annoyance of logistics to keep them in use at all.

[mr.WHO]

Honestly I find missiles too bothersome, quirky and micromanagement hell to use them on anything but my personal ships.

There is really no incentive to use them over avaliable guns.

[Alan Phipps]

I do find AI NPC missiles to be quite effective in two embarrassing/annoying situations:

1. Dropping in behind an M ship for a routine force-to-bail that you've done many times before and so didn't scan first - Ooooh! Look at all those pretty blue trails curving my way!
2. Yay, boarding successful, that capital's all mine! - Wait, why is it suddenly covered in explosions and dying in front of my eyes?

[blackphoenixx]

If you set your carriers and supply ships to closed loop economy you only need ecells to resupply any missiles but torpedoes. It makes automatic resupply much easier and more reliable.

Light smart missiles are insanely effective against S ships compared to non-missile weapons and heavy starburst missiles outperform plasma or blast mortars in a similar manner against capitals and stations.
On top of that they don't generate heat, so replacing 1-2 weapons with launchers also substantially increases the sustained dps of non-missile weapons.
And they have long range and huge alpha strike compared to other weapons so using them in fleets tends to just delete a bunch of enemies before they even get to fire back at you which also helps survivability.

Missile turrets vs. non-missile turrets has an even larger gap, both in dps and range. Putting dumbfire turrets into some of your destroyer's M slots is a huge dps increase against capitals and tracking turrets with LSM absolutely slaughter S ships.
Just replacing 1-2 forward M turrets with dumbfire turrets is equal to adding another 1-2 L plasma, and destroyers have enough missile storage for several minutes of sustained fire with those numbers.

My main criticism is that those three (LSM, heavy starburst and heavy dumbfire) are pretty much the only missile types i use and that there's no missile that's really suitable vs M ships. Some more variety between different missile types would be nice.

[mr.WHO]

If you set your carriers and supply ships to closed loop economy you only need ecells to resupply any missiles but torpedoes. It makes automatic resupply much easier and more reliable.

I haven't really even touched the "closed loop" from ToA, but now this might be very interesting and useful setting.

[Tommzen]

//When will the AI ​​start choosing the type of missile it fires based on the target it's shooting at? //

For me would it be enough if i could change the type of missiles in that ship im 🪰 ing. ^^

[GCU Grey Area]

For me would it be enough if i could change the type of missiles in that ship im 🪰 ing. ^^

There are at least 3 ways to do that:

1. Ship Interactions while flying (click on box under launcher, then select missile): https://www.dropbox.com/s/7m5xjikp1f4nk ... 1.jpg?dl=0
2. Configure a key for 'Next Ammunition' (in the Weapons section of Controls): https://www.dropbox.com/s/oxeikca3vyvk5 ... 1.jpg?dl=0
3. Ship Info on the map (also works for ships you aren't flying personally): https://www.dropbox.com/s/7v4w3fo9pqfpe ... 1.jpg?dl=0

[Tommzen]

For me would it be enough if i could change the type of missiles in that ship im 🪰 ing. ^^

There are at least 3 ways to do that:

1. .....

Hey cool thx. Now i remember. It must be a really long time ago ive seen it especially using it. Im playing 95% with controller.

How i can replace the missiles at same time for 40 S Class ships? Do you know that, too?^^ I bought some Gladiators for my Raptor and recognized that i had to change it on every ship as a single. ^^

[GCU Grey Area]

How i can replace the missiles at same time for 40 S Class ships? Do you know tha, too?^^

Shift-select the ships, send them to an equipment dock (or wharf, carrier or auxiliary) & do a bulk upgrade. Click on the 40x option at the top of the ship list on the upgrade screen if you want to change the loadout for 40 ships at the same time. Caveats: all ships must be of the same type & only works for ships without modifications installed on them.

[Tommzen]

Ill check it on this Friday. Thank you again. ^^ Pls wait for feedback currently i cant believe ^^

[gorgofdoom]

I'm also not really satisfied with the state of missiles in more than one capacity.

Not to complain, but explain: it's a bit disheartening to see a squad of frigates launch 400k worth of heavy torpedoes at a single enemy drone... all of which are doomed to hit nothing as they're much slower than it. In fact, in my latest station siege in the beta i saw more torpedoes launched at defense drones than at the station itself. (To be honest I was so mesmerized by this situation, counting torpedoes and doing math, to realize i could have focused their attacks. )

I don't think a simple: "fire these at S/M and these at L/XL" will be adequate. Perhaps pilots could consider the targets max health compared to the missiles damage, preventing launch against enemies where (hull/missile damage) = >1.

An alternative: compare projectile speed & targets combat speed-- don't directly engage ships which can simply outrun our projectiles.

And finally, here's to hoping we'll get an ammunition designation drop box next to the turret behavior settings in ship design. Would be extremely convenient, and would certainly spice up the universe, if auto-resupply fills this designated ammo instead of all ships getting light smart missiles/mk1 dumbfire/light torpedoes auto-resupplied over their generated loadout.

[GCU Grey Area]

Not to complain, but explain: it's a bit disheartening to see a squad of frigates launch 400k worth of heavy torpedoes at a single enemy drone...

6.0's Bombardment role does seem to help. Got my anti-capital fighter bombers with their Heavy Swarms set to Bombardment & my frigates with their Light Smarts set to Intercept & have yet to see the wrong sort of missile get launched at an inappropriate target.

[gorgofdoom]

Not to complain, but explain: it's a bit disheartening to see a squad of frigates launch 400k worth of heavy torpedoes at a single enemy drone...

6.0's Bombardment role does seem to help. Got my anti-capital fighter bombers with their Heavy Swarms set to Bombardment & my frigates with their Light Smarts set to Intercept & have yet to see the wrong sort of missile get launched at an inappropriate target.

I think i understand. This thread could become a lesson in how to fit ships for a singular task.

still, that doesn't fulfil my wish for flexible missile use. If a ship set to retaliate is shot at by a fighter, it'll shoot whatever is equipped at it even if its set to bombardment. To better describe the conundrum.... if i want to carry as many torpedoes with my fleet as possible i would strap one launcher to each ship and fill the rest of their slots with anti-S/M equipment. But, this doesn't work as they'll happily use up all the ammo fighting S/M.

[GCU Grey Area]

I think i understand. This thread could become a lesson in how to fit ships for a singular task.

Well that's how I use mine. As far as I'm concerned an Interceptor frigate that only carries a half load of light smart missiles (just in case I might one day want them to do a suicide run with heavy missiles or torps against a capital ship) is literally half as good at doing it's primary job than if it carries a full load. Same for my anti-capital S fighter bombers - they're not going to be nearly as effective if each one only carries 10 heavy missiles, because the other half of their missile bays have been filled with light anti-fighter missiles which will probably never be used.

still, that doesn't fulfil my wish for flexible missile use. If a ship set to retaliate is shot at by a fighter, it'll shoot whatever is equipped at it even if its set to bombardment. To better describe the conundrum.... if i want to carry as many torpedoes with my fleet as possible i would strap one launcher to each ship and fill the rest of their slots with anti-S/M equipment. But, this doesn't work as they'll happily use up all the ammo fighting S/M.

Not a problem I've encountered. My Bombardment groups don't operate in isolation. Around 70% of my carrier-based forces are assigned to Intercept. My Bombardment groups don't even launch until something appropriate moves into their carrier's Protect Position radius (or I give explicit orders for them to launch earlier). By that time my Interceptors are already in action, so all enemy ships will have one of them selected as a target. Consequently my Bombardment groups can fly right through the middle of a battle to hunt enemy capitals without being attacked by enemy S/M ships. Have seen this numerous times in my 6.0 test game.

[jlehtone]

By that time my Interceptors are already in action, so all enemy ships will have one of them selected as a target. Consequently my Bombardment groups can fly right through the middle of a battle to hunt enemy capitals without being attacked by enemy S/M ships. Have seen this numerous times in my 6.0 test game.

I did raid Xenon in 5.10 recently. In lack of 6.0 commands, the bomber squadron acted on explicit orders. Since I wanted to intercept the capitals wurther away (and there were many), the pattern was to launch, gather at vantage point, assault, and re-gather at vantage point. Then an another assault or return to carrier, depending on situation. Losses to the bombers were at the vantage points, where they waited new orders; too far from interceptors and me busy in the thick of it. The squadron had ten ships at start and six did return home alive. Over 500 heavy torps were consumed.

Specialized ships (bombers, interceptors) with suitable (6.0) commands result in effective combined arms fleet.
Whether that is better or worse than homogenous jack-of-all-trades remains a valid question, but unanswerable as long as the latter can't do jack.


How many missile types do you carry on your personal ship? Do you always select missile based on target?

[GCU Grey Area]

How many missile types do you carry on your personal ship?

Generally only one.

Personal M ships are often equipped with a torpedo launcher (loaded with Heavy Torps), to give them a bit of extra firepower if I want to take down a capital ship without needing to bring in the fleet. Have experimented with also carrying Light Torps to shoot at M targets, but in the end decided I didn't really need them & it just tended to mean I'd run out of heavies sooner.

Personal destroyers often have a single set of M turrets fitted with tracking launchers. Destroyers with a lot of turrets sometimes have a set of dumbfire launchers too (simply because higher capacity than tracking). These are loaded with whatever the destroyer's fighters are using. Particularly fond of Heavy Swarm & Starburst since these fighters are primarily intended to operate in an anti-capital role. Precise type of missiles used depends more or less entirely on how reliant I am on NPC wharves, eq. docks, etc for resupply (anyone can provide Swarms, but only Split stations sell Starburst). The missiles on the destroyer are primarily there just to resupply those fighters, the launchers themselves are usually deactivated.

Do you always select missile based on target?

Well I only activate the launcher/turrets if I want them to shoot at an appropriate enemy - does that count as selecting missile based on target?

[jlehtone]

I suppose so. I have only guns on my personal Dragon (2Ion,2Tau,2TD) and while most targets do get all she's got, some are more for a precision job.


The "you" in questions was mostly players like OP, who do speak of multiple missile types.