Been messing around with EMP missiles....

[lordmuck]

And I have ZERO idea what they are supposed to do. They dont stop engines, dont disrupt travel drive, dont knock ships out of a highway, dont knock out shields.. So what are they supposed to do? Surface targets perhaps?

[mr.WHO]

They are anti-shields - they do not "switch them off" they just brute force deplete them.

[Imperial Good]

They are meant to knock ships out of travel drive. Hence why they are the only tracking/torpedo missile which has absolutely insane acceleration, top speed and effective range.

If they do not knock ships out of travel drive then that is a bug. Please report it in technical support.

They are not meant to knock ships out of highways. Ships in highways are meant to be vulnerable only to other ships in highways.

[mr.WHO]

They are meant to knock ships out of travel drive. Hence why they are the only tacking/torpedo missile which has absolutely insane acceleration, top speed and effective range.

Is it practical? I mean ships on travel drive move so fast that it might be hard to get to the position to fire on them.
If it's practical then it's something very interesting.

[Imperial Good]

They are meant to knock ships out of travel drive. Hence why they are the only tacking/torpedo missile which has absolutely insane acceleration, top speed and effective range.

Is it practical? I mean ships on travel drive move so fast that it might be hard to get to the position to fire on them.
If it's practical then it's something very interesting.

With their effective range I suspect you should have to aim vaguely in their direction and fire. By the time they catch up they should have adjusted course for a direct hit.

However it is possible that at those speeds they pass through the target, missing it, and start some crazy orbit instead. Similar to how you can phase through mines and asteroids when traveling at 20km/sec.

[lordmuck]

Yeah they do sod all
EMP should not be restricted to travel drive only / speed unless the future dumbed down the physics of EMP too.

[Imperial Good]

Yeah they do sod all
EMP should not be restricted to travel drive only / speed unless the future dumbed down the physics of EMP too.

I think an EMP Missile is meant to be filling the same role as the disruptor missiles from XR and cruise disruptor missiles from Freelancer. It is not a missile intended for combat damage, but instead is meant to stop enemies from avoiding combat by simply keeping on flying at high speed like the player can do. I agree that EMP missile does not really suit it for this purpose.

There should be separate EMP missiles just for shield disruption. These should have similar flight characteristics to normal missiles.

In any case EMP missiles are likely bugged. I looked at the data for 2.20 and this showed up...

Code: Select all

<macros>
  <macro name="missile_emp_mk1_macro" class="missile">
    <component ref="missile_emp_mk1" />
    <properties>
      <identification name="{20105,6164}" basename="{20105,6161}" description="{20105,6162}" />
      <ammunition value="1" />
      <missile amount="1" barrelamount="1" lifetime="10" range="20000" influencelist="emp_missile" guided="1" icon="missile_guided_mk1" retarget="0" tags="guided" />
      <explosiondamage value="0" />
      <reload time="22.5" />
      <hull max="1" />
      <effects>
        <explosion ref="missile_explosion_emp" />
        <launch ref="missile_guided_muzzle" />
      </effects>
      <lock time="2" range="20000" />
      <longrangescan minlevel="15" />
      <weapon system="missile_guided" />
      <countermeasure resilience="0.74" />
      <physics mass="0.309">
        <inertia pitch="0.254" yaw="0.254" roll="0.254" />
        <drag forward="0.001" reverse="0.247" horizontal="0.522" vertical="0.522" pitch="0.254" yaw="0.254" roll="0.254" />
      </physics>
    </properties>
    <connections>
      <connection ref="con_engine01">
        <macro ref="engine_missile_guided_mk1_macro" connection="ship" />
      </connection>
    </connections>
  </macro>
</macros>

They appear to have 0 damage at all, even shield damage. As such they might not even be able to disrupt travel drive since they might not even count as a hit. Could they be bugged?

[lordmuck]

Going to say bugged as they did nothing to the speed of the target. :/

[hxsgame]

In X4 WiKi：“EMP missiles will temporarily disable the engines of the target.”

[lordmuck]

In X4 WiKi：“EMP missiles will temporarily disable the engines of the target.”

yeah they dont :/

[hxsgame]

In X4 WiKi：“EMP missiles will temporarily disable the engines of the target.”

yeah they dont :/

EMP missiles disrupt the cruise mode currently......

[lordmuck]

In X4 WiKi：“EMP missiles will temporarily disable the engines of the target.”

yeah they dont :/

EMP missiles disrupt the cruise mode currently......

you tried this? As I didnt see any difference :/ could be blind tho

[hxsgame]

yeah they dont :/

EMP missiles disrupt the cruise mode currently......

you tried this? As I didnt see any difference :/ could be blind tho

The target cannot enter cruise mode. It's uncertain whether the target can exit cruise mode (I haven't tried).

[Imperial Good]

It is worth mentioning that travel mode disruption will not cause the disrupted ship to come to a stop. Instead it is still subject to deceleration from travel speed. In the case of M ships this deceleration time is many seconds and the distance covered can be anywhere from 10km to 20km. If using combat engines, the deceleration time of M ships can be so long that before reaching normal speed one can already engage travel mode again.

In any case instead of speculating, I suggest people try it out and post their test cases and results.

[Buzz2005]

If you just shoot at a ship it stops travel drive so whats the point of this missiles

[Imperial Good]

If you just shoot at a ship it stops travel drive so whats the point of this missiles

It is near impossible to shoot at ships in travel mode unless you are using the exact same ship as they are with similar loadout and are near them the whole time. This is because one has to hold the match speed key so as to remain at the same travel speed as the target (not overshooting it at several km/sec) but doing so prevents one from firing guns at the same time, at least with default layout and standard 2 button + wheel mouse.

[Buzz2005]

If you just shoot at a ship it stops travel drive so whats the point of this missiles

It is near impossible to shoot at ships in travel mode unless you are using the exact same ship as they are with similar loadout and are near them the whole time. This is because one has to hold the match speed key so as to remain at the same travel speed as the target (not overshooting it at several km/sec) but doing so prevents one from firing guns at the same time, at least with default layout and standard 2 button + wheel mouse.

well I use xbox controller so I can boost+travel drive to the target not problem, and autoaim is on

[Imperial Good]

well I use xbox controller so I can boost+travel drive to the target not problem, and autoaim is on

And how does this solve the problem that you are trying to shoot a tiny target moving at 2km/sec with a ship moving at 7km/sec with guns that only have a 2km range? By the time auto aim responds you have flow right past the ship by many km.

Or are you trying to tell me that somehow Xbox controllers allow one to change the flight speed of travel mode to settings other than full throttle? Since currently only match speed key combo does this on the keyboard and must be held to do so.

[Buzz2005]

you are going too deep man

See a target boost>turn on travel drive, get near target turn of travel and boost if they start getting away and all the time shoot if I get the chance