Re: Missile Balance [for Jon]

On Wed, 2 Apr 1997, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> Not in my experience. It means that each fire pass is shorter - or,
> rather, it _may_ mean that. For light torpedo- or submunition-armed
ships,
> speeds have to be pretty high - certainly higher than 24, anyway. 

Hmmm... two ships doing 25" start 40" apart, head-to-head. They go in
for 
the kill. Oops, they fly past each other, no one gets to shoot. 
 
As speeds increase over weapon ranges, the game starts to resemble 
fighter combat more than naval actions.

> fly that fast to be able to run past the missiles (and missiles turn
very
> slowly...). You need to fly at (at most) speed 25 for that, which is a 

Only about as slow as Thrust 4 ships.

> normal speed for my heavy cruisers and lighter (ie, thrust 4)
capitals.

But the big expensive, slow capitals are most endangered and the
juiciest
targets. They're the problem. Their price buys enough missiles to last
half a season of Macross, yet only a few hits kill even them. And the
shower intended for the big plodder will catch some escorts as
collateral
damage. 

I'm still not convinced there's good way for Thrust 2 capitals to avoid
a 
concentrated missile attack of roughly the same points (launching ships 
included).

E.g. even if you're going 1000", a thrust 2 ship has essentially 3
places 
to go: Straight, left or right. If I place missiles at each of these 
points, it WILL BE HIT. Ok, so it can accel/decel by 1" or even 2", but 
that won't take it out of the 6" strike zone.
 
Once you get to Thrust 4, you can actually actually accel/decel out of 
the strike zone AND have more choices for turning, greatly increasing 
the number of missiles needed for saturation, which increases
survivability.

> Mikko, do you measure in cm or inches? My average speeds (and my
tactics) 
> changed drastically when I started measuring in cm - and that included
my 

Inches. I like to be in range before my models touch each other :)

> opinion of fighters, which are much more maneuvrable than fighters:
they 
> suddendly weren't able to catch anything!

Oops?

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