Re: Fixing salvo missiles

 
 
In a message dated 3/17/05 3:14:13 PM Pacific Standard Time,  
jlhilal@yahoo.com writes:

<snip>
someone said:
> 
> SMs are dumber than dumb.  They are  like a flak load
> and the target basically runs into them, so there  is
> potential for a total miss.  To say that SMs can now
>  seek another target misses the point of SMs.

I figure SMs are  (semi-)autonomus homing munitions like modern SAMs,
AAMs, torpedoes, or the  missiles that show up in SF.  That is why I
want to improve their  performance in the game.

<snip>

A parallel with obvious limitations to FT:
 
A current discussion of modern AAMs on the Air War C21 list  pointed out
the 
fact that missile generation went from 'Why bother unless you  are
outside of 
gun range' in the first generation missiles (result was 'ripple  firing'
in 
Vietnam based on assumption first missile would miss or misfire 
(essentially a 
dud/miss hung up on the wing) to relative lethalness in the 4th 
generation).
 
Basically each first generation weapons encounters massive  'hiccups'
which 
are then solved causing reasonable to highly probable kills then  the
defenses 
get smarter causing ineffectiveness followed by a new generation of 
missiles 
with 'teething problems' followed by higher kill rates, and on ad 
infinitum.  
In modern experience the defense has had smaller and smaller  windows of

effectiveness as the missile designers have gotten better at  defeating
the new 
defenses -- plus there are only so many kinds of defensive  measures you
can 
use.  Combinations are more effective but then the  defenses become more
complex 
and undergo the same kind of generation problems  the missiles have
already 
undergone.
 
It seems to me that the defenses are currently holding an upper  hand in
FT.  
 Also, if you start making those 1D6 damage each SM's hit  more often 
(potentially 6 - 36 points -- bye-bye anything but a cruiser or 
larger), then to 
keep game balance they need to 'cost more' else they become a 
uber-weapon.  
Well, maybe not an uber-weapon, at least in my hands ... but  'cheap at
twice the 
price' weapons.
 
Just my dos centavos.
 
Gracias,

Glenn  "warbeads"