Destroying Missiles

[redazncommieDXP]

Yes, I'm a newbie, but how do you destroy missiles before they hit you? Is it possible to dodge them? My 360 degree laser point defense doesn't seem to do much.

[vmxa1]

Wel lit depends on the stage of the game and my tech. Very early if I am using missiles ships, I just fire and retreat all but the dither ships.

Later I tend to just absorb the damage. I may have PD's if I have room left over. If so I will use mass drivers first, then phasors.

To tell you the truth I never really tracked it all that close as it is seldom a factor. Either I can defeat the ship or planet or I cannot.

I may be able to retreat a damaged ship now and then and if they do not have dauntless the missiles are gone.

So a battleship with reinforced hulls and my best armor and shields is usually enough.

[Brutalisk]

There are several things to take into account:

#1: The speed of the missile vs your targeting system

Missiles are harder to hit if they are faster either due to "fast" upgrade or "more advanced" (nuclear -> merculite -> pulson -> zeon)

eg:

nuclear
merculite
nuclear +fast
merculite +fast
etc

(fast adds 8 speed)

Once your targeting system gets a hit, it then computes how much dmg it will manage to make.

2# So we have the dmg your beam is inflicting vs the missile's ARMOR which comprises of the standard armor (eg titanium, tritanium etc ) + "heavily armored" option.

A titanium+heavily armored needs a dmg of 2 before it's destroyed for example.


Laser point defense is practically useless mainly because it only does 1-2 dmg. So if it DOES hit and does its maximum of "2" (and the autos are hard to hit cos they lose 20% each) it could only destroy very basic unarmored missiles...

And that happens for every missile and every beam it tries to hit them...

Early on, the best PD weapons are fusion (+co+env) and you have to have ATLEAST:

+25 computer
+50 from battle scanners
+15 from academy (your crews start as regular)
+25 from continuous on the fusion beams


Hope that helps

[siron]

I guess in some points Brutal is wrong.

Here are my numbers that i read in several faqs....and I tested them in hotseat some months ago:

missile hitpoints:
n 4
m 8
p 12
z 16

hv arm doubles them BUT: armor technology doesnt increase them!!!

missile speed:
8+2*drive level (+4 if fast)

a fast ion drive missile has the speed 20.

beam defence of missile:
missile speed*5

a fast ion drive missile has 100 BD.

Brutal is right, that fusion co env is the most popular choice.

Mass Driver can be cool if you have nice computer (for example creative) and therefore no problems with Beam Offense.

[redazncommieDXP]

grrr.... how can you armor a missile, anyways -simmers-

all right, thanks. is it possible/practical to protect your larger ships from missiles with frigates armed w/ fx mass drivers?

[Whoha]

You need the heavily armored mod, requires 1 tech level above the tech of the rocket. I think that the armoring is bugged and that higher armor types have no effect, I'm not so sure about this though.

I like pd af mass drivers for point defense myself.

[PsilonDependant]

(if you make it this far)
phasors - pd, co, af
and/ OR
phasors - co,af
and/OR
gauss cannon -af

moleculartronic targeting computer.

its a waste to use regular beams instead of pd's to take out missiles, but if somehow you don't have good armor/shields, it won't be a waste.

also useful, 3-4 pulsars on a ship will clear any missiles in range.
the problem with that is it is range limited, and you need the missile salvo(s) in a 6 tile range.
lightning field

(anti missile rockets aren't work squat unless you pack alot of them, and with the space used by the rockets, you might as well have armed the ship with pd beams.)


if you want to dodge missiles, multi-wave jammer or wide area jammer's help.
get a legenday officer that is a fighter pilot.
displacement device.

but most people (i believe) would just take the missile hits, unless the enemy is firing 50+ zeon's with all the modifications. (mirv, eccm, fast, armored, emissions guidance)

on a tangent, fully loaded plasma torpedo's are a nightmare.

[vmxa1]

To some degree it is a matter of your tech. Do I even have Mass drivers this game, do I have fusion beams? The only one I am always sure to get at some point is phasors.

By then, I am not much concerned about missiles anyway.

[Brutalisk]

Siron, u r right about the numbers -> I extrapolated from "fighters". They take the best armor you currently have.

And yeah the fast is +4 not +8

(u r also right to point out the speed equation - I am inexcusable)

[Brutalisk]

Psilon dependant : we tend to refer to lwoer techs, as in multiplayer games, the game rarely reaches a point where u have access to the higher techs

As for the benefits of the fusions vs mass drivers:

fusions have continuous modification which makes quite a bit of difference early on, on whether u hit the missile or not

In addition, due to the "popularity" of various techs, the sizer of the fusion beams gets refined to quite a small size allowing you to fit much more than the automated mass drivers.

PD Mass drivers (in my view) are only an option IF:

You have atleast +75 targeting system (+50 from battle scanner + 15 space academy) to give u a +140.

That way, the "automation behind them gets a much better chance to hit as well, making them more effective than fusions (because the problem with mass drivers is that early on they can't hit sh*t )

(if I recall right, they lose -20 accuracy for each fire, so if the first blast is +140, the second uses a +120 and the third a +100)

[Whoha]

I think that all 3 of them just lose 20% from the normal, atleast thats what it sounds like to me.

[siron]

"I think that the armoring is bugged and that higher armor types have no effect..."

I dont think that this a bug. I think it was an attempt to balance the game after the manual was published.

[nato]

Theres one kind of fun thing I do early in games. I'm not claiming this is optimal, but its kind of neat.

I make ships that have nothing but lots of anti missile rockets. I place them slightly forward of the other ships. They manually target incoming missiles that are aimed at my other ships.

Because they have no weapons they seem to be very low priority targets for the AI, so they can sit forward shooting down missiles pretty safely.

After a couple of battles I realized it was pretty similar to the whole AEGIS thing.

Probably not super efficient, but its fun and almost nullifies missiles, which early on can be a threat. I like using fleets of varied, highly specialized ships.

[Drachasor]

Early on, against Nuclear Missles, I find that Lasers are by far the best thing to use once you have battle scanners.

You have your lasers setup with Armor Piercing, Continuous, Auto-Fire, and Point Defense (I typically tack on no Disipation too).

Continuous + Auto-Fire is a net gain of +5% to hit, but each laser now fires 3 times.

Once you have Battle Scanners you can get all of those modifications and lasers are pretty small. They are also typically the best weapon to use early on, simply because the AI rarely has Heavy Armor (so you ignore their armor with such lasers as your main weapons as well). I've had great success early on with these weapons. Basically, early missles are a joke.

Later on it is best to get good armor and some point defense weapons, as well as a Jammer and/or the Lightning Field. It depends on how many ships you are fielding in a fleet and how badly those missiles are hurting. Especially on Impossible, I have found the AI can get a little ahead of me with missile technology, so I need to be able to avoid getting hit (by taking them out or dodging them). Typically it is easier to deal with defense against enemy beam weapons, in my experience, than missile weapons, so you can afford to spend a little extra against missiles.

Anything that can do auto-fire and continuous is pretty nice against missiles, though depending on how many they are fielding you might need to have a few ships help take out enemy missiles. Sometimes it is most efficient to take them out and do a little damage at a time so that you don't lose any ships.

-Drachasor

[Straybow]

I thought there was a bug that AP has no advantage on ARM because missile hit points are "pooled" and not separated into armor, structure, and systems.