Just a notice: PD weapons are broken

[Corentor]

Just to let you guys know. PD weapons are broken.

PD weapons often refuse to fire against the first volley of missiles. The bug is reproducable and confirmed on the IG boards as well.

[Arnelos]

that explains a few things...

Good thing I already was in the habit of changing PD weapons to standard mount even on PD craft...

[GodKing]

Is it the mount type (size) that is broken, or the ship type?

[TheMaestro]

I think they are developing a patch right now, or let me say...I HOPE they are.

Corentor, ever get the spy problems solved? Sometimes I do, but then all of the sudden one planet rebels from an outside source...but I always build as many defensive spies as possible.

[Craig P.]

GodKing, it seems to be a general problem with beams firing at missiles. The last guess at the problem that I saw was that it looks for counterfire when the missile is fired, and accidentally excludes PD and beam fire from the target because at that point the missile is out of range.

[GodKing]

Explains a bit. Thanks.

[Dracil]

There is currently a work-around. Just include a bunch of 1 shot nuclear missiles on your ship. As long as you have missiles remaining, your PD weapons will fire. This makes me think that they mixed up a variable somewhere. So instead of:
if (detectEnemyMissile) firePDWeapons;
they have:
if (detectPlayerMissile) firePDWeapons;

Which would explain why if you have missiles, your PD weapons would fire, but once you run out, they stop firing.

[Corentor]

Originally posted by TheMaestro
I think they are developing a patch right now, or let me say...I HOPE they are.

Corentor, ever get the spy problems solved? Sometimes I do, but then all of the sudden one planet rebels from an outside source...but I always build as many defensive spies as possible.

I got it down to a reasonable level. No more unrest for me but it requires constant training of defensive spies. For me I make sure I always have 3 economic and 3 social spies active. Scientific spies and Political spies I try to have 2 of and 1 military spy at all times.

[Corentor]

Originally posted by Dracil
There is currently a work-around. Just include a bunch of 1 shot nuclear missiles on your ship. As long as you have missiles remaining, your PD weapons will fire. This makes me think that they mixed up a variable somewhere. So instead of:
if (detectEnemyMissile) firePDWeapons;
they have:
if (detectPlayerMissile) firePDWeapons;

Which would explain why if you have missiles, your PD weapons would fire, but once you run out, they stop firing.

I'll have to try that.

[Corentor]

Originally posted by GodKing
Is it the mount type (size) that is broken, or the ship type?

mount type is broken. I am going to try to see if light mounts still fire.

[Craig P.]

Corentor, I think they've confirmed it's not limited to PD mounts (not 100% sure, but reasonably certain).

[habadacus]

Wonder if this works againt the AI too? You could probably win the game pretty easy by just building a fleet of missile ships and rolling over everything if that were the case. Not that you need any help against the missing AI.

[Corentor]

The PD missiles work around is great. Thanks for sharing.

[Alexander D]

Yes, I noticed the same too.

What I do is create two kinds of auxiliary ships (size, depends of the current average industry): A reconnainse type with the best scanner stuff (1 or 2) and PD beam and PD mount missile thing, as useful as PD-beam for taking out enemy missiles and these nasty piranha type fighters, which AI is very proud to use...

The second type is on PD role. PD missile mounts (more) and PD beam mounts, as well as SR beam. They go in the escort ring of the fleet.

As core ships I use, IF, Carrier, or LR, pure type often, plus the best PD-mount missile to fill them up to the limit.

My attack force is 02 IF, 02 Carrier and 02 LR armadas. They are often followed by transport TFs, ready to conquer.

At the end the process of conquest is resumed to advance planet by planet... something boring.

Greetingz

Alex

[Grumbold]

I can't pin down the PD quirk and the suggestion to include a 10x1 PD missile on every ship helps but does not cure it completely.

I think its a question of targetting priorities. If the enemy launches several groups of fighters and missiles at you then sometimes your ships lock onto one group of the fighters or missiles as the bigger threat, overlooking the missile salvo that can reach you first. I suspect this is an attempt not to let the player fake out the AI by firing a mini salvo first to attract the defences then a huge salvo behind it. The timing and threat assessment just has a flaw in it.