[EE] Fire zhe missiles?

edited February 2015 in EmptyEpsilon
While playing EE the last few times (or watching other people play EE). I noticed something. Missiles are extremely simple.

First off, it's impossible to miss with them. Pretty much requiring no skill from the weapons officer.
Next, it's just hitting each other until the one with the initial lowest shields/hull gets destroyed first.
(hitting each other with a hammer till the one with the biggest hammer wins)


One of the ideas is instead of having homing missiles, you give each missile a targeted heading, and speed. So you need to "manually" target the missiles. You do need some extra information about how to target then.

Example of the idea we where having:
image
The projected lines show the expected movement and time frame of that movement. Allowing you to target the missiles. But as you see a missile being fired, you can act on that and make it miss.

(Silent hunter uses a system like this)

Comments

  • I understand your point. But not having homing when you can fly in space feels kind of odd. How would you explain it in the story?
  • The gravity field anomaly generated by the zero gravity impulse drive makes the sensory systems required for homing too large, expensive and complex to put into missiles.
  • Or in some cases; the guy that can stand the most punches.  But this kind of gameplay already annoyed me in artemis. Quite a few of the fights are simply not moving and exchanging blows.
  • Star Trek pretty much was not moving and fighting.
  • Well, those mechanics don't improve gameplay much. EE is not supposed to be a good star trek simulator.


  • I have thought about this some more. What if the homing part is only partial not 100% hit rate if to far off. It requires a lot of inertia to change direction. And weapons can decide at what speed to fire the missile. Fast and less homing which gives the enemy less time to deploy counter measures. Or slow and more homing and give the enemy more time to react.

    Also If counter measures against missiles would exist like active mines which explode when the missiles come close and destroy the missile.
  • I just pushed the basics for this system, and hopefully we will test tonight.

    Note that setting the missile target direction in the weapons screen is currently a bit "funky". But it works good enough for a test session.

    Homing missiles home to their target when they are within 500m range right now. But I might change that up to 1km, as first tests show that this is a bit late and doesn't provide a lot of extra hit chance.

    Nukes and EMPs do not home at all, and thus need to be fired with extra care.

    Hitting fighters with missiles is pretty hard, due to their nimbleness. (unless you hit them head on)

    AI really can do cool stuff with this new system I think. But right now they just still try to take you head on, but the improved AI does know how to aim an missile properly.
  • That was an interesting take on the missile problems. :)
  • Test session was interesting, put the most experienced person behind the weapons wheel (Nallath)
    So I knew I would get good feedback.

    First off, yes, it works, it makes weapons more interesting. But, also, it made it a LOT harder to hit anything that moves. And the current UI needs more work, as it was difficult to target properly.

    Most likely I will make the missile targeting simple vs manual a server configuration option in the upcoming days. As this isn't something you want to put in the hands of a new player.
  • Have you tried making the missile have a limit on the turning speed and then allow full homing the hole way but allow the player to set the firing speed up until a max value. Then allow the target ship to try to destroy the missile. So a slower missile will be easier to hit with but will be shot down more often. So at every moment in the game the player get's to rate his skill and decide the firing speed of the missile.
    Would be interesting to here your thoughts about that method or if you have tested it?
  • I didn't test it with other players. But I did test it myself, didn't really like it as the mechanics where a bit unclear and targeting missiles so they where shot down felt a bit "random".
  • Did you adjust the homing target spot for the moment of target?
  • It's intresting to here your lessons learned. :)
  • When the missile starts homing it doesn't adjust for momentum, it just homes towards the exact target. AI ships shooting missiles however, do adjust their target angle for your momentum. And thus will hit unless you act on the missile being fired.
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