Ships & Modules

basic idea:
Instead of being able to use the missile launcher (loaded with defender missiles) when missiles flying towards you or your allies, you can use the missile launcher the same way as you would use it with regular missiles.

how would it work:
When you use your missile launcher (loaded with defender missiles) on a ship, the targeted ship gets a "debuff". Each of your launchers would "lock" one launcher of the targeted ship. When ever a "locked" launcher launches a regular missile, your launcher would launch a defender missile to counter this missile.

advantage:
-The game does not need to decide who are your allies and your enemies.
-The game can easily define when a defender missile should be launched and what's the target of the defender missile.
-missile launcher (loaded with defender missiles) could cycle like regular modules, because the point of time when a defender missile is launched would be independent.

for instance:
Ship 1 - aggressor (launches regular missiles against the prey)
Ship 2 - prey (needs to suffer for this instance )
Ship 3 - defender (launches defender missiles against the aggressor)

aggressor locks the prey
prey screams for help
defender locks the aggressor
aggressor launches regular missiles from his 7 launchers against the prey
defender activates his 4 missile launcher (loaded with defender missiles)
-> aggressor has now "locked" 4 of his 7 missile launchers by the 4 missile launcher of the defender
aggressor launches regular missiles from his 7 launchers against the prey (again)
-> the defender automatically launches 4 defender missiles
at this point the game could decide whether the defender missiles are able to destroy the regular missiles or not.


math:
(approximation: the target flies at the same speed and does not chance the direction.)
mv: (missile velocity)
v: (velocity)
rv: (radial velocity)
tv: (transversal velocity, positive when filing away from a ship)
sqr (x): square root of x

a missile needs to compensate the radial and the transversal velocity to hit the target.
xr = sqr(mv^2 - rv^2)
xr would be the missile velocity towards the target, after compensating the radial velocity
x = xr - tv = sqr(mv^2 - rv^2) - tv
x would be the missile velocity towards the target, after compensating the radial and the transversal velocity

according to the instance:
to decide if the defender missiles hit you could use this formula:

traveltime_ defender_prey = distance_defender_prey / (sqr(mv_defender^2 - rv_defender_prey^2) - tv_defender_prey)
traveltime_ aggressor_prey = distance_aggressor_prey / (sqr(mv_aggressor^2 - rv_aggressor_prey^2) - tv_aggressor_prey)
if (traveltime_ defender_prey < traveltime_ aggressor_prey)
{
defender missiles destroy the regular missiles
}

I think having light/heavy/cruise etc defender missiles might be a good idea. It takes what, 4 defenders to stop a torpedo? Instead make it so they are most effective on their class of missile, e.g. light defender vs light missiles and so on. And to prevent everyone from just using the largest ones available make them less effective versus smaller missiles, like missiles work on ships now.

in this case a torpedo launcher (regular torpedoes) could need more than one launcher (defender missiles) to be locked out, the system keeps the same.

Best solution at this point is to just remove them. TDs now effect missiles so there is really no point :/

boost their damage so they actually kill some missiles. there, solved.

Defender drones would looks awesome in action! I just don't see a situation where I would rather be killing 10-20% of a drakes DPS than having a 10-20% chance to jam him out with EC-300s, or whatever.

It WOULD be cool to see carriers using them against a drake blob, but think of the poor CPUs

I've always thought Defenders should be anti drone. There is already a missile debuffer coming.

Don't FOFs already go after the nearest aggressive target? Anyway, the idea was more along the lines for ships without launchers, a new module that doesn't require a launcher hardpoint.