Player Features and Ideas Discussion

One of the major downsides to using missiles at long range is that a volley fired at a target far away could be wasted as several volleys could be on their way when the target is destroyed.

However, missiles are supposed to be smart, guided weapons, right? Why shouldn't they be able to acquire a new target while in flight (directed by the ship that launched them)?

Referencing real world cruise missiles (Russian "Granit" missile in particular), we see ability to perform formation flight, autonomous target acquisition and prioritizing. In game, we also have the F.o.F missiles,which would choose a target for themselves (not brilliantly sometimes).

So, here is my proposition - Missile target re-acquisition - when a target is destroyed (as missiles are flying towards it), all missiles in flight would attempt to home in on the next selected target. The mechanic could apply to long-ranged (guided missiles) or all.

I personally see no possible game-breaking effects from such a feature, as targets still need to be locked in order for the re-acquisition to occur. It would be of benefit to players that are not that cautious in managing their missile volleys (not the main intention) and missile users in large fleets (where calculating volley damage is close to impossible, so volley management is not viable).

I see this as bridging the gap in functionality between missiles and turrets that might result in people frowning less at their mention as part of larger fleets (my personal experience is incursions) without making them loose "flavor".

P.S. To clarify - i'm suggesting this mechanic for entire volleys, not individual missiles as part of the volley.


P.S. II (As suggested by Scorpionstrike) For those too lazy to read down, another good idea is to assign secondary targets (viable for turrets too) to which fire will switch (and missiles be guided) upon destruction of current target. This would go around the possibility of shooting unwanted targets.

On that idea, how about queuing actions for modules in general? Like ordering an ammo swap while the turret still cycles, without having to stop>reload>start again. Ir having to wait for 5/10 seconds reload wit an unwanted ammo type after the magazine is empty?

Lets just hope that this doesn't happen while your spider tanking and your primary target dies.

This basically. Unless damn near to 0 meters on the old target now dead, assuming it still has fuel that missile then then gets to fly to new target for god knows how far.

turrets can walk fire much better. Target dead mid cycle...next cycle its instant hit time again. This doesn't care about new target distance. I could have one in front of me at 40 km's....and one on my 6 at 40km's. My guns hop target to target just like that.

Worst case with a really long range setup (fuel rig and such) and some bad luck (will have that 2nd target go down fast before missiles land again) ...we are seeing 2-3 old say raven salvo's flying all over the place trying for then target 3. This not really helping the team out much. A weapon can be great dps in eft, its the small matter of it actually hitting a target actually in the game that matters more.

I believe that idea discussion should not be limited by the supposed technical limitations. A good deal of code is being re-written at the moment or even if old, might allow for elegant ways of implementation.

Scorpionstrike, I like the idea of assigning a secondary target (kind of confuses me how this will be done as i'm too used to the current interface). This will also solve the aforementioned issue in spider tanking groups.

And, again, guys, leave performance impact to be judged by CCP. Are you that familiar with every line of code to be sure it'll work that way?

There is no elegant way of implementing a sub-routine to check if the target is dead and create a new firing solution for the missile other than loading the node with checks every single server ticks for each missile intended target. I can already see caracal/cerberus fleets wrecking nodes with rapid light missiles.

So to be clear, none of the downsides of falloff ranges, but all of the benefits of basically hitting instantly?

Long flight time is the downside you get for not having to think about falloff.

If the OP were to change this idea to have "smart" missiles (Light, Heavy, Cruise, Citadel Cruise) going into "FoF Mode", meaning they'll automatically target the closest object that is aggressing you, upon loss of target, I could support that. It's a mechanic already in-game and shouldn't eat up any more server resources than regular FoF missiles. I don't think it's necessary, but I don't think it would break anything and it could make for some interesting gameplay.


But having target-less missiles pick something else you have targeted would be a bad idea for multiple reasons. Not only is there no other existing mechanic that does that, you would be giving up some degree of control over who you are aggressing. What if this happened while remote-repping a friendly? Or, even worse, had a neutral locked in hisec? You'd be shooting your friends or you'd be CONCORDed, neither of which are pleasant options.

F.O.F missiles works differently than the proposed Idea, you can look at the F.O.F = (F)riend (O)r (F)oe... as you may imagine it is a type of missile that identifies the targets closest to the point of launch (the ship). that being your own drones that is orbiting you at 500m or an enemy at 20km..



about the general idea, the game is already tracking the movement of every object in the game. how do you think that you can see the missiles going from point a => point b? it certainly does not happen magically, no! you can try to imagine 3 dimensional space where your ship is in the center and a moving object (enemy ship or what have you), how do you think the game calculates the distance between your self and the target? well, it would be impossible if game didn't know the position of the moving object relative to the stationary object (your ship moving at 0m/s)

I like the idea, and I like the concept of having a secondary target on which the missiles will try to head toward to.

- Given that you still need to have a target locked to make damages to it (not overlapping FoF if one day they are rebalanced)

- Given that CCP could limit it so that you wouldn't be able to pick more than one or maybe two "alternative targets"

- Given that it offers a gameplay distinct from anything so far. But at the same time not that distinct to what drones naturally do.

- And given that if you are at max missile range, it won't work because of the extra travel time

... This seems like a very very good idea.

Yeah, but it would sure open a lot of interesting possibilities in fleet actions (since missiles would automatically seek out alternative targets). In terms of game balance, rather than assigning secondary or tertiary targets - just give the missiles a % re-acquisition and hit chance based on remaining range.