Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Torpedoes have the same range as HAMs, increase the range of Torpedoes.

Oh and don't say that TE and TC will fix that problem because Large Blasters shouldn't have the same range as medium blasters.


Infact I think all unguided missiles should be looked at.

They have shorter range than guided long range missiles, yet they have worse "tracking".


Rigs and Guided Missile Precision(should be changed) skill does not affect Rockets, HAMs, or Torpedoes.

This makes short range missile inferior than guided missiles even within short range, due to poor effective dps.

A Heavy missile will do more applied dps to a cruiser than a Heavy Assault Missile does.

Heavy missile vs Heavy Assault:

Heavy missile:
125m exp radius
81ms exp velocity

Heavy Assault:
125m exp radius
101 exp velocity

You can see here that it may seem that Heavy Assault Missiles are better, but look at the results once we factor Guided Missile Precision:

Heavy Missile:
94m exp radius
81ms exp velocity

Heavy Assault:
125m exp radius
101 exp velocity

What do these numbers mean?

Heavy Missiles have a much lower exp radius that Heavy Assaults. In the missile damage formula, the Explosion Radius has a MUCH more significant affect on damage application compared to Explosion Velocity.

Missile Damage Formula:

Damage = D * MIN(1, Sr/Er, (Ev/V * Sr/Er)^(log(DRF) / log(5.5)) )

where D = base damage of the missile, Sr = signature radius of the target, Er = Explosion radius of the missile, Ev = Explosion Velocity of the missile, V = velocity of the target ship, DRF = damage reduction factor of the missile. MIN being a function that chooses the lower of two given vaules, and log being the natural logarithm of the given value.

TL:DR:

HAMs, Rockets, and Torpedoes should receive exp radius reduction from guided missile precision and rigs, in order to be better at close range applied dps than their long range variants.

Torpedoes need an increase in range, it has the same range as its medium range counterpart HAM's.

I think Torpedoes could use a 50-100% range increase in order to bring it more in line with other large weapon systems.

Yes

Interestingly, HAMs and Torps are harder to fit than Heavies and Cruise, but rockets are easier to fit than light missiles.

What is missiles?

It's a layover from when missiles didn't have small, medium and large, but rather small (rockets), medium (heavies), large (cruise) and XL (torps). HAMs were not added until later, and torps had similar range to cruise missiles. I wasn't playing then, but I believe early on you could fit any size missile to a ship. Only the smallest and largest missiles were unguided.

Really, the whole system needs an overhaul, not just heavy missiles.