Missile targeting - well, sortof

[tonystowe]

While testing my missiles against various targets I quickly realized that far too many missile units are wasted on "over killing" a target - whether it is a unit, a bridge, a facility, or whatever the target - the number of missiles fired needs to be rethought.

In my thinking...

My missile firing unit "SHIP A" is loaded with UGM-96 missiles and is positioned in hex of full supply to allow reloading.

The enemy target that I have chosen is an MLRS long range, missile firing unit.

Currently, SHIP A will fire missiles every hour or two continuously until the target is destroyed with a steady stream of missiles hitting the target and after its destroyed the ground.

BG, Ruges, or any of you who knows this program stuff - I ask you this:

First, can a missile platform be programmed to "see" the target that I select, recognize that target as either a facility, hard target (tank) or soft target (infantry or artillery) and then fire "xx" number of missiles to either: 1. Destroy the target; 2. Nuetralize the target; or 3. Interdict the target - which the player has chosen for that platform OR that particular target.

thanks for everything you guys do to keep me entertained!

Tony

[Hullu Hevonen]

I agree, but I still also think that the current system works fine for me. I real life, you don't allways know how much "HP" you enemy tanks has, so you fire a few missiles, while 1 missile would be eguah, the first missile could miss, and if it misses then fireing a new missile could be too late since the tank may be prepaired for new ones. thats why you may fire 2-3 missiles instead of one

[tkobo]

The AI left to its own,WILL vastly over fire missiles.So DONT let it be on its own.Micro manage the missile fire.A good way to do so, while still allowing a unit to fire off missiles in its defense,is load the unit with different missiles that target the same type of target,BUT only have 1 type set for auto-fire.

SO for instance...you could, if you have a ship or aircraft patrolling your coast,pick two types of anti-ship missiles,use 1/3 to 1/2 of the ship's/aircraft's missile capacity to load missiles for anti-ship that are set for auto-fire, and load the rest with anti-ship missiles set with launch authorization off.

Then just keep an ear open for the sound, and when you hear them firing,look to see if the ones they auto-fired did the job OR if you need to manually order the other missiles fired as well.This allows the missiles platforms to act somewhat independently,without firing off their whole missile load at one target before you can stop them.

[Ruges]

One of the things I find that cool in AI Wars is once enough ordanance is fired at an object, everything will stop shooting at that target and move onto the next target. (although the downside to this is if it was a long range shot, the shorter range stuff will also stop shooting at it, so the target will still fire back during this time). Sure in SR, you would not really know the HP value of a unit in RL. But you would know the basics, You would figure you would only need 10 missles to take out that tank column, not 150 missles. So I think the game could really benifiet from a better targeting system.

One of the things the game can currently take into account is hard, soft, and structure. And if the missle only has hard attack it will only get shot off at a hard target. or a soft attack for a soft target.... However most missles are multi use. So even if the missles has 500 hard, 10 soft and 300 structure damage, that missle will still get shot off at soft targets. Even thow it should be reserved for hard targets. One of the things I have considered doing was making more missles that are role specific, meaning they would only have hard, soft or structure damage, and non of the others. That way the proper missles got to the proper targets.

[tonystowe]

...I real life, you don't allways know how much "HP" you enemy tanks has, so you fire a few missiles, while 1 missile would be eguah, the first missile could miss, and if it misses then fireing a new missile could be too late since the tank may be prepaired for new ones. thats why you may fire 2-3 missiles instead of one

I don't fully agree with you in this comment as most of the RL countries who produce military hardware have to advertise their product for arms trade and I am certain that the major players attend the other's military equipment showings in order to know what they are up against.

Take the development of the anti-ship or anti-tank missile... I believe that the current designs for the TOW II, Javelin, etc are based off of what the US currently builds in regards to its "hard" and "soft" targets - tanks or artillery respectively, in addition to, what it knows or expects potential rivals to own or to be able to produce.

With that said, HOW would a country not have a general idea of how much warhead is needed or the number of missiles to use in order to destroy or neutralize a target?

... Micro manage the missile fire... load the unit with different missiles ... BUT only have 1 type set for auto-fire.

I currently micro-manage this part of the game as I hate to see a seven stack of bombers or ships all firing missiles at one ship or one target and watch as 90% of the missiles simply hit the ground. Thanks