Missiles not using max range

[SGTscuba]

I have Lacrosse missiles with 960km range as the US. They are deployed with auto-fire and they do indeed auto-fire, but not at ranges any further than 250km. Would it be possible to change this so missiles use their maximum range please or is it only me noticing this?

They aren't the only missiles, and its with any platform I used. I've tried it with a large number of USSR missiles and same applies which reduces the effectiveness.

I can see the units via satellites as well as directly via spy planes but makes no difference either way.

Also, would auto-fire auto deployed nukes be used by units so they can be used in a tactical role?

[George Geczy]

There are a couple of reasons why auto-fire targeting doesn't go beyond certain ranges.

The first is gameplay, in that many instances players didn't want units to be targeting and firing at things so far away. Missiles would be "wasted" on distant units far away from points of interest, it was easy to get units to fire at decoys or other minor targets far away, etc.

The second was performance, in that having a lot of units searching very far out used to be a performance hit, however the engine has changed since then and the performance hit might not be as much.

Regarding tactical nukes, they will be used by auto-fire if two things are true:
1) Use of Nuclear Weapons is turned on (Defense Production Tab / Alert Condition Panel)
2) The Missile is set to Initiative Launch (I notice that this icon isn't tooltipped; it's set on the missile listing panels, it's the little icon on the right side of each listed missile. Click directly on the icon to change it; a "green target" indicates initiative is on.)
3) The carrying unit has Opportunity Fire rule of engagement (default is on)


-- George.

[George Geczy]

Hmmm, correction on my second point, tactical nukes will never opportunity fire. That was done on purpose, but I'm not sure if it isn't worth changing that back given the other two restrictions in place. Gotta think on that a little.

-- George.

[SGTscuba]

Thanks for getting back to me. I figured the range limitation was probably down to performance issues. Would it be possible to expose the value so we can change it in the game settings perhaps?

[George Geczy]

Thanks for getting back to me. I figured the range limitation was probably down to performance issues. Would it be possible to expose the value so we can change it in the game settings perhaps?

I've added this to the list of internal values (current "hard coded") that I would like to have exposed to modding. No guarantees yet that it will make it in the next update, but we'll try.

Also, for the next update I've changed the handling of tactical nukes - now, if the above three factors are in place, they WILL auto-target with launch authority. Important to note this will only be for tactical nukes; for Strategic Nukes, launch authority cannot be set (and will show as unavailable).

[SGTscuba]

Thanks for getting back to me. I figured the range limitation was probably down to performance issues. Would it be possible to expose the value so we can change it in the game settings perhaps?

I've added this to the list of internal values (current "hard coded") that I would like to have exposed to modding. No guarantees yet that it will make it in the next update, but we'll try.

Also, for the next update I've changed the handling of tactical nukes - now, if the above three factors are in place, they WILL auto-target with launch authority. Important to note this will only be for tactical nukes; for Strategic Nukes, launch authority cannot be set (and will show as unavailable).

Thanks for that George, it'll make a lot of the shorter nukes like Lance and Frog much more useful, just hope you get chance to put the range into the game options menu.

And thanks for continuing to support the game after all this time.