Rail ejectors targeting logic

[Arcane]

What do Rail Ejectors target? It seems they are shooting some arbitrary point in the swarm. Why this point specifically?

I have a setup of ejectors on both poles. On a normal planet (low inclination, usual stuff) this means that either south pole or north pole is always shooting. I dont understand why however. Visually it seems that both have a good view on the Dyson swarm. Why either one or the other is shooting?

[Arcane]

up

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Originally posted by Arcane:

What do Rail Ejectors target? It seems they are shooting some arbitrary point in the swarm. Why this point specifically?

I have a setup of ejectors on both poles. On a normal planet (low inclination, usual stuff) this means that either south pole or north pole is always shooting. I dont understand why however. Visually it seems that both have a good view on the Dyson swarm. Why either one or the other is shooting?

I have no clue.

No seriously, I don't know. It's like the game picks the next slot in the orbit, and that's where the next shot will go. I have no idea how the selection happens though.

[Arcane]

I also tried to place Rail Ejectors on equator on a regular planet. And it was much worse than poles. Because they shoot only a small fraction of time. Like during sunrise and sunset at this specific point, which is like 10% of the total time. 10% efficiency on Rail ejector is terrible.
So poles seem to be the best spot I know so far.

[Kensei]

From my observations they target the origin/terminal of your orbit during setup in the dyson menu. Notice how there's a bright spot on the orbit. They target that spot.
I'm only basing this from the fact that I've made a 45 degree basketball around my star, and the intersection of all the orbits seems to get targeted the most.

I will say that I have witnessed shots being fired tangentally to the orbital trajectory.

I think that they will keep launching sails as long as there's a firing solution available anywhere along a set orbit.

[Arcane]

So when placing them on the poles:
half of the day one pole is shooting and another half of the day another pole is shooting. And they are targeting different spots. The opposite spots on the Dyson Swarm orbit it looks like.

Originally posted by Kensei:

origin/terminal of your orbit

Uh oh what is it?

Originally posted by Kensei:

I think that they will keep launching sails as long as there's a firing solution available anywhere along a set orbit.

What kind of firing solution? What does that mean?

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Originally posted by Kensei:

From my observations they target the origin/terminal of your orbit during setup in the dyson menu. Notice how there's a bright spot on the orbit. They target that spot.
I'm only basing this from the fact that I've made a 45 degree basketball around my star, and the intersection of all the orbits seems to get targeted the most.

I will say that I have witnessed shots being fired tangentally to the orbital trajectory.

I think that they will keep launching sails as long as there's a firing solution available anywhere along a set orbit.

I don't think so, not unless that origin/terminal is moving in orbit. I have witnessed them firing at all parts of the orbit, despite all of my origin/terminals being at the equator.

[Kensei]

Yeah that's why I think they prioritize origin/terminal and then fire along orbital tangents until they reach a pitch limit or lose LOS with the target orbit.

[NOT THE TIME FOR DRAGONS]

Originally posted by Kensei:

Yeah that's why I think they prioritize origin/terminal and then fire along orbital tangents until they reach a pitch limit or lose LOS with the target orbit.

Just find seed for the game wirh tidal locked planet, your guns will shoot nearly all the time.
Or just scale the amount of guns.

[EmDriver]

Yea I'm not a fan of the way their targeting system works. It seems that setting up different target points can work better for different planets, depending on tilt but only made a marginal increase at best. If it has lane of sight with the sun it should be able to just fire a sail to the sphere. It would be nice if you could set up different targets with multiple angles so the rail guns will fire at what ever target is currently available. You shouldn't have to manually tell them to switch to a different layer if its at the correct angle.
Or just let them shoot all the time but at a slower rate so we have a consistent amount. The sails clearly have a propulsion system or the sphere nodes use some kind of gravity (tractor beam) technology to guide them to their destinations after being fired.

[Vettir]

I believe the location they target depends upon certain geometric choices. I currently have four equatorial launching sites on my starter system's innermost planet, each with 10 different target orbits (every 18 degrees). There appears to be a specific target based on the angle of the orbit and your location relative to it. When I put up a single polar station, I set up two dyson swarm polar orbits that were opposite in direction, going through the same orbit. At any point, roughly half of the EM rails were firing.

[Arcane]

Originally posted by Vettir:

I believe the location they target depends upon certain geometric choices. I currently have four equatorial launching sites on my starter system's innermost planet, each with 10 different target orbits (every 18 degrees). There appears to be a specific target based on the angle of the orbit and your location relative to it. When I put up a single polar station, I set up two dyson swarm polar orbits that were opposite in direction, going through the same orbit. At any point, roughly half of the EM rails were firing.

Interesting approach. For your equatorial stations at any given time how many are shooting? I guess 10-20 %?

For polar stations my efficiency is 50%, and with your setup it is also 50%.

[JasonS]

It has to target a tangent to the rotation of the swarm's orbit.

The sails have to all orbit in the same direction and they have to shoot with a precise location and velocity so that the sails end up in a stable orbit and don't fall into the sun, or go too fast and fly off into space.

[Arcane]

Originally posted by JasonS:

The sails have to all orbit in the same direction and they have to shoot with a precise location and velocity so that the sails end up in a stable orbit and don't fall into the sun, or go too fast and fly off into space.

This reasoning does not make sense. Because sails cant just "stop" in space. When we shoot them they should keep moving along railgun shooting line forever. They might enter sun orbit or might not depending if they have escape velocity.

You might object that sails do have some sort of propulsion system. So that they can indeed stop and get into orbit by themselves. In this case I dont understand why we need to shoot them precisely. Can just launch them anywhere as missiles.

Go figure...

[83athom]

Pretty sure their target is always that glowing point you see when setting an orbit.

[Gerion]

hmm, i look at my orbits and see several things:
1. all ejectors accuracy points lay on vertical plane passing through both star's poles and 0 and 180 degrees. Maybe +-10 degree.
2. ejectors on north pole of planet shoots to orbit points closer to north pole of star, also south ejectors shoot to south pole orbit points
3. Tangent from ejector to orbit in accuracy point and vector of solar sails motion (other said direction of orbit's roration) must form angle over 120 (125) degrees.
4. Ejectors choose closest point on orbit, that lay in its zone of possible shooting and satisfy the conditions of point 1 and 3