A viable way to deal with missiles?

[Libra]

So... I'm having the problem with enemy missiles, once they spot you they send like 10 of them in quick succession. Considering that I have ships with low speed, I am unable to avoid them.
Currently I try to use sprints and planes to deal with them, but sprints are very limited and not always manage to hit the missiles before it destroy one of my ship; while planes are too few to stop more than 3 missiles.
Tried to stop them by shooting it down, but sometimes the turn rate of the guns are very slow also I can't seem to use the proximity fuse ammo for defending.
Any tips or ideas to deal with them?
Also i tried to create a decoy ship, but it didn't go well...

[FourGreenFields]

Strategic missiles?

Intercept with planes or your own missiles. Slap a lot of low-calibre guns (and I mean a lot) on your ships and use those. Buy proxy-fused shells for the calibres you're using, and they should be loaded automatically. And 1-2 Sprints are usually enough too (and if one Sprint isn't enough, it'll still damage it a bit afaIk).

[corestandeven]

I equally am struggling. Can only make in 33% through the game, on easy, before SG's converge and just wipe me out with missiles. In my last game had 8 missiles come at me so no chance of survival. My aircraft never take them down, there are no Anti-Air missiles for aircraft to buy anywhere, no Anti-Air missiles to buy for my main ships anywhere. When you do get hit and manage to run the damage is so great (>40 hour repair time) that the group just catch up and it is game over. Often I have no time to even refuel before the final missile barrage.

The game is brutal and I would go as far to say cheats. After all, if they are going to have cruise missiles for the enemy to up the difficulty, then why cant the player buy any countermeasures anywhere? Surely the player should have the ability to protect itself?

[Draauz]

make sure you have your radar turned off, use a jammer if you have one. sprint missiles will be the best way to stop them short of jets with air to air missiles, or like greenfields said, use a lot of the 37mm guns or proxy shells

[marekondrcka]

easiest and cheapest way is to intercept them with a ship equipped with 3 or 4 vympels, leave the planes and sprints as a safety measure, in case something got through the intercepting ship or they attack you from different direction at the same time

edit
if you intercept with 1 ship, the rocket is aiming at you, so its easy to shoot it down + you have time to use something else if the ship fails
if you use stock ships, change all 4 37s for vympels on fatman, you can use 37s as well, but vympels are just better

[marekondrcka]

Originally posted by corestandeven:

The game is brutal and I would go as far to say cheats. After all, if they are going to have cruise missiles for the enemy to up the difficulty, then why cant the player buy any countermeasures anywhere? Surely the player should have the ability to protect itself?

what the heck are you crying about..

no countermeasures anywhere?
there are cities where you can buy them you know

surely the player has those options, you can use ship with 37s or vympels with standard ammo or any ship with any guns using proxy ammo
planes, tactical rockets, sprint rockets, jammer, flares too even

but with your attitude, you better play something else

[Dwang Zhongson]

Originally posted by corestandeven:

The game is brutal and I would go as far to say cheats. After all, if they are going to have cruise missiles for the enemy to up the difficulty, then why cant the player buy any countermeasures anywhere? Surely the player should have the ability to protect itself?

Dude, you are ready to put more effort into cheating than into reading some guides from a bunch. You can play as you want, but just explain the logic.

[ZobrAZ]

To counter cruise missiles you need one or two air defence vessels that at least 1.5 times faster than rest of your fleet and have sufficient suppressive firepower (4-6 37mm or 57mm guns). When SG attacks you, detach and send your AA-picket ships one by one at 200-300km diatance forward threatened vectors and intercept.
Example:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3034214473
They also can fit fire control radar and Sprint counter-missiles, but as mentioned above not always you can buy sprints when you needed. Plus time needed to refit used sprints with new ones - they depleded VERY fast...
Also you can buy Fenek and/or Gepard Mk2 down the run for AA purpose.

In close combat there are many possibilities for avioding Zenith rockets. You need fast and maneuverable ship or you can fit your slow armored ship with alots of 37mm/57mm guns.
Examples:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3034228340
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3026590416
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3020377723
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023981345
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3033248223

[corestandeven]

Apart from the two unnecessary replies, thanks for the constructive replies. The game has an extremely high learning curve, so glad to see there are some here willing to offer advice to relatively new players.

ZobrAZ, may be a stupid question, but where are sprint missiles usually sold, are these are the rare module cities? As I tried to explain above, in my playthrough I can't seem to locate and purchase things to counter cruise missiles such as this.

I do have a bog standard Fenek, which I tried to use to intercept and it just got wiped out by a cruise missile in one hit. Can/should I upgrade it in a particular way to be better at defending against cruise missiles?

Final question, as I say I am relatively new, how do you get custom ships into the campaign? For instance that FAA Scutum above? I know how to add custom ships to the editor, but not into the campaign.

[Raven]

Your custom ships appear in the initial buy screen where you form your fleet. Uou cant purchase them mid game, but i have a number of designs that extend existing ships (mainly lightning, gladiator and skylark) that can be done mid game.

I believe its the towns where you can buy cruise missiles etc where you can get sprints.

Personally i have a few very small cube ships with sprints and 37mm to act like a CWIS to protect my main fleet.

Jet fighters with air to air missiles can be good to intercept, or the very short range cruise missiles (forget the name) as they are fast and accurate and can hit other incoming cruise missiles (only on the tactical map, not when the missile reaches your fleet).

Aside from that, as people have said, prox ammo and accuracy by volume is your friend if they are close.

If the ships being targetted are fast, a 90 deg turn as soon as they detect the missiles can allow you to dodge. I sometimes send out a small fast ship with a radar to bait out strike groups. If your not already. I would always run with radar off, unless they already know where you are, or your using ground radar on bursts to find hidden cities.

[ZobrAZ]

Originally posted by corestandeven:

ZobrAZ, may be a stupid question, but where are sprint missiles usually sold, are these are the rare module cities? As I tried to explain above, in my playthrough I can't seem to locate and purchase things to counter cruise missiles such as this.

Usually it's random, but cities with shipyards, fleet HQs and hidden cities have more advanced equipment/weaponry. So you need to visit many places. But if you rely on pre-purchased AA-ships with 37mm/57mm - you dont need to seek for sprinst!

Originally posted by corestandeven:

I do have a bog standard Fenek, which I tried to use to intercept and it just got wiped out by a cruise missile in one hit. Can/should I upgrade it in a particular way to be better at defending against cruise missiles?

Therefore you need to intercept incoming missile before it activates it's homing head. For this you should send your AA-ship forward at danger vector so at the moment of intercept missile just flying by and not hunt down your AA-picket ship.

Originally posted by corestandeven:

Final question, as I say I am relatively new, how do you get custom ships into the campaign?

At start of the compain you can see list of ships to join your fleet. Designs made (and saved) by you also present there.

And dont be afraid to restart the run - this is rogelite game after all..

[BogusBologna]

Good advice all around. I just want to clarify a few things:

- You can add custom ships to your campaigns only at the beginning, and you must build them in the Shipworks first. Without monkeying with the game files, you cannot find your custom ships during the campaign.

- In the Shipworks, you can also load, edit, and test the preset ships in the game. This is most useful to get familiar with ships you'll find during the campaign, and--as someone above pointed out--it allows you to experiment with refit options mid-campaign. For example, I like to refit the Archangel ship mid-campaign. Having a refitted Archangel in my Shipworks can act as a guide.

- The short range AA missiles you're looking for are called R-9 Sprints, and you can indeed find them at "Rare Modules" cities--not always, but fairly often. They're cheap enough that I usually just buy up their stock. They can also be dispatched against planes and Zeniths by the way; you'll see strike groups do this.

- (Sidenote: Keep in mind that you can sell everything for the same price as you buy it. See a ship with some nice guns or missiles? Just buy the ship and immediately sell it; you can then buy just the parts you want. In this way, you can get rare modules in "Mercenaries" cities as well, or from Tarkhans.)

- Someone briefly mentioned them above, but A-100 missiles are arguably the most reliable way to swat a missile out of the sky. A-100's are primarily anti-missile... missiles. They have a very short flight range, but it's more than enough to intercept a missile via radar or even visual distance if you're fast enough. Using an A-100 is basically just point-and-click: When you spot a missile, select an A-100 and click directly on the incoming missile. I've never had an A-100 fail to destroy a missile. Like all missiles however, A-100s are expensive, so this tactic should be used sparingly.

- Both A-100s and R-9 Sprints require Fire Control Radar (you'll see this abbreviated when shopping for modules, but Steam doesn't like the abbreviation), which comes standard on ships with Sprints pre-loaded. Just keep this in mind if you're wondering why they aren't working for you.

- It can't be stressed enough that you want to run with your radar OFF for a good amount of the campaign. A strike group can see your radar signature with their ELINT sensors from 1000+ km away, and when they do they usually send a barrage of missiles.

- If you get close enough to strike groups (and missile carrier groups I think), they'll see you on their IR sensors and launch missiles as well. It's best not to approach strike groups head-on if your missile defenses are low.

[Wrongfoot Mcgee]

still playing on easy myself
but this game is terribly hard if you dont have a good military and tactical foundation

the only modifications to ships i made is putting four zeniths and two fabs on the meteor mk3
and a couple of "slightly" modified skylarks i call kestral and black bird. one of them is refitted to carry a few sprints and tracking radar and the like, both have better range than the skylark, perfect early game strike group, and you can get pretty far if you have piloting skills..., and the range on that group is silly...

the most important thing in this game (after fuel) is information. if you know where the bad guys are, you can position yourself to destroy them, but it will never be 'easy'

use what is called a listening post. park a skylark near an elint signature, dont let the bells and whistles freak you out, they wont see you till you hit radar range and landed vehicles wont show up unless they enter visual range so they can fly right past you towards that trap you set up cuz you knew they would respond...

this should give you an idea of the sorts of tactics you can deploy, like simultaneous aircraft and silent strike assaults...
be ready to do some maths...

[corestandeven]

Sorry for the delay, I have been out of the country. Again, many thanks for all the constructive comments above. I think I'll have to restart (for about the 20th time!), on Easy, trying to take some of those tactics and suggestions forward.

On the custom ships, I didnt know you could buy them at the start, which again may be helpful in surviving longer than 33%...

I believe me not finding the R-9 Sprints, or missing them when I landed, was maybe one of my biggest disadvantages. I'll make sure I keep an eye out at every city, especially the Rare Module ones if that is where they are most common.

[marekondrcka]

small update..

flares are no longer viable option to deal with tactical missiles, ive played today, theyve changed somehow navigation for tactical missiles, they no longer navigate to heat from flares and go straight for the ship, i mean, its cheating, but you dealing with missiles using flares was pretty cheap trick..

i wonder what else have changed...

[Bers]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2988658309
it's easy