Vertical Launch Missile Query

[An Ning]

I put a mess of Vertical tubes (IR seekers) on my ship and they look great when fired.
My problem is they don't hit anything, they always go in this humongous arc that ends past the target (I'm still in sandbox mode, so all enemies spawn very close in during "tests").

I've tried adding up to 4 fins, I've increased t o 3 motors, decreased to 1, I don't use the boost systems, they all have too big an arc about 80% of the time (sometimes I get 4 or 5 in a row that hit, which is wonderful but sort of confusing, because I don't see how only 5 can hit when I have 8 rows of 7)

My current base setup for them is 1 motor, 3 fins, 3 fuel, 1 One Turn, 1 Target Prediction Guidance, 2 explosive warheads, 1 IR detector.
They're AI launched with stagger fire and IFF -if that helps at all here.

I've watched a few vids on them, but this isn't really addressed.

[KaidenOZ]

if you are useing short range thrusters, put s 2 second delay on the engines firing, and make sure you have at least 1 ejector per tube. the 2 second delay lets the ejector get the missile up a bit but allows it to turn on target bearing before the engine ignites and sends it on its way. have a play around with the engine delay start numbers till you get somthing you like.

[Lulloser]

remove the target prediction AND OR add more fins. replace the prediction with a fin should work then.

[KaidenOZ]

ah yeah didnt see the target prediction comp. get that off. not needed

[An Ning]

I'll give that a shot when I get a chance.
I'm still learning all this stuff, I thought prediction guidance was needed for intercepting faster aerial units (They were intended to be my AA weapons, but they're more accurate than my cannons, sadly.. and I've yet to figure out hwo to make the AI only use them against flying targets).
And how do I make a delay for engine firing? I know how to space out the launches.. do I put the engine up 2 blocks or something?.

[KaidenOZ]

nah just select the engine part when editing the missile and theres a slider option for it.

[An Ning]

...I didn't know that. Thanks

[KaidenOZ]

as to AIs you got a couple of options. for a complext large ship i will use seperate AIs for each weapon group. anti ship, anti air and the like. if you navigate to one of the mainfraim cards, you can Q n it and designate primary targets for the weapons assigned to the mainfrme. useing the Q menu on a local weapons control for a specific weapon system can also allow you to program its taargets of choice or restrictions.

[An Ning]

I haven't gotten to mainframe cards yet. I'm still doing very basic stuff.
Making them fire.
Gettign them not to hit my own ship.
I'll keep it in mind, though.

[ZANZIBAR]

Another option is to grab a LUA code for missile guidance, preferably one that's short and simple like Joejons script.

http://www.fromthedepthsgame.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=9446

This should basically solve most of your issues in the long term since the script also has a target prediction code in it but also doesn't suffer from the usual problems that a target prediction guidance based missile in regular components.

[Owner]

Did you try adding a one turn unit to your missile? helped alittle with my ship as it allowed the missile to turn almost 90 degrees from vertical to a horizontal flight allowing easier target acquisition

[Lulloser]

Originally posted by Owner:

Did you try adding a one turn unit to your missile? helped alittle with my ship as it allowed the missile to turn almost 90 degrees from vertical to a horizontal flight allowing easier target acquisition

Well if you read the post carefully, you see he has One Turn in it :P

[Owner]

Originally posted by Lulloser:

Well if you read the post carefully, you see he has One Turn in it :P

crap stupid sleepy eyes fails to read numbers, game is occasionally confusing with all the parts in it, always thought those target prediction parts were necessary and good, may try removing those on my own creations

[KaidenOZ]

target prediction has a use, just not on this style of missile imo. long range, large slow missiles or torpedoes can use them since u need to predict where the target will be in the future if you are firing from an odd angle, on anything the hits under 2km, find it to be a waste of a block.

[ZANZIBAR]

And Vlad's reason is exactly why I suggest using a LUA guidance system since you can get away with having a target prediction effect without actually wasting a block. The code I mentioned will guide a missile fine even without a seeker of any sort or a one turn. So you can generally get a smaller missile out of it or have more warheads/fuel tanks/fins...

But LUA can make things crash hence why I'd advocate using as short a code as possible...

[Hector]

If you are trying to get a decent anti aircraft missile system, I have two suggestins that might be worth considering:

1. Kinetic Kill vehicles
   2 fins (on the back to reduce drag)
   1 variable thruster (4000 to 5000 units of thrust, 1 to 2 seconds ramp-up time)
   3 to 7 fuel tanks
   1 laser beam rider reciever
   1 body (optional - decreases drag, it's a question of taste whether to add this instead of a fuel tank or not)
   1 thumper warhead
   
   launched from a two-axis turret with as many ejectors as possible with the lowes possible minimum aim angle, these will get to speeds of up to 250 m/s which will make the thumper head devastate anything it hits. the laser beam rider guidance is precise enough for anything more than 300m away.
   Operational ranges:
   minimum: 300m
   optimal minimum: 500-600m
   maximum: 900 - 1350m (depending on fuel reserves & thrster settings)
   
   upside: massive damage, fast response time.
   
   downside: you have to place a turret on your ship that usually has a rather vulnerable turret base.
   
   recommendation:
   use this as a mid-range, fast-response defense from 300m to 1250m range. at close combat turreted custom cannons with high elevation angles are more useful, give them some AP ammo and long barrels to get the bullet speed and precision to a level you're satisfied with.
   
   
2. long-range interceptor missiles
   1 to 2 fins
   1 short-range thruster (2.5 seconds starting delay)
   4 to 6 fuel tanks
   1 one turn
   1 fragmentation warhead (fragmentation angle set to 20°)
   1 explosove warhead
   1 guidance system (whatever you consider appropriate)
   
   these can be launched vertically with ejector add-ons. the one turn will turn the missile towards the target while it is still flying upwards, with 4 ejectors and some timing you can get them 500m into the air before the thruster fires and the missile will fly towards the target like on rails.
   from that point on the missiles will go after aerial targets up to 2.5km away, depending on the fuel reserves. If you want to go for a very high range, consider using a single-pixel IR seeker - they have literally no drag, increasing the range and speed of your missile by up to 20%
   since they are launched vertically and high up, they are of no use at low ranges. hitting targets at 500m can happen sometimes, but certainly not reliable. Vertically launched missiles are never good at close combat.
   these missiles also benefit from the fact that they usually don't need to climb and can often descend toward their targets - this way they are more fuel efficient, in particular against high-flying targets and even spacecraft.
   minimum range: 800m
   optimal minimum range: 1000m
   maximum range: 1500 - 2500m
   
   upside: good range, excellent altitude performance
   
   downside: poor close-range performance
   
   recommendation: use as high-range weapon only, cover the medum and close distances with other weapons.
   If you place these on a single-axis turret you can place the missile block horizontally and set the ejection angle to 80-90 degrees upwards, this way you sacrifice launch altitude but you can also replace the one turn block with a fuel tank. this also decreases the minimum range.