Missile System, can't get to work what so ever

[Helldrone]

Hello there, i'd like to ask some of you experienced folks to prehaps show and explain how the missiles work? I've been trying to get them to work for an agonizing 7 hours, but they just keep shooting upwards, Even with standard missile, IR they just shoot off randomly, i even tried the battle rider with laser, hooked it up to the controllers and a Wireless AI weapon thing and the rockets just keeps flying straight up, i've been trying and trying but it just ain't working.

[Edit] Someone please take the time to explain to me how the missiles actully function.

[Jager]

We've already helped you enough to pretty much master missiles in a day.

[Chris]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=491735639
Here is a small update. Changed the wireless weapon receiver to channel 1 (It was 2 while your transmitters used channel 1, so it was disconnected). The beam rider thingy seemed not to work properly with the laser designator. Changed that to another fin. It is working now. Good Luck.

[Booty & Drinks]

You need to select your missle and Press Q , this will let you build the "body " of the whole missle and you might have to equip it with some guiding components.

[rditto48801]

I toyed with the design, and noticed a few things.

I noticed the Missile Controller's reciever is set to Channel 2, so it has no AI connection. On the first test, the ship just cruised around and got pelted by a Sea Viper...
(also, the upper weapon controller is not directly under the top turret)

On a side note, is there any particular reason there is a 4 second firing delay on the Missile Controller? It just feels odd to fire the missiles, and have nothing happen for several seconds.

After looking over the ship uploaded to the workshop, I look at the above posts, and facepalm as I realize the most important question of all has not been asked,
"How are your missiles configured?"


Looking at the missiiles themselves on the uploaded ship in workshop... I see Target Position Prediction Guidance is in place...
I have no luck with that thing.
Best described in four words: No sense of direction. (or as I call it, Brain Dead...)
It seems to not play well with... well, any forms of guidance.
It will gleefully direct missiles to the middile of nowhere, nowhere near the only targets around. It apparently overrrides even One Turn and the main guidance system for several seconds.
So even laser guidance and one turn is pointless if it that cluless part sends missiles off to the middile of nowhere for several seconds, putting the missiles so far off course they can't turn enough to get back on target or even 'see' a target.
Immediate fix, replace the darn thing with another fin.
I even had nice results replacing One Turn for a 4th fin when using laser guidance, although I think keeping One Turn in place for a VLS is a good idea.


Fun/useful things one can do with missiles... and sort of how they work... in a likely 'tl;dr' format...

Sweeping your aim while manually launching a volley of One Turn missiles. Have them 'fan out' a little before they get a target lock as each tries to go the direction the curser is aiming the missile launched. Handy to slightly spread out damage, and lessen the chance a larger 'follow the leader' style salvo will just plow clean through the target with following missiles going through a big hole.
Aim down with a maneuverable One Turn missile to engage targets close to VLS (vertical Launch System). Also handy on aircraft/ships with horizontal fixed launchers. (or turning the Shrike into a flying missile spam bomber platform)

IR Seekers will go to the hotest thing they see. Handy in some cases, but some ships have Heat Decoys, which are usually placed in less important (or well armored) parts of a craft.


IR Seeker with Camera set for 'random blocks'.
Handy to overcome targets with Heat Decoys, or simply to spread out damage.
Resetting the Camera setting on the fly allows for adjustment of how you want Missile Spam to ruin the target's day when manually firing missiles.
Such as Center of Mass just to punch a hole through the 'middle' of the target, to focus on Shield Generators if a target has them when using mainly cannon based weapons, or the ovveride to have them go after hot spots as normal.

Torpedoes are odd and seem unreliable at times. Sometimes Torpedo Sonar will lock onto targets a fair ways off, other times they will pass within several meters of a target without ever locking onto it. (seemingly more tunnel vision and/or more near/far sighted than the description suggests?)

Fragmentation Warhead with narrow spread (5 degress or less on Frag Cone Angle).
Effective anti-armor/armor piercing.


Torpedoes that have their frag warheads 'shoot up'.
Have Ballast and Proximity Fuse, have Proximity set to 90 degress and range 0.5m more than the depth of Ballast (e.g., depth of 3m and proximity fuse at 3.5m). Set Frag Cone Angle narrow spread (5 or less), and Elevation Offset at 45+ so the fragments are directed at an upward angle. Handy for torpedoes that can punch holes in metal ships, and still hit even wooden ships that ride shallow in the water without simply going under them.


When Proximity Fuse is in place, all Explosive Warheads are supposed to have their blast occur where the Proximity Fuse is. Not sure of Frag warheads are effected in the same way. Handy for longer missiles, with the Proximity Fuse right behind the 'nose', so the full blast of the warheads is applied as close to the target as possible.

Missile Fuel.
1 fuel part is 5 seconds of fuel for 1 thruster.
1 thruster needs 4 fuel for its max 20 second burn time.
2 thrusters burn fuel much faster, but don't increase speed much (+50%?). Adding more past that increases speed even less. (hard to tell ho much faster is used up, but it seems that fuel usage is flat per part, so 2 likely uses it up twice as fast. Sacrifice range for speed?)
For more than 20 seconds of flight time, mount 5+ fuel, and 2 thrusters, with the 2nd thruster set to start exactly 20 seconds after the first one.

An odd trick for VLS missiles. Set a higher than normal delay for thruster start if the launcher has ejectors. The missiles will loose speed before thruster ignition, but it seems to allow them a little extra time to turn toward target before it gets back up to speed. In effect sacrificing effective max range for lessening minimal effective range. Not as much of a factor for a missile with enough fins for tighter turns.

Size matters, but bigger is not always better.
Bigger missiles go slower, and so need more fuel to go the same distance, and more fins to have any sort of appreciable turning rate. As missiles are absurdly slow compared to the real thing, smaller missiles are best for hitting fast targets.

High speed anti-ship missile.
4m missile, on a turreted launcher with quad ejectors per missile, give missile 1 thruster, 2 fin, 2 fuel, Camera (random blocks) warhead of choice for the situation, IR Seeker, Warhead set to arm as fast as possible, so they aren't useless at close range. Not so good for fast/maneuverable targets, uness they are generally flying at the launcher. Not very compact, but has an effective range of 950m before fuel runs out, average speed 83-84 m/s. Toss in secondary craft sent ahead to draw targets into battle at longer range. (and hope the targets aren't packing cannons that can drop exploding garbage cans on you at that range)

'Metal Storm' style cluster bomb/mortar launcher.
Make a Turret, place many 1m launchers with single ejectors. Configure missiles for Magnet and Warhead of choice. Range stinks (maybe 100-150m based on arc?). Being on the recieving end stinks worse. Kind of absurd wall of death if Staggered Fire is not used (or set to 0.0 delay).

Swimming missiles.
First, set a thruster to leave several seconds of fuel. Second, add a torpedo propeller. When the thruster runs out of fuel, or the missile otherwise hits the water, the remaining fuel is available for the torpedo prop. Last I checked, hitting the water won't break an IR Seekers target.
ASROC (Anti-Sub ROCket)
Take a torpedo of choice, extend 1m, slap a thruster and 1 extra fuel on it. As above, set thruster to leave several seconds of fuel. (or just set it to burn 5 seconds fuel of the added fuel part)
Also very handy if you like to torpedo ships from the safety of a hill top fortress...
Basic ASROC (4m, VLS). 1 Thruster (5 second burn), 1 Torpedo Prop, 2 Fins, 2 fuel, One Turn, Warhead of Choice, Torpedo Sonar (or maybe IR Seeker or Laser guidance?)
For direct fire version, remove One Turn for an item of choice. Such as an extra fuel (set thruster to 10 seconds), or an extra warhead, or a camera for IR seeker, or extra fin, or proximity fure.


Recreating the 9m long WWII IJN Long Lance Torpedoes for fun.
Just for fun, making your own Long Lance style torpedo.
Trying to recreate one in FtD can be a fun thing to try, usually with interesting results. (like making a slow moving monster...
Two attempts I tried.
First attempt (long range version), 2 torpedo prop, 3 fin, 3 fuel, Ballast (3m), Regulator, 3 Frag (180, 30 and 5 cone angle), 3 Explosive Warhead, Proximity Fuse (3.5m, 90 degrees), Torpedo Sonar.
Takes 60 second to go 900m (exluding distance from single ejector launch), average 15m/s Unknown range, starts doing circles past 1km, times out 240 seconds with 3.5k fuel left
Second attempt, 3 torpedo prop, 3 fin, 1 fuel, Ballast (3m), 4 Frag (180/90/30/5 drag angle, 45 elevation), 4 Explosive, Proximity (3.5m, 90 degrees), Torpedo Sonar, average speed 18m/s, estimated range 1,100-1,200m.
Sure, they move and maneuver like a whale, and like a whale, you probably don't want to have it run into you. (Just ask Captain Ahab... being hit by things resembling big white whales does not end well for whatever is on the recieving end...)


The ship design itself is unusual, especially the dual engines, odd layout of metal blocks (high angle AP rounds will defeat wood over launchers, 'holes' next to launchers, missiles/low angle AP rounds will defeat wood around engines), being top heavy with thin supports on counter weight, turret is not directly over weapon controller.
Weapons on different weapon groups, and a fire control computer, are a must for manual control. E.g, facing DWG a Water Buffalo, the AI loves to dig into quicky repaired wood beams while ignoring the very large turret at the front and the turreted launcher at the rear.



@ Dev, is the firing delay in the missile controller supposed to cause the message "Wrong Weapon Slot Selected' to appear when firing said missiles?

Edit: I somehow didn't notice there were two pages... (oops)

[Samlow]

Hi there Helldrone, I've taken a minute to take a look at your design, but when I came back someone already had and posted the result on this thread. Anyways, Ill chime in as well.

As noted, the Wireless receiver on the missile system was set to channel 2, while your AI transmitters were set to channel 1. The best way to check this is by going over to the weapons controller at the missiles, and it says "No mainframe connection". So normally thats when either the wireless channels are wrong, or some connection is placed wrong at the mainframe (I regularly put a receiver on a mainframe instead of a transmitter)

The top turret won't fire because whilst it does have a local weapon controller set up correctly, the weapon controller needs to be within 2 blocks in a straight line from either a turret block, or a weapon (missile controller/firing piece). Moving that one block fixed it.


Once that is done, you can start tweaking the rest of the ship. Don't try too big leaps, but Id start at making the missiles deadlier. I found from one salvo that it wasn't following the laser designator properly, and that's quite logical. Basically when you put a laser camera thing on a lser, it will only see a laser's point if it's in front of the missile. If you put a laser beam rider on the missile, it will also see a laser "behind" it, and turn towards that. This way the vertical launch missiles dont instantly start off not seeing the laser, but start flying towards the targets.

Hope that helped!

Regards,
Samlow

[Helldrone]

Oh my gosh, so much help! i shall start reading this right away and channels? Holy blerp, i never knew the channels mattered and the turrent i don't really cared about, i was in such distress i was just spamming around wireless things to get things working, it's kinda hard putting things together with a thundering headache, but thank you all so much for the help, i'll post again once i again when i manage to take out a simple sloop ship.