Feature or bug: Torpedos fire in opposite direction of target 75% of time.

[climbingeastofwinter]

So, I started a pre-warp, slow tech game. Finally got to a point where I'm ready to take on some space monsters with my 3 cruisers fleet packing limited guidance proton torpedos and class 3 shields.

I set my ships to kite the ameoba with their torpedos, and the running away bit works great, but most of the time they fire their torpedos in the wrong direction despite having a 360 degree firing arc on that weapon system mount. Just to be clear, there is never anything actually ahead of them when they spray torpedos out the bow. There are certainly targets behind them, and a small percentage of the time they actually fire at them.

Considering this bug makes all of your tech, production, diplomatic and militaristic choices up to that point in the game completely worthless, I find it hard to believe it's what I think it is.

Is there some button I pressed in options that makes my ships waste most of their weapons-fire and throw engagements to the enemy, or is the tactical combat system still working on getting basic weaponsfire working?

[seabo_76]

AFAIK Torpedoes fire from the front....
Thought they were set up that way. Mine always fire forwards but will curve eventually if you give them semi-guided.
I don't rely on Torps that much. Usually 3-6 on Cruisers and up.
Mirvs with Dauntless Guidance System will handle Amoebas easier.

[Captain Keen]

Don't use torpedoes. They don't really work on anything smaller than a starbase, and aren't target seeking.

It's my interpretation that what you're seeing is the result of how poor their accuracy is. See? They can only fire towards the front, but deviate by up to 180 degrees.

Just ... avoid them.

[frdnwsm]

Until you get semi-guided, avoid torpedoes like the Antaran crotch rot. Once you get that modification, they are actually capable of hitting some battleships and titans.

[Red Earth]

I don't know what everyone else is doing my my unguided torpedoes hit titans just fine. Battleships too. Y'all be using them at long range?

[climbingeastofwinter]

For ships with a 360 degree mount torpedo weapon, torpedos will fire from the rear / sides of a ship often enough that you will see that they do in fact fire from the sides / rear.

I had limited guidance on them, and I'm not complaining about the accuracy of the spread or them missing the target by a slim margin. The torpedos are firing from the opposite end of the ship when the ship is being chased by a target with matching speed. It's a straight shot off the stern and they will fairly reliably fire from the bow, forewards, for no reason at all, with absolutely no chance of ever coming anywhere near the target which is in the complete opposite direction.

[frdnwsm]

Ah; I don't use 360 degree torpedo mounts, so I hadn't noiced that particulat problem. Hmm, I might look into it, but I have no current game so it will be a while before I get around to it.

[Captain Keen]

Originally posted by climbingeastofwinter:

For ships with a 360 degree mount torpedo weapon, torpedos will fire from the rear / sides of a ship often enough that you will see that they do in fact fire from the sides / rear.

OP is right, though. When mounted front-only - they fire entirely at random, in any bloody direction, including sides and rear. I believe this to be true primarily when used against frigates or destroyers, though I've a total sum of one battle (fought many times though) of data to base this on.

That one battle was more than enough, though. Never used them since. There's basically no point: Missiles do what torpedoes do - just better in every way.

And no. Just no. Missiles also can't be shot down, so that doesn't count.

[Eupolemos]

Torpedoes need to act so complicated that I find it impossible to say if they are bugged or not.

Torpedoes will fire at a position that matches where they calculate that the target will be at the moment in the future when the torpedo has travelled that distance, if it moves in a steady speed and direction that it has at the time of firing.

It's like throwing a frisbee at a running man. Imagine your ship A firing 4 front-ach torpedoes, one after the other, after a fast enemy Destroyer circling another of your ships, ship B.

Now this can get messy. See if you can follow:

Your ship B is center of a watch, the enemy Destroyer circles this like the hand of the watch, going from 12 o'clock to 1, 2, 3 etc. Your torpedo-bearing ship is a good distance away, at 6 o'clock, if you take my meaning.

So these are the directions: 12 is up, 3 is right, 6 is below, 9 is left. B is in the middle of "the watch" and A is way below, but in firing range for the torpedoes.

The first torpedo is fired when the Destroyer is at 12 o'clock (it used to be at 11). A expects the enemy destroyer being way out right, when the torpedo reaches the required range and destination. Remember, at 12 o'clock sharp, the destroyer is moving at a tangent of circle-watch at location 12 - that means it is moving right in a straight line at that very moment.

So ship A fires in a roughly 30 degree angle.

But of course the Destroyer is really turning, so it proceeds to the one o'clock position and A now fires the second torpedo. A calculates the position the Destroyer will be from the tanget and speed at the 1 o'clock position. This is closer to ship A and less to the right that the previous Torpedo.

Let's say it fires at a 60 degree angle.

Again, the Destroyer is way too fast and turning quicly to be hit at this position, so the same happens at 2 o'clock, but A fires at an increased angle.

However, at 3 o'clock, the enemy Destroyer in front of A, but still circling B, is actually moving towards A - remeber, we are looking at the circle's tangent. So A fires it's last torpedo at where it expects the Destroyer to be when the torpedo reaches it.

Since the Destroyer is fast, ship A may actually fire the torpedo at a position behind itself, while still shooting at a target in front of itself. Silly, but there it is.

The front ach torpedo bearing ships has now fired it's entire load in a nice, rough fan shape to it's right and you're screaming at your computer. Combine this with ship's tendency to fire at other targets than what you've clicked on, because hey - it is reloaded, not yet pointed towards the target you clicked and another nice-but-unimportant target is in range - why the hell not? Telling if this is bugged is almost impossible - but for the player, it isn't a good experience.

I don't know for sure if this is what is going on, but I think so. I think it is a thoroughly weird choice to give torpedoes firing arches, but make missiles 360 degrees.

But then again, what can we expect? The MIRV bug is still there, cannons are not supposed to be a part of the game before mass drivers, fighters are borderline useless... I honestly think the Devs have just run out of steam and no longer care.

[frdnwsm]

Parasite ship bays need variable size, and the ability to be miniaturized. Fighter bays shoud be half the hull space of heavy fighter bays. As it is right now, Heavy fighter bays are the only ones worth building, since they give the biggest DPS. Also, since they never get miniaturized, once you get Hyper-X capaitors beam weapons they become obsolete. Why use fighters that can get shot down, when you can stick a heavy mount Death ray or Plasma beam in that hull slot?

Every other weapons system gets miniaturized at certain tech points, even torpedoes, so why not fighter bays? If heavy fighter bays shrank to half the initial hull size later on, they could stay competitive with energy weapons. As it is, they fall totally by the wayside in late game.

[climbingeastofwinter]

It really isn't that complicated. If a ship is being chased by another ship and they're both moving along the same vector, the ship in the lead only needs to fire in reverse. The lead ship is not doing that in this case. It's firing forwards, (possibly intentionally?) aiming for an intercept that is so far off it would take place off the tactical combat map, instead of the obvious and nearest intercept directly behind the ship.

Probably just a bug, but it's surprising it's still there. Makes torpedos largely useless if a ship only needs to chase after the torpedo boat to ensure it'll rarely (if ever) be hit.