Best Missile

[Skorne Tet'Zu]

I'm trying to determine the best missile to use; I like using missiles, but if I'm just throwing away money I'd rather not.

From what I can determine...

the Best Missile per Damage, Range and Speed is the HeatSeeker... but it's also the easiest one to deflect with Flares.

The Smart Missile is the 'Smart' choice because it will find another target if necessary, but it's also the Lowest Damage, Range and Speed.

Guided Missile Stats are somewhere in the Middle, but you have to wait for a Lock, which is easy to lose; and one can often kill the target (S & Ms) before you get a lock... and a Hit.

And Swarms have awesome Damage (Almost Twice that of the Other Missiles), but I'm assuming that's only if they all hit, and with their Turn Rate of less than Half of the other missiles it's unlikely they will all hit.

So... Based on the above, it doesn't seem like it really matters which missile one uses. However, I'm curious if there are other facts I should consider, or scenarios which could make a difference. I've been testing each of the above missiles, but in truth, there is just so much going on during a fight, I can't really tell if any of them are truly effective.

Thoughts?

Advanced Thanx!!!

[Wraith]

You also got to take in material cost of the missile

Some missile are much easier to replenish then others

[bloodymonarch]

Originally posted by Wraith:

You also got to take in material cost of the missile

Some missile are much easier to replenish then others

This is why I don't use missiles. If you use ship modifications on a TER Katana correctly and use the TER bolt guns on it, it will destroy everything so fast you won't even need missiles.

[Daddy Shark]

I've been meaning to loadout some missile destroyers but I keep getting distracted.

What are your turret settings like?

[Skorne Tet'Zu]

Well Now... it would appear that I've stumbled out of my Weight Class :). I don't take on Stations... and I only fight Destroyers when there's a major faction armada already engaged. I fly a Corvette class ship, and mainly take on Fighters and other Corvettes. I do have a Destroyer Group (w/Syn Destroyer) if I have to get rid of a Station; but as for my Personal ship; I prefer Fast and Quick :).

[Set-115689]

Fast smart missiles for fighters. Can boost before firing to increase speed/range.

For capital ship targets swarm missiles or torpedoes.

[Skorne Tet'Zu]

Originally posted by Set-115689:

Fast smart missiles for fighters. Can boost before firing to increase speed/range.
...

Interesting... I'll give that a Try; Thanx!

Originally posted by Geist:

Originally posted by Daddy Shark:

I've been meaning to loadout some missile destroyers but I keep getting distracted.

What are your turret settings like? :Dominated:

Set to friendly fire :-]

What does that mean?

[Daddy Shark]

Originally posted by skorne_tetzu:

Originally posted by Geist:

Set to friendly fire :-]

What does that mean?

Well apparently if you have your turrets setup wrong your captain will suicide your destroyer into turret range of a station. I've never been able to figure out what setting stops that from happening, however.

[Skorne Tet'Zu]

I guess I'll have to Experience that to understand it... So lets hope I never understand it! LoL :).

[Sinius]

Setting your turrets to target all enemy targets will cause the commander to close within the range of the turret. Low range turrets should be only set to target fighters. Long range turrets such as L Plasma can be set to capital ships or all enemy or current target. However Large turret rotation is too slow for fast moving ships so I set mine to Capital ships or My current target if I want to focus on a specific large ship or station.

[Sinius]

Originally posted by Geist:

Originally posted by skorne_tetzu:

I guess I'll have to Experience that to understand it... So lets hope I never understand it! LoL :).

Lets say you have a Ship that has long range main guns with a range of 10km and 4 L turrets with a range of 6km and 2 M turrets with a range of 1,5 Km. If you have your 1,5 km turrets not set to NOT shoot at stations, the pilot will fly in range to attack the station with ALL Turrets. and thats up close to 1,5km. And if you are so close to a station you will get ripped appart by its defence. Then people often complain about stupid or bugged pilots not staying outside of range and so on but in the end it was because the turrets have not been configured in a way that will help to stay outside of range.

So basicaly the Pilot will allways try to use all guns on your ship. If you don't want that to happen, you have to tell it to not use the close range turrets.

"If you have your 1,5 km turrets not set to NOT shoot at stations, the pilot will fly in range to attack the station with ALL Turrets. and thats up close to 1,5km".

I disagree here respectfully. In my experience setting short range turrets to a point defense setting such as Attack all Fighters will NOT cause it to close with a Station or Capital ship.

[Sinius]

Originally posted by Geist:

Originally posted by Sinius:

"If you have your 1,5 km turrets not set to NOT shoot at stations, the pilot will fly in range to attack the station with ALL Turrets. and thats up close to 1,5km".

I disagree here respectfully. In my experience setting short range turrets to a point defense setting such as Attack all Fighters will NOT cause it to close with a Station or Capital ship.

If you set them to Attack fighters they do not attack stations. And If they do not attack stations they do not fly closer, thats exactly what I was talking about.

Yes. The wording of the statement I quoted would seem to indicate the exact opposite.
If you remove the word NOT it makes sense and is consistent with my experiences.

But I think they get the idea... :-) If not they will eventually Lol

[Skorne Tet'Zu]

I do understand it... and it makes sense now. And not to cause an Argument; but the 'Nots' actually make sense if you consider there are different commands that can cause station attacks (Attack All Enemies... Attack Capital Ships... etc). But in any case... this very good to know, as I'm about to start focusing on Capital ships, and major battles against the Xenon. Something, for the record, I haven't done in the past. So expect lots of similar questions (grin) as I 'Die' from Experience... huh, I mean 'Learn'... from Experience :).

Much Thanx Mates for all the Info!!!

[Wraith]

The only problem with capital ships vs station atm is when they switch module after destroying one.
Keep your eye on it.

If it switch to another module on the other side of the station it might head in a straight line toward the station to reach it instead of going around to not get shot.

This is where people complaining about destroyer suicide usually come from is this behavior.

I mitigate this by using the coordinated attack command to spread out the destroyers around the station to keep this from happening as often.

[Auto]

I would echo some previous points.

Only missile I bother with is Dumbfire and only on ships with large missile capacity ie capitals. Like the previous poster with a Syn does. I would want at least 1300 + dumbfires. Missile turrets would only be part of the offensive strategy and I actually turn off the missile turrets until I feel they are needed. Otherwise a lot of missiles get wasted by AI.

I don't bother with the other missiles for the simple reason they aren't very effective against fast ships. They have neither the turning ability or the speed to catch the faster ships (and if they do catch them not the explosive yield). Therefore it doesn't make a jot of different if they are heat seaking or smart or whatever because they are unlikely to hit their target before they expire. The only targets you can hit with good certainty are capital ships because they are slow, but the shields are too big to be weakened by anything other than dumbfires unless you want to sit there for 10 mins firing one after another. Dumbfiires have the explosive yield and also the fire rate. Capitals are too slow to dodge even a dumbfire missile so that's the only effective strategy I have found. Funny really that the missile called dumb is actually the smartest choice as far as I can tell.

Its incredible that the game designers have built all these missiles/weapons into the game but the vast majority are in a word....rubbish.

A decent capital with a few dumbfire missile turrets will make mince meat in seconds of any opponent. The only downside, replacing the missiles. No problem for me as I have the resources to do so but you have to get to that point in the game if you haven't already.

To take out fighters its either pulse or flak turrets or other fighters.


Sidenote:

In previous games this wasn't the case, there was the wasp and the typhoon missiles which were a great combo. The wasp was fast and packed a little punch, you could start destroying Xenon swarms at range. The Typhoon was swarm and considerably more powerful.

[Jambie Lionheart]

Actually, it's kind of a footnote for this topic but anyone know the best counters to missiles? Counter measures don't seem to do ♥♥♥♥ cuz volume is overwhelming. Turrets are obvious too. But I don't have those on a scout ship. So far I've found that using my travel drive is pretty effective at avoiding but AI seems to have limitless missiles <.<

Also, does anyone else think the split are pretty weak for a combat focussed faction? I beat a split dragon using a terran M5 equivalent with about 5-7 shots -.- wtf.