Why do nukes explode when shot?

[Kill3rCat [1st FORECON]]

Isn't that pretty unrealistic? As I understand it, the only way to get a nuke to go off is with the detonator. The most you can do by shooting a nuke is to destroy it, but all that does is best case turn it into shrapnel or vapour, worst case turn it into a kinetic kill vehicle.

Nukes shouldn't be detonating when shot... right?

[K_ILYA_V]

powerful flux of neutrons produced in a nuclear explosion can cause nuclear reactions in the radioactive materials located near the explosion, which will lead to their heating, melting and loss of combat effectiveness. they will not explode they will not work.

[Kill3rCat [1st FORECON]]

Agreed. But that requires the nuke to actually explode in the first place, to disable its neighbour nukes. If 50 or so nukes are flying towards a target, disabling one of those nukes with, say, a laser, should not cause that nuke to detonate and disable its neighbours.

[Rocket Witch]

Most of their bulk consists of explosives used to compress the core. This should be what explodes when nukes are destroyed, doing so in a way that is very unlikely to cause a nuclear detonation, or are you actually getting fullscreen flashes?

[BigBombR]

Escrito originalmente por Millhiore F. Biscotti:

Most of their bulk consists of explosives used to compress the core. This should be what explodes when nukes are destroyed, doing so in a way that is very unlikely to cause a nuclear detonation, or are you actually getting fullscreen flashes?

This. The game doesn't give sympathetic proper nuclear explosions, the explosives in the nukes just get set off. The game doesn't even give you nuclear fizzles.

[Kill3rCat [1st FORECON]]

No, I'm not getting the white flashes, but I am finding that often somewhere between 50 and 100 missiles are being simultaneously knocked out in a manner that only a nuclear detonation would explain. I am also pretty sure it's not missiles running out of DeltaV, either.

[the creacher]

The fuel for the missiles may be explosive

[Kill3rCat [1st FORECON]]

Not any more so than the fuel in regular spacecraft's tanks. If allowed to mix it will of course burn, but usually a puncture will result in it venting away from the spacecraft. Even if the fuel did explode, the missiles are so far apart they really shouldn't be destroying each other.

Note, flak missiles do not have this problem.

[Rocket Witch]

Possibly a bug of the missile AI detecting something like an incoming shot or nearby piece of debris as a target. Do you have the nukes and remote set to target ships only? That might help minimise these incidents.

[Kill3rCat [1st FORECON]]

Vanilla nukes, nothing changed.

Shoot devastator missile, it knocks out nearby missiles. Shoot a flak missile, it only knocks out that missile. Same is true for all other nuclear missiles.

Expected result: shoot devastator missile, it only knocks out the devastator missile that was hit.

[AtomHeartDragon]

Sometimes wreckage of a missile can trigger proximity fuses on the others, but then you'd see a flash, and it almost never happens with stock ones (as they use touchy monoprops and rarely leave wreckage).

Missiles often run out of delta-v synchronously, which might also be the case.

[Kill3rCat [1st FORECON]]

I considered that, but I've seen this occur even when they're given no orders.

[Salami Tsunami]

Escrito originalmente por Kill3rCat the Ironfist D-2-506:

Isn't that pretty unrealistic? As I understand it, the only way to get a nuke to go off is with the detonator. The most you can do by shooting a nuke is to destroy it, but all that does is best case turn it into shrapnel or vapour, worst case turn it into a kinetic kill vehicle.

Nukes shouldn't be detonating when shot... right?

Confirmed, I've run tests on this. Destruction of a nuclear missile by point defense will often result in a nuclear explosion. The end result may not render as a nuclear explosion, but it will create a nearly identical blast pattern and damage gradient. I tested this on clumps of nuclear missiles vs clumps of flak missiles, and the flak missiles never had a sympathetic detonation. Meanwhile, destruction of a nuclear missile caused damage to the other missiles which was identical to the damage caused when I manually detonated that same missile in the formation.

[Kill3rCat [1st FORECON]]

Well there we go, thanks for testing Salami.

[AtomHeartDragon]

Devastator has relatively thick armour and crap delta-v. If it's nearly empty, it can leave wreckage when shot down. Seems like wreckage triggering proximity trigger to me.

Simple test - does it ever happen with just 1 missile?

[Kill3rCat [1st FORECON]]

How could it happen with just one missile? You need at least two (one to be shot, one to be chain-detonated)