[Damage]

I did a cursory search through the forums and the wiki and didn't find anything that immediately sounded like this.

I'm trying to come up with a concept bomber that fires its secondaries off-axis to the direction of flight.  Perhaps as a part of its main hull or as a weapons hardpoint, that part's irrelevant.

My assumption is that the game engine will handle this, after all several capital ships fire anti-fighter missiles, turrets fire in any direction in their FOV.  I suspect the largest problem from a gameplay perspective would be getting the generally slow-moving bombs to travel quickly on their own.  Part of the heavy ordnance velocity is imparted by the speed of its launch vehicle after all.  (Maybe the in-universe solution would be a "booster phase" to the bomb?)  I can think of several other problems, such as missile lock on the target when it's not in your forward view, but like I said, it's still just a concept.

I'm curious if anyone else has messed around with this and what their results or reactions were before I start doing anything.  It seems like a natural tactical solution--to NOT be directly flying at your intended target and thus getting caught in its defensive fire and eventual explosion.

I will also readily admit--even if I get this past the concept phase, it won't be much more than table files and/or scripts attached to a pre-existing model.

Thoughts?

[Droid803]

I have had fighters with off-axis anti-fighter missiles in Dimensional Eclipse (they launch upwards/downwards compared to direction of motion).
It works fine, with the caveat that the "range" indicator will generally not be accurate since the missile will have to turn thus reducing its forward range.

A rear-firing bomb bay would work though as you noted you may have to increase the base velocity of the bomb itself to counteract the fact that the launch vehicle will likely be afterburning away from the target.

[Mito [PL]]

Durgas shooting Slammers in their rear direction are actually a pretty terryfying concept...?

[zookeeper]

In FotG we have the TIE Bomber's bomb chute drop (dumbfire) bombs downwards, and I found to my surprise that the main problem is that you can't really hit the broad side of a cruiser without some way of actually looking downwards (not to mention being able to see whether you did hit or not). For that, we have a special scripted targeting mode which tilts the camera downwards and draws a special targeting reticle for the bombs. However, it's a bit complicated and has to rely on some other weapons limitations we have, so I'm not sure how feasible something like that would be in other contexts.

I don't know if your bombs would be homing or not, but if they're not, then you need some way of looking in the direction you're shooting them at.

[Damage]

One of the goals of this concept is to able to fire several warheads toward the target, while not heading directly at the target--and thus not increasing your risk to enemy defensive fire.  (Evading enemy fire from opposing fighters is a separate problem.)

What I'm thinking of is firing them "laterally" that is, to port or starboard--and not necessarily perpendicular to the flight path--say offset at least 45 degrees (just for a working number).  Keeping that in mind almost requires they be homing, otherwise the pilot is doing a lot of mental arithmetic there won't be time for.  Imagine a squadron of such bombers against an enemy destroyer, constantly circling the target and launching from maximum range.  Attacking the destroyer from every direction simultaneously; essentially a subspace missile strike without the subspace part.

So I need to put together a targeting script that either allows targeting off the centerline axis--or else retains a target lock for several extra seconds while you turn away AND possibly retains target lock between different banks of warheads.

[LaineyBugsDaddy]

Ok, so this is something like the vertical launch cells on our current DDG and CAG (Guided Missile Destroyer and Guided Missile Heavy Cruisers, respectively) when they are carrying an anti-shipping loadout. The missiles are ejected vertically, their rocket motors ignite, and then they lean over and drop down to skim the surface to take out enemy surface targets. Or vertically launched cruise missiles off of a couple of the old Iowa Class BBs before they retired them after Desert Storm.

[Kiloku]

In FotG we have the TIE Bomber's bomb chute drop (dumbfire) bombs downwards, and I found to my surprise that the main problem is that you can't really hit the broad side of a cruiser without some way of actually looking downwards (not to mention being able to see whether you did hit or not). For that, we have a special scripted targeting mode which tilts the camera downwards and draws a special targeting reticle for the bombs.

You brought me wonderful memories of Rogue Squadron.

[Damage]

Ok, so this is something like the vertical launch cells on our current DDG and CAG (Guided Missile Destroyer and Guided Missile Heavy Cruisers, respectively) when they are carrying an anti-shipping loadout. The missiles are ejected vertically, their rocket motors ignite, and then they lean over and drop down to skim the surface to take out enemy surface targets. Or vertically launched cruise missiles off of a couple of the old Iowa Class BBs before they retired them after Desert Storm.

Yes and no?  My intention was to have something more like air-support from the modified C-130 gunship.  (Forget the designation at the moment.)   A missile boosting phase might only be necessary to impart momentum for the warhead, since you the pilot wouldn't be moving directly towards it at the time of launch, and that's a big part of a bomb's launch speed.

[LaineyBugsDaddy]

I was just giving these as examples of missiles that launch off bore relative to the target, then turn to attack.

[xenocartographer]

You can solve the aiming problem pretty easily by using heat-seeking bombs with a large FoV (I believe this is how the VLS batteries in BP work).

Alternatively (and a little more out there), what about implementing the bomb bay as a turret, possibly with a scripted ammo system and maybe an NPC gunner?

...hm, now I'm having ideas.