[Reprobator]

Hi to you all!

I was thinking about a new missile , it do not have special new  explosion or propulsion technologie but just a new locking feature...

Did you never experienced that in game?
You have a limited of missile onboard , you are now low on them, you just lock on  an ennemy fighter, you launch your missile but one of your wing man lelt's say alpha2 destroyed it before your missile arrive to him.... your missile won't hit anything, you wasted your missile.
A cool feature for that missile would be for it to be able (according to hits lifetime too ) to be locked while on  flight to another target,

Do you have any idea how to make it possible?

[Hellstryker]

I... can't really understand that.

[Wanderer]

You mean to make able to set/reset the target of the missile after it has been launched? Well.. i guess it could be scripted.. especially as sort of 'beam rider missile' (sorta like AIM-7)

[Reprobator]

sorry my english is not that good 


I'm looking for a way to create a missile who's ability is to relock on another target if the previous target was destroyed before the missile get to the target.


is it more understable ?

edit :
@wanderer that's it!
now you spoke about beam riding missile i got a little idea 

i just need to learn scripting and lua  now

[Hellstryker]

sorry my english is not that good 


I'm looking for a way to create a missile who's ability is to relock on another target if the previous target was destroyed before the missile get to the target.


is it more understable ?

edit :
@wanderer that's it!

OH. Now that's an interesting idea... I think it would have to autolock though, it wouldn't be under control of the player.

[Reprobator]

i think it  can be under player's control :

1st solution would be that the missile automaticly lock the actual player's target (if the player do not select any target the missile still get wasted anyway)
 

[Hellstryker]

The problem with that is, I don't know about most people, but I generaly cycle the targets with H

[nvsblmnc]

It would probably be more feasible to have it lock on the next closest hostile within it's homing cone.

Otherwise, you're not likely to get a hit before the lifetime ends.  No idea how that could be done, though.

[Retsof]

Heat seekers do it anyway.  just give it a 360 view cone.

[Hellstryker]

Heat seekers do it anyway.  just give it a 360 view cone.

If you didn't notice, we're not talking about heat seekers 

[Galemp]

Perhaps an aspect missile, once locked and fired, if it loses its target, becomes a heat seeker?

[Vertigo 7]

you could make it more in control of the pilot. lets say the pilot gets a target lock on another fighter while the missile is still active it will then turn to track that target

Retail missiles, however, wont be around long enough to get a 2nd target lock. Anti cap ship bombs, however, might but thats still pushing it due to long target lock times. Chances are by the time you get a 2nd lock, your bomb will have been shot down.

[Galemp]

I can see that... sort of a fly-by-wire missile that always homes in on your target, even if your target changes.

[Vertigo 7]

yeah... if you make an aspect seeking missile switch to heat seeking if it looses a target, whats the point of having an aspect seeker to begin with =p i actually really like the idea of picking up a new target after lock. It could have multiple uses, like dumb firing the missile then getting a lock allowing the missile to home in

[Ziame]

Vertigo7: Your idea IMO is WAAAAAY better.

Well, seriously, if you do it manually (original idea), then missile will die before you aquire a lock, if it does it automatically - it's a heat seeker.


And the Vertigo's idea is something cool. If we had this and glide-ability in default I would certainly be gone from life for good.

[Commander Zane]

In the simplest way possible, the ALARM missile so to speak. I like it.

[lostllama]

I like the idea of say, ripple-firing torps (or any missile) and then selecting different capship turrets or sub-systems to lock on to. I suppose reload and lock-on times would need to be changed.

Would a remote-control style missile be possible? I recall that (correct me if I'm wrong) it's somehow possible to target your own torpedo after launch (using the Y key I think) and then you can effectively view what the torp "sees" in the target view box. Add some controls for the torp and you could effectively steer it towards the target. But I can see that being difficult in the midst of combat.

Hmm that gives me an idea for precision-timing the detonation of infyrno and piranha missles in the midst of enemy ships...

[Commander Zane]

What about a type of swarm missile that locks on to 40 different targets, Macross's Itano Circus style.