[Bob-san]

I think all the hornets are variable speeds upon launch, becoming uniform in 1 or 2 seconds after launch...

Sometimes I give my wingmen all hornets and watch them try to fire from different angles. I do noticed that most of the time, when the enemy moves left or right, that possibly the more maneuverable fighters make the individual missiles collide and explode... a chain explosion, like your fraticide. However, its usually most of them are targets after one or two of the missiles explode upon contact of the shield...

[]C[rusader]

OH.  After that last description, things seem clearer.

Side view, four Hornet warheads after launch, with target:

----direction of launch---->

1-->
2-->                     <target>
3-->       
4-->


Warheads after target abruptly veers down:

   1-->
 2-->                                   
3-->       
4-->

                             <target>

Warhead 4 becomes closer to the target than the other three; it therefore reaches the target first, and then detonates; the other three run into the explosion, thus causing fratricide.

Is this a reasonable explanation of why one or two Hornets appear to outrun the rest?


@LieutenantGeneralMobius:
i agree, the behaviour does seem to make Hornets even more useless, versus agile fighters, than they already are.

And no, i certainly don't want for you, or anyone, to die.  Especially not for the sake of my extremely poor understanding of Latin.

[Mars]

You can't destroy missiles with explosions.

[Herra Tohtori]

The destruction of the swarm missiles is because their lifetime ends.

The self-destruct in the order they are launched, causing the phenomenon where a swarm chasing an enemy craft starts exploding from the first in the line.

[Bob-san]

Lifetime ends? Not quite... I have noticed a chain reaction explosion... one hits, and then the rest detonate in sequence away from the target...

If you were right about this, then it all depends on the way the enemy fighter went... left ends in fraticide-like behavior, and right ends in a uniform explosion...

Well the problem I see with this is the fact that swarm missiles last longer then most of us think they would.

I've launched against a target 300 meters away that banks left. The missiles travel about 500 meters before the catch up, ending in a chain explosion from left to right...

Other tests have concluded Fraticide is still what makes the explosions... I've launched anywhere from 100 to 800 meters away from my target, and notice that even the slower bombers at distance cause the same fraticide as fighters at distance.

I conclude that each missile either collides or is detonated by a nearby explosion...

I think i've seen some in-flight collisions with other missiles when I went AWAL in a extrememly maneuverable fighter... I was looking back and banking hard right, and I think I saw some of the missiles destroyed while others survived.

[Mobius]

Hornets are made for hitting hard cruisers,freighters and transports. I loved the fisrt time I engaged the Behemoth...one hundred yellow lanes pointing to that Rakshasa...I like it when I hit a Cain with Hornets and my wingmen are doing the same:you see its integrity falling so rapidly,till 0....Oh how good is this!

The Tornado is better suited to take out fighters.Just see how it's launched,its capability of quickly move and hit Maras,Dragons, everything!

[Bob-san]

Agreed that the Hornets are horrible against fighters... you need to target their engine with a double-shot of hornets... if you are lucky you have just taken out their engine... and they're sitting ducks.

I use the hornets because I have to... I usually just use tempests because I'm a good dog-fighter... though harpoons are my favorite for medium-range (400m).

[Mobius]

Yup.
(Depends on where the engine subsystem is housed...)
I enjoyed disabling Shingles with the Akheton too...

[Mars]

Hornets are made for hitting hard cruisers,freighters and transports. I loved the fisrt time I engaged the Behemoth...one hundred yellow lanes pointing to that Rakshasa...I like it when I hit a Cain with Hornets and my wingmen are doing the same:you see its integrity falling so rapidly,till 0....Oh how good is this!

See, I don't get why you wouldn't use Tempests for that... it's far more efficent (fewer support ships)

[Mobius]

Hornets are made for hitting hard cruisers,freighters and transports. I loved the fisrt time I engaged the Behemoth...one hundred yellow lanes pointing to that Rakshasa...I like it when I hit a Cain with Hornets and my wingmen are doing the same:you see its integrity falling so rapidly,till 0....Oh how good is this!

See, I don't get why you wouldn't use Tempests for that... it's far more efficent (fewer support ships)

Unless it's a Cain you are dealing with,using Tempests while you could use them for the fighter escort isn't the easiest way to take the cruiser down.Hornets are much effective,as well as any other warhead(except subsystem disruption ones).

[Bob-san]

I hate when I give a wingman in a Herc Mk II a loadout of tempests (400), and then they never use them!!! I have watched it so many times! The only missiles they use are rockeyes, hornets, and harpoons (in FS2C). Every so often I might see them use their Helios when in bombers, but i rarely see them use anything... useful... the best thing they use are harpoons on fighters and hornets on bombers and capships.

[Mars]

The AI occasionally fires Tempest, just in single fire mode, and very occasionally.

[Wanderer]

There seems to be an AI profiles option to change that... But its not enabled by default.

[Mobius]

There seems to be an AI profiles option to change that... But its not enabled by default.

In fact in FRED there is an AI profile option,but I can only select the retail one.Where I can get this?

I never give tempests to my wingmen.Hornets,Harpoons and Tornado are my choices(not in bombing missions,however).
Some bombers also launch one torp at time while other launch two of them.

[Wanderer]

Well its possible for modders to use the improvements made to the basic AI by creating new AI profiles for the game, Ai profiles.tbl in FSwiki. As these options may break the game balance they are not enabled by default.

Easiest is probably to use *-aip.tbm files (modular table files).. for example

alternate-aip.tbm

Code: [Select]

#AI Profiles

; -------------------------------------------------------------
$Profile Name: Alternate
; -------------------------------------------------------------

$allow rapid secondary dumbfire:                         YES

#End

That ought to create an AI profile that is almost identical to the FS2 standard AI except that behaviour of AI using dumbfires should have been changed.

[Mobius]

Are you sure that only the game balance could  break?
How'd I open/modify tbm?Opening them with notepad?

[karajorma]

Yep. Notepad is all you need.

Using AI profiles will change the game balance but it doesn't exactly break it cause you only need to use an alternate profile if you specify it in FRED.

[Mobius]

Let's hope it will work.
Which features can be changed,for example(excluding the dumbfire option)?

[Goober5000]

Reread Wanderer's post.

[Bob-san]

That should work to make my wingmen kill more enemies. I usually lose all of them by the time I finish the mission... rarely I still have a few of my fighters.