[Warp Shadow]

Okay let's cut to the chase. The mod I am working on is attempting to be as feasible and realistic as possible (up to a point, gameplay takes precedence over realism, just that everything can be logically and scientifically explained without using star trek esque technobabble) therefore much time has gone into researching navy and airforce tactics, modern and prototype weapons, plasma physics, etc. so the large ships (of frigate size and up) work a lot differently than in freespace with differences in maneuverability,  durability, speed, AI, tactics, turrets, firepower and a REALLY different turret system. The thing that is bugging me right now though is point defense systems.

Today, shooting down fighter-planes on board a ship is being taken over from AA guns to SAM launchers, but intercepting actual bombs and missiles is pretty much impossible. In my mod, each of the races has their own unique method of dealing with fighters/bombers and a different method for dealing with bombs/missiles such as point lasers, EMP blasts and so on. Now for the humans, the smartest idea for taking down fighters/bombers would be a selection of nasty missile turrets sprinkled over the hull, unfortunately, this ends up proving far too efficient (missiles are realistic in here so they are fast, powerful and very hard to avoid) and a bombing run either results in success or failure where success means dodging all the locks and flying off without a shot fired at you which= boring, failure means ****loads of missiles flying at you which=death. So in order to make it more fun, dedicated spamming turrets bathe you in a shower of "bullets" which is much less frustrating and looks cooler making failure not as painful and success more exhilarating.

Unfortunately these things are absolute crap at taking down even slow, ship to ship torpedoes so for anti ordinance we have the flak screen which I'm sure most of you know about (a lot like the BtRL team's battlestar), Unfortunately again these things always seem to aim at the fighters while bombs are closing in, fail to kill the fighter not to mention defending the ship which is the reason they were even built, take 14 hits for anti-cap bombs and deservingly blow up into a million tiny fragments of pure, concentrated phail.

I realize that adding the "small" flag into the weapons entry makes it only go after small targets but is there any way to split this up further into only going for (or simply preferring to go for) munitions vs craft? Please tell me there is

[General Battuta]

Shooting down missiles is practical today. Phalanx, RAM -- there are all sorts of CIWS that can shoot down enemy missiles.

[Hellstryker]

He wants to know how to do it in fs.. read it right ;\

[Warp Shadow]

I don't think we're on the same page here, I am aware of Close-In-Weapon-Systems (which are basically the problem here) but I'm not talking about the type of missile's you're thinking of. Anti-ship missiles or cruise missiles are not the problem here and neither are torpedoes, that's what the lasers and EMPs are for. What I'm saying is impossible to intercept is when a plane flies right over/at you carrier, fires all it's SRAMS or drops all of it's bombs and buggers off. That's what's being a pain in the ass. The flak guns made for shooting down the bombs are crap against the fighters and the machine guns made for killing fighters are crap at hitting bombs and so I need a way to divvy up the targeting.

[Warp Shadow]

 
Right while I was typing up my massive explanation someone explained for me in a sentence!

Yeah he's right, basically I can't/won't use missile launchers like we do in real life for point defense because they are no fun and so I need help making my way work.

[InsaneOne]

Maybe add the "bomber+" flag to the flak guns so while they're shooting bombers they'll hit the bombs too? (I don't even know if the flag really works or not)

[Hellstryker]

 

[Warp Shadow]

Hmmmmmm... that might just work...

And how do you fire welcome beams

[blowfish]

Maybe add the "bomber+" flag to the flak guns so while they're shooting bombers they'll hit the bombs too? (I don't even know if the flag really works or not)

IIRC, the "bomber+" flag will make the weapon only be used against bombers, ignoring fighters, capships, bombs, and everything else.  Flak guns tend to be unable to shoot down bombs anyway.

[Warp Shadow]

Well my flaks are more of a moving flak screen (I am well aware the vanilla ones suck ) and so taking down the bombs isn't really the problem but if the +bomb flag wont work, what will?

[blowfish]

Most turrets (including flaks) will automatically target bombs first, I think bombs are destroyed by being directly hit by a laser or within the inner radius of a blast (I could be wrong here), so make flak guns with a big inner radius that don't do huge amounts of damage or have slightly lower shield damage numbers so they don't tear through fighters instantly.

[Warp Shadow]

Okay but then wouldn't the AA guns target the bombs too?

[Woolie Wool]

Maybe add the "bomber+" flag to the flak guns so while they're shooting bombers they'll hit the bombs too? (I don't even know if the flag really works or not)

IIRC, the "bomber+" flag will make the weapon only be used against bombers, ignoring fighters, capships, bombs, and everything else.  Flak guns tend to be unable to shoot down bombs anyway.

I thought the bomber+ flag only worked with huge weapons, and the AI would use bomber+ missiles against huge targets when no bombers are around.

[blowfish]

Well, I could be wrong, I'm just going on what the wiki says:

The AI will prefer to use this weapon against bombers.[/qoute]

[bizzybody]

Shooting artillery shells and other small, fast-moving munitions is possible. Research THEL. Tactical High-Energy Laser. It's a USA-Isreal collaboration, originally designed for installation in northern Isreal to stop Katyusha rockets launched from Lebanon. Now there's MTHEL, M for Mobile. Last I had a look, it fit in a couple of semi-trailers and they were working on compacting into one- eventually into a rig small enough to mount on a Hummer.

There's been some noise about the possibility of a THEL system having been flown on the shuttle Atlantis, but that's one secret the military has been able to keep very well. No nameless "high up sources" leaking to the press. (All of whom should be tossed in prison along with the journalists they talk to. What part of SECRET don't they understand?)

[InsaneOne]

Because a little rumor makes things seem better than they are.

[Grizzly]

Because a little rumor makes things seem better than they are.

Quoted for Truth.

[Warp Shadow]

Yes but you see I already have a race using lasers and so I wanted the humans stuff to be different.

[Flaser]

Shooting artillery shells and other small, fast-moving munitions is possible. Research THEL. Tactical High-Energy Laser. It's a USA-Isreal collaboration, originally designed for installation in northern Isreal to stop Katyusha rockets launched from Lebanon. Now there's MTHEL, M for Mobile. Last I had a look, it fit in a couple of semi-trailers and they were working on compacting into one- eventually into a rig small enough to mount on a Hummer.

There's been some noise about the possibility of a THEL system having been flown on the shuttle Atlantis, but that's one secret the military has been able to keep very well. No nameless "high up sources" leaking to the press. (All of whom should be tossed in prison along with the journalists they talk to. What part of SECRET don't they understand?)

I find that somewhat unlikely, given that it takes a very different design to use a laser in space then on Earth.
For one thing, the laser on Earth has a huge heat-sink: the Earth itself. For another the laser in space doesn't have to deal with blooming or ionized air.

[Kazan]

simple fact: those real life anti-missile lasers perform dismally even in tests rigged in their favor