IndeedDeus Siddis wrote: Before making missiles more effective or complex though, it would make a lot of sense to make them more... interactive. Right now, their in-flight status is nebulous because you can't see them past the first kilometer if they are outgoing and you never see them if they are incoming. And you can't do anything to actively evade or destroy them, either your ECM or PD gets them or you suddenly die. There is no skill involved in surviving a missile attack.
Exhaust wouldn't be visible in space, air missiles have visible exhausts due to the smoke they generate, but there'd be no smoke in space. I've always considered HUD flightpath markers (with green or colored lines) to be the only, yet good, option.Deus Siddis wrote:They need to have bigger more brilliant exhaust plumes and/or the HUD needs to highlight them (not on the radar, but on the main view) with some kind of bracket or symbol with a distance to target counter beside it. Additionally, incoming missiles should be marked red and have an intercept marker at all times so you can try to shoot them down with your guns. And missiles should have a very small fuel limit, so while your ship can't out sprint them, it can wear them out by maneuvering aggressively over time.
I like the small fuel limit. That's a good choice, and perfectly doable with units.csv (missiles are in unis.csv)
AI should then be aware of missiles. We can probably do that without much effort, but someome would have to figure out the AI scripts (which are really cumbersome IMNSHO)Deus Siddis wrote:As a side benefit, missiles can then also function as a diversionary tactic. You fire one missile at each of the half dozen craft approaching you, not with the intent of killing them (or else you would have fired more at each target) but to force them to evade the missiles while you get out of there or get into a better tactical position.