How do you handle ECM hardened Missiles?

Viper · Post by **Viper** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:13 am

Hi commanders!

When i have killed some pirates and want to scope their cargo, but there is a ECM hardened missile hunting me, i use the fuel injector and fly away until the cargo is at the border of my HUD. Then i stop and wait until the missle is near to me. If it is near, i use the fuel injectors to get near to the cargo and scope it.

How long does a missile hunt for me?
Is there a change to destroy the missile by lasers?

How do you handle ECM hardened missiles, hunting you?

best regards,
Viper

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:03 am

What you are doing sounds like a viable option to me.

But of course there are other options as well.

(1) First of all, use your ECM. Hardened missiles are ECM-hardened, not ECM-protected. So you still have the chance to take them out with your ECM. Just hit it and hit it.

(2) Of course, you can also kill them with your lasers. It's just tricky. Missiles by nature are relatively small objects, so they are hard to hit. Also they tend to fly a screwdriver-like course instead of the direct way, which makes them even harder to hit. But it's possible. According to my experience it is easiest just after they have been fired and still are on a direct course. Sometimes I hit the missiles when I actually was aiming at the firing ship.

(3) Plasma cannons as a rear weapon are a good choice if you have to run away from missiles a lot. They are not as pointed as a laser and therefore fire at a broader angle, increasing your chances of hitting anything that is pursuing you. Unfortunately in version 1.65 and above they are not available on the free market. You would have to change either the equipment.plist or the shipyard.plist in the game itself.

(4) Apart from using your injectors you can also use a rabbit-like tactics: Let the missiles come close, and when they almost have reached you, change your direction by diving. The missiles don't react immediately. They overshoot and have to adjust their flightpath. When they are finally on track again you have brought some distance between you and them. Repeat that until they run out of fuel and explode.

(5) Any combination of the said four methods (or five, with fuel injectors; or again four, without the plasma cannons), like running away, firing on the missiles, diving when they get too close, all the time constantly hitting the ECM-key.

There is also a completely different approach, as far as returning to the cargo you want to scoop, after you have outrun the missiles, is concerned. Are you away of the ETT Homing Beacon in ettBeaconLauncher.oxp? This is a beacon that fits into one of your missile slots. If you deploy it like a missile it will stay at its current position, sending a signal that is received interpreted by your advanced space compass. Therefore it appears as a "H" on your compass. If you deploy it next to your loot, you can run away as far as you want, especially more than your scanner radius. When you got rid of the missiles pursuing you, you just return to the place by following your compass. Then just scoop the beacon again, it returns to its missile slot and is re-usable as often as you want.

julyy · Post by **julyy** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:16 am

By the way, why was the twin plasma gun taken out? I think we have already very low variation of guns n lasers in the game.

About the missle: I zoom the radar to 5:1 or 4:1 and bring the missle exactly in front, then I fire. Most of the time this kills the missle, if not I begin to rotate while firing. This worked till now without a hit.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:16 am

A very comprehensive answer, this should be put in the FAQ section.

Continuos use of your ECM combined with ducking and diving and using fuel injectors is the best method. I would not fit a plasma cannon though, a rear military laser is indispensible and probably the most satisfying method of taking out an opponent, it also saves travelling time since you can continue towards your destination and take out the blighters at the same time.

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:23 am

TGHC wrote:
A very comprehensive answer, this should be put in the FAQ section.

Thank you for the flowers, Commander!

As I am the one who has made most of the recent entries to the FAQ, I'll think about it. One problem: It's a little too comprehensive for the FAQ-template. Another: Is this question asked frequently enough?

I would not fit a plasma cannon though, a rear military laser ... saves travelling time since you can continue towards your destination and take out the blighters at the same time.

Oh yeah, it's all about time-efficiency, isn't it? Especially from a certain age, when you feel there is not too much time left...
(My apologies, O Grey Haired Friend, I simply couldn't resist the pun.)

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:41 am

Commander McLane wrote:
Oh yeah, it's all about time-efficiency, isn't it? Especially from a certain age, when you feel there is not too much time left...
(My apologies, O Grey Haired Friend, I simply couldn't resist the pun.)

Don't worry, in a few hours it will have become part of the blissful fuzz of the Commander's short term memory loss.....

Captain Hesperus

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:59 am

another option is firing a missile as antimunitions. (and running/dodging)

Best used for this are OXP missiles such as MIRVs or AGILEs, the latter being a maneuvrable missile designed to take out ~~boyracers~~ missiles and the former an expensive millitary missile that splits into several warheads.

Can't recall if these were my own (lost) OXP or by someone else.

Wiggy · Post by **Wiggy** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:42 am

Firing out the back can bring it down. Make sure it has a good zig-zag motion through the middle of your crosshairs, and fire sparingly. But keep a finger on the injectors in case it gets too close!

Also, turning on the Cloaking Device makes it lose it's focus and blow up.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:43 pm

Don't worry, in a few hours it will have become part of the blissful fuzz of the Commander's short term memory loss.....

Captain Hesperus[/quote]

What will?

windrider · Post by **windrider** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:29 am

Eject trumbles out the cargo hatch...the missile will go running....

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 9:57 am

Captain Hesperus wrote:
Don't worry, in a few hours it will have become part of the blissful fuzz of the Commander's short term memory loss.....

Captain Hesperus

LOL!!!

And I thought I was being nasty...

zimmemic25 · Post by **zimmemic25** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:54 pm

julyy wrote:
By the way, why was the twin plasma gun taken out? I think we have already very low variation of guns n lasers in the game.

you can go to Config/equipment.plist and edit the TL(the first value) of the plasma gun section to, say Level 5.

or use a search&replace tool (search: 99 replace: 5) to enable them all.

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:35 am

zimmemic25 wrote:
or use a search&replace tool (search: 99 replace: 5) to enable them all.

No! Don't do that, if you don't want to be elected for the Cheaters' Hall of Fame!

There is a reason why certain items are not available on the free market, and you would spoil certain missions if you would change that!

Apart from that, Hi and welcome to the boards and of course to this great game, zimmemic25! (Although I have to say that this is not a very promising first post.)

davcefai · Post by **davcefai** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:38 pm

While I prefer to stay on the straight and narrow for the main thread of my game (how else can I feel proud of my scores) I also like to tinker.

In this case I was unable to get the Plasma cannons to be offerred for sale although I set the TL to 5 and added "available_to_all"

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 8:41 am

I'm not too sure, but it might be that for weapons the available_to_all-tag is not enough. (And by the way: in the current Oolite-versions (at least since 1.65) the TL for the plasma cannon is 2 by default, so there is no need at all to change anything with that). So try putting the plasma cannon into the optional equipment for your current ship in its shipyard.plist.

Simply add

Code: Select all

<string>EQ_WEAPON_TWIN_PLASMA_CANNON</string>

into the

Code: Select all

		<key>optional_equipment</key>
		<array>

That should do the trick.