Oolite Bulletins

That is how I got stuck with that escapepod.

[quote="TedJ Wowsers, my ranking just went up to competent... can I show this to my boss? [/quote="TedJ]

I wouldnt take the risk...wait till you're ELITE.
Then he/she might be impressed enough with your ability in prioritising/planning to grant you an indefinite, unpaid vacation.

(that is if you accieve elite during working hours)

Ahruman wrote:

neilplus wrote:

- a Lepton Bomb. See above. Temporarily disables everything in range. Not sure how we explain the fact that your ship remains unaffected, though!

It doesn’t. It works like a Q-bomb, without the cascade effect.

Excellent thought. Imagine the ignominy of turning yourself into a practice target for pirates!

Ahruman wrote:

... Obviously this paves the way for multiple levels of ECM, and multiple degrees of ECM-hardenedness.

I like the idea of probability-based ECM. For example, Military ECM has a 90% chance against a basic missile, 50% versus a hardened missile, 25% against a military-grade missile. The more energy you're willing to expend on ECM, the more likely you are to succeed in destroying a missile before it hits you. Higher-grade ECM units could be made to draw off more energy from the energy banks.

Ahruman wrote:

... Or simply be a side effect of the “lepton bomb” - if a missile builds up a big enough charge, it dies.

The Lepton Bomb as an ECM-of-last-resort definitely interests me

I vote for the anti-missile missile system as a last ditch measure against hardhead missiles.

How about Auto-ECM, as an upgrade? It seems that any system that can makee a 'bloop-bloop' noise, could be wired into the ECM release mechanism? Given that some missiles will be ECM hardened, anyway, it would be a toss-up whether to use it, or not, since if it just kept firing in order to try and destroy and undestroyable missile, your energy cells would quickly become depleted.

Arexack_Heretic wrote:

I vote for the anti-missile missile system as a last ditch measure against hardhead missiles.

The "Point Defence Pod" - costs 500cr, sits on a missile/laser mount and blasts away at anything in its (short) range if you've armed it. When it runs out of ammo, you have to buy a 50cr reload.

The "Countermissile" - costs 10cr, sits on a missile mount, will try to hit the closest threat to your ship when launched. Pretty wimpy, sacrifices warhead power for the agility to hit incoming missiles at the last moment. Can be targeted on ships, but doesn't do much to them. Always blows up if someone ECMs it.

Say 50% effectiveness for the Pod, 20% for the Countermissile.

To be honest I don't really understand people's problems with ECM-hardened missiles. If you're not sure you can survive a hit from an incoming hardhead, hit the fuel injectors and get out of Dodge. It's also possible (very, very hard - I've managed just once) to outfly a missile if you're out of witchspace fuel.

Rather than reduce the effectiveness of the ECM, why not (slightly) increase the likelihood of the NP ships carrying hardened missiles?

Cmdr. Wombat wrote:

To be honest I don't really understand people's problems with ECM-hardened missiles. If you're not sure you can survive a hit from an incoming hardhead, hit the fuel injectors and get out of Dodge.

They aren’t problematic in the sense of being scary. It’s just weird to have two types of missile, one that is completely vulnerable and one that is completely invulnerable to the ECM.

As far as the ECM goes... perhaps it would be better if the ECM, instead of activating for a set time when you press E, just activates for as long as you hold E. Cheap missiles have a high probability of being disabled or destroyed by the ECM in a short period of time. More expensive missiles can last a longer time. Other effects could be added (temporary interruption of a missile's guidance) for the really expensive missiles that won't get blown up.

Of course, even if an enemy takes out your hardened missile eventually, you just really drained his energy banks as he had to lean on the ECM for 15 seconds straight.

How about the IFF system identifying an ECM hardened missile as light blue/red flashing

Indeed,

How about the IFF system identifying an ECM hardened missile as light blue/red flashing

If you like hanging out in an asteroid field waiting for other ships, and kill a Python first, (it becomes wreckage and a dumped load), then attack the other ships. There tends to be a ton of blips on the IFF. More than once have I missed an ECM coming at me because of all of the blips on the IFF.

Perhaps, after looking at this, I should change my strategy and go after the Python last. Hmm?

MtKlima, good point, I guess everyone had run into a 'missile from nowhere' because too much other stuff happening... Like fighting two Pythons and a handful of Sidewinders... That enter the scene when you just finished off the Pythons, happened to me around the ole beacon more than once...

Maybe a dedicated soundeffect could solve this? Enervating alarm for missile lock, like in fighters (at least that's what you see/hear in films...)

I keep the speechsynth on, gives an audible warning... But sometimes that one also gets drowned out when mucho mayhem is happening...

winston wrote:

As far as the ECM goes... perhaps it would be better if the ECM, instead of activating for a set time when you press E, just activates for as long as you hold E. Cheap missiles have a high probability of being disabled or destroyed by the ECM in a short period of time. More expensive missiles can last a longer time.

Good thinking, that man.

Ahruman wrote:

winston wrote:

As far as the ECM goes... perhaps it would be better if the ECM, instead of activating for a set time when you press E, just activates for as long as you hold E. Cheap missiles have a high probability of being disabled or destroyed by the ECM in a short period of time. More expensive missiles can last a longer time.

Good thinking, that man.

I agree, that would be much better.

TGHC wrote:

How about the IFF system identifying an ECM hardened missile as light blue/red flashing

I also like that idea.

Rxke wrote:

Maybe a dedicated soundeffect could solve this?

That too!

it would make for a very cool and progressional difference between Oolite-strict and Oolite-advanced, this more realistic and drastically more intense ECM/missile treatment.

as if it isn't difficult enough when enemies launch missiles at point-blank

Ahruman wrote:

winston wrote:

As far as the ECM goes... perhaps it would be better if the ECM, instead of activating for a set time when you press E, just activates for as long as you hold E. Cheap missiles have a high probability of being disabled or destroyed by the ECM in a short period of time. More expensive missiles can last a longer time.

Good thinking, that man.

Seconded