Oolite Bulletins

There I was this afternoon. No fuel left and in a in a fierce fight with pirates. The last pirate left fired a Hardened missile. With no fuel left I had to take evasive measures but I was confident because my MK3 had all its energy banks left. Until the missile exploded. It was still press space. Is this normal for a 'normal hardened missile' or was this a missile from the Missiles and bombs oxp (which I have installed) I cannot know atm because I have not yet have a missile analyzer.

I was a bit dissapointed because I just had splashed 8 pirates and the last one killed me.
The yield of the 'standard hardened missile is 12.5 kilotons' According to the Wiki that's the same as a normal missile which impact I survived more than once.

Did you have any shields left?

Don't know. Probably not then.

Ah, that's probably it then. I don't think energy alone will protect against a missile strike.

Am I talking rubbish... probably... but does it also depend on the angle and the speed ratio to the missile. As I have survived missile hits up the rear ,but been destroyed when hit head on!

I'm sure I read something in another thread that backs up what Fatleaf says - that the closing speed of the missile is an important factor. So ramming a missile is less recommended than taking a glancing blow.

I think that Fatleaf is correct as well, but I'm sure a wizard will have the definitive answer.

On the subject of missiles, my hardheads are getting ECM'd a bit too much lately... what's their failure rate?

It was not a head on collision. So basically. When no ECM and Shields left but with your Energy banks full you could better climb into the Escape Capsule when you see a hardhead coming your way.

I'm heading to the nearest Aquatics Shipyards dealer for a Missile Analyzer in combination with a Missile Defence system then.

Thanks Thargoid the Green Wizard... my survival may in part depend on my frame rate? I need a new GPU, pdq.

Mmm certainly no Frame rate issues here. So I assume my problem was that my shields where eaten.

Thargoid wrote:

Standard hardheads ECM chance is 1 in 10, or more accurately 2 in 20, with 1 in 20 being to explode (without damage) and 1 in 20 being to detonate (causing damage to anything in the blast radius - 250m for a hardhead). But if I remember correctly there are actually multiple pulses within a single ECM trigger.

There are four pulses, half a second apart. The first is one quarter scanner range, the second one half scanner range and so on. Missiles that are within one quarter scanner range for the full two seconds are hit four times, so their failure chance is one in (1 - (1 - 0.1)⁴), or 34.39 %. (Well, actually, a bit less than that, since 34.39 % includes the odds of a hypothetical invulnerable missile being triggered more than once. But that’s pretty small. Call it a third.)

(Conceptually, of course, this should be seen as one slow-moving pulse that weakens with range and dies out over time.)

Ahh... so in close-quarters dogfights, they are much more likely to fail, yes?
That would fit with my observations.

I too have found that your flying style will determine the amount of damage taken by a missile. If you are unlucky and take on right on the nose even full shields and full energy banks will not save you. I was in my Boa (6 energy banks) and full shields. I laughed when a pirate fired a hardhead straight at me, and since I had just destroyed him and there were not other ships on my scope I did nothing. I thought that I would just let the missile hit me and get on with my day.....only to find that I was pressing space

That has only happened to me once, and I was at full speed straight into the path of the missile.

Conversely, when flying away from missiles, the damage I have taken has been quite low.

See, thats the beauty of this game. I play it since 1.65 and there's still new tactical knowledge to learn. The missile stuff I didn't know.