Would you like to see Missile Boats to be viable?

[thirstyfish]

Yup, i really do not get why ammo is so limited to missiles and torpedoes since they actually have countermeasures with PD and ECM. Sure, perhaps PD and ECM needs to be better but you cannot jam or shoot down an incoming artillery shell.

But you can shoot down incoming missiles. The patriot is an anti-missile missile. Basically a missile designed to destroy other missiles. And there is the phalanx CIWS, a 20mm minigun designed to take out missiles as well. both weapon systems have been in use by the U.S. military since the 1980s. In theory, the same holds for artillery shells. The thing is that neither of these systems are very portable. And there is the Boeing YAL-1. It is a 747 with a high-powered laser. The laser is designed to shoot down ICBMs.

We have the technology for this stuff right now.

Ammo is limmited on missiles and torps is because they take up considerable volume. Simply put: they are bigger than the ammo for pretty much any other weapon of the same size. Notice the difference between a class 1 and class 2 missile rack. The class 2 doesn't do any extra damage. Instead, it has more ammo to work with.

And the ECM isn't the counter it used to be. Its a soft counter. It can buy you some time from a guided missile or torp. It can interrupt the target lock for a few seconds, . PDTs are the only hard counter.

 

[Frankymole]

Please define "missile boat".

 

[Dbrn47]

Please define "missile boat".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_boat

http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Missile_Ships

http://www.x3wiki.com/index.php/M7M

The request would be a combination of real world and other game ideas on the matter translated into something that works in Elite.

 

[Cmdr Hobgoblin]

Please define "missile boat".

A ship that solely relies on missiles to defeat it's enemies.

 

[Gabbatek]

missile boat would be beautiful.

Missiles need a better buff through engineering at least

 

[Shackram]

Anyway, some thoughts on the matter.

Missiles are good for PVE, i decided to try them out after i noticed NPCs seem smarter about mines. I've made my light multirole Python into a missile boat (5 medium seeker racks, three with high capacity 4, no special effects), it works well on my rather sluggish ship and so far it has been very effective against most master/dangerous/deadly rank NPC pirates, usually Vultures, FDLs and Pythons, ocasionally Anaconda. Usually i just boost, flip and fly backwards with FA off, shooting missiles while out of effective range of their guns, great if you're lazy to dogfight.

Exceptions are when the game gives them 3 point defences(Seems to be always 3 for some reason) which shuts my missiles down hard from a distance, but can be countered by getting closer and launching from their blind spots. Also sometimes hull tanked Anacondas, where missiles don't reload fast enough to finish it before the shield recharges, and then i don't have enough ammo left to finish it.

 

[h347h]

No, they should be a supplement not a main firepower. Elite has come a long way from single weapon type loadouts it doesn't need to regress back to that.

 

[JRok]

Missiles are good for PVE, i decided to try them out after i noticed NPCs seem smarter about mines. I've made my light multirole Python into a missile boat (5 medium seeker racks, three with high capacity 4, no special effects), it works well on my rather sluggish ship and so far it has been very effective against most master/dangerous/deadly rank NPC pirates, usually Vultures, FDLs and Pythons, ocasionally Anaconda. Usually i just boost, flip and fly backwards with FA off, shooting missiles while out of effective range of their guns, great if you're lazy to dogfight.

Hah!... you pretty much described my trade mission Python... 5 medium seeker racks... just out of their range.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

No, they should be a supplement not a main firepower. Elite has come a long way from single weapon type loadouts it doesn't need to regress back to that.

My all frag canon Gunship loadout would disagree with that.

Anyway, i took my gunship, slapped 4 seekers on it, modded them for extra ammo, and 3 pulses (1 large, 2 small), made them efficient. 1 pip in Wep i can keep firing the lasers for ages with this setup leaving plenty of pips for shields and eng (ENG really needed on the gunship).

Small ships just melt. Large ships go down fairly well.

Had a fight against 2 Anacondas last might, one deadly, the other expert. Lost my shields towards the end, but took them both down. Perhaps its time to fit some chaff instead of so many boosters. I'm maxing my power so no room for SCBs... or maybe i should engineer my PP a bit more.

Anyway, can confirm, missile boat works and is quite fun. Just wouldn't go all missiles since they are really poor against shields.

 

[Dbrn47]

Just wouldn't go all missiles since they are really poor against shields.

Which is what sort of puts an end to the ultimate dream. Cool that it works to some degree though. Probably as good as it's going to get because they did indeed design them to be a support weapon to use when shields are down. Oh well, I'll keep dreamin.

 

[Bortas]

Then give it a low emissions PP, clean drives and heat sinks. It's nice when you can choose the tools at your disposal

Unfortunately the gunship has a rather small PP for its amount and size of modules. To add insult to injury, missile racks require enormous amounts of power, increased magazine size ones even more so. In order to build a decent, survivable all missile-gunship you need a grade 5 overcharged PP with a good roll on power capacity (which means a bad roll on heat efficiency). You need roughly 10 MW just for the missile launchers. No way to build something like that on a LE PP except without shield, which is not quite advisable on a gunship.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Unfortunately the gunship has a rather small PP for its amount and size of modules. To add insult to injury, missile racks require enormous amounts of power, increased magazine size ones even more so. In order to build a decent, survivable all missile-gunship you need a grade 5 overcharged PP with a good roll on power capacity (which means a bad roll on heat efficiency). You need roughly 10 MW just for the missile launchers. No way to build something like that on a LE PP except without shield, which is not quite advisable on a gunship.

I've got a grade 1 OC PP at the moment. I think with a grade 2 ill have enough to squeeze in some SCBs.

I just like the grade 1 because you can get a lucky secondary which improves heat efficiency.

Alternately, take advantage of the heat and fit some beams with that secondary that increases damage output based on ship heat.