Missile Shield Corvette

[MrNonchalant]

I think the defense fighter fighter concept was good, but It couldn't block mines, ions, or missiles. Translation: invent capital ships and bypass them. So, I propose a ship with that can destroy (or at least stem the tide of) missiles. String a handful of them around, along with a few Defense Fighters, and a bunch of attack bombers and interceptors. This could actually help make fighters a viable force again. Alright, before you start screaming, "to complicated," consider the technology used:

A twenty percent upgrade in active sensor systems, to provide pin-point tracking of the missiles.
A computer program programmed to think like the missile, hence providing actual predictions.

That's all I'll say now, I've got a lot of other ideas but I'll use them to answer your inevitable scathing questions:

[Omi-kun]

So what's the weaponry of this missile defense fighter?

[Archon]

This could actually help make fighters a viable force again.


Since when were fighters not a 'viable force'? Swarming with fighters is one of the most common strategies around.. :)

[x-crispy]

I would assume it's just a larger laser. Larger and more powerful because of the corvette chassis, but too slow to track mass driver rounds. It could probably take out mines, also.

[MrNonchalant]

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of a faster version of the gimballed guns used on the defender. But a laser will do the job nicely. Also, mine removal is a good idea I considered it originally, but thought it would be going to far.

Archon: True, but they're still no match for a couple of missile destroyers, a handfull of drone frigates, or any of those and a grav well. This wouldn't help in a grav well, but in conjunction with the defense fighter it will almost stop the other two.

[Omi-kun]

A more powerful version of the microwave gun thing? That's possible. Killing mines? Perhaps it could serve as a relay sensor to a nearby missile destroyer. Or that should be another thing entirely!

*new idea* gota go to draw...

[Archon]

Although I don't really agree with the missile shield corvette idea, I do think that there should be a better defense against mines...such as a field generator that either:

Repels mines in the fields area of influence
Disables the tracking of mines in its field


That is, of course, if mines are included in HW2 (which I hope they aren't) :)

[MrNonchalant]

As I said earlier, I was originally hesitant to give it mine-destroying capability. I think it would be too much, plus mines aren't a primary threat to strike craft which this thing was designed with the intention of protecting. But that having been said, what are mines really except missiles, which wait around to get you and are really slow? It's primarily a explosive package housed with a little propulsion and some internal guidance. How hard could it be to destroy, with a weapon capable of intercepting things going at 5 times it's speed.

[SvK]

All ships can shoot down missiles and mines.

Ctrl + Shift + Drag

[Hephaestus]

Here's another idea:
While any ship can target a mine, i think even a multigun corvette would have problems dealing with a swarm of missiles (though another missile destroyer shooting at missiles is a rather odd looking thing). But heres an idea i got from playing another game, MechWarrior 3.
There's a weapon called the AMS, the Anti Missile Defense cannon, its basically a point defense machine gun that automatically targets and destroys incoming missiles. An equivalent for Homeworld, i imagine, would be something similar, maybe a light corvette turret or a defender gun on a post or some kind of raised platform above the hull of the vessel (giving it greater coverage). The only problem i see is getting it to target missiles and only missiles, without firing at another ship. You could either give it a really long range or somehow slave it to a Z function, or modify the missile.shp to make it have really low armor strength, and then modify this AMS to have super-low damage rating, so that it would only be effective on missiles and against any other ship it would only cause noticable damage over extended firing periods or in large numbers.
But thats just my idea...

[MrNonchalant]

Your refering to a force attack? I don't think anyone has found that to work to well with moving targets, except using the Missile Destroyer. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me. Also, I plan on releasing more info with every post, so people keep coming to look. This post's tidbit: Will be fully automatic, if it sees enemy missiles it will open fire on them without prompting. The weapon (laser or no) can shoot at other ships but does little damage, because it's not tuned for heavy armor.

[Archon]

I'm aware of that, SvK..but it's not extremely effective...

Mines could be described as slow missiles, but they are much more powerful than missiles, and never really dissapear unless they are shot down or hit a ship. And also, in my opinion, fighters aren't in need of protection. They are almost too powerful enough as it is, and the missile destroyer was the one thing that prevented them from becoming overly powerful and removing the balance from the game. Fighters are designed for speed, and quick attacks, not destroying battleships hundreds of times their size. :)

[MrNonchalant]

My original idea was actually based on the Phalanx system, a last ditch point defence gun employed on most US vessels and some foreign vessels. It consists of a gatling gun, and it's own radar and fire control. Also, you'd think missiles were actually listed as a ship, not in the .shp files, but when their firing. That's the only way I could think of to proram them to act the way they do. Basically, hundreds of little kamikazes with warheads, set on aggressive. It would probably be hard on the graphics but it would only last a few seconds. If you look it probably has speed limits and default tactics for it in one of the files. Hmmmmm... I wonder what would happen if you increased their speed and decreased their limitations, I see possibilties for siege cannons. Rambling over.

[Alpha_Monkey]

I dunno about anti-missile gear, but with regards to mine-clearing: Multi-Gun Corvette

[Fallen-Solo-ATC]

My original idea was actually based on the Phalanx system, a last ditch point defence gun employed on most US vessels and some foreign vessels.

Prior to the second big crash of the Relic forum, I had made a similar arguement for point defense on Frigate class ships or larger. Instead of referencing the Phalanx system, I referenced the war in the Pacific.

Large ships had anti-strike craft defenses that were effective. Sure small strike craft could take out a large ship, but there would be heavy casualties, and not too many of the strike craft would be heading back to the carrier.

Similarly, HW ships should be able to target small attack craft, including mines. I had come up with several restrictions on it so that it would not be too powerful.

Essentially, one of the pieces of non-reality (if there is such a thing in video games) that irritated me with HW was that 100 scouts could take out a Heavy Cruiser with little or no loss to the scouts. If scouts are gonna go and try to take out a Heavy, the player should expect that only a few will return. I hope this flaw is dealt with in HW2.

[MrNonchalant]

Yes, I think that has to be corrected, however that's what multi-gun corvettes are for. If you don't deploy a comprehensive fighter screen you can expect to take heavy losses to fighters. That having been said for the benifit of any newbies who will read this. Solo, you don't strike me as a newbie, how do the 100 scouts get past your anti-fighter screen? As for this weapon, it would probably anti-missile only. Maybe using missiles itself (the Star Wars project comes to mind). In that case, it would look something like the Turranic Raider's missile corvettes. This was designed to pretect strike-craft. For the most part cap ships don't need missile protection, they have armor, their own weapons (to take out the source before it can inflict heavy damage), and if worse comes to worse they also have speed and hyperspace.

[x-crispy]

Please don't this turn into a strike craft vs cap ships argument.

I think a missile defense ship could serve a worthy role in homeworld, although I would want it have more roles than simple missile clearing. Mine clearing is the next closest role.

Perhaps the ship could be equipped with flare-like projectiles that attact and/or jam missiles. The flares could also attact mines.

Maybe it could launch realtively large mine-like devices that are irresistable to missiles. Sort of like missile wells.

[MrNonchalant]

I had ideas involving flares, but I didn't use them. Want to know why? Answer: these ships use plasma, the idea of a flare is to make a hotter alternative source. Unless it shoots some form of plasma bomb which actually is hotter than it's source... well theres an idea right there. Also, a "missile well" is a good idea, but also hard to orchestrate. It's a one shot thing, it burns out after every use. Further ideas about modified plasmsa bombs, used to attract missiles, should be worthwhile.

[Fallen-Solo-ATC]

I'm not new, and I used the scenario to demonstrate a flaw.

If a Heavy Cruiser came upon 100 scouts, it should be able to hold it's own and take out most of those scouts without facing destruction. That is currently not the case.

Now if it had to be 100 plasma bombers, then that makes sense. But before the plasma bombers take out the Heavy, which the should be able to do, the should be reduced by more than half.

[Archon]

That's a good point Solo, in my opinion, fighters shouldn't have the chance to be made any more powerful than they already are.

[MrNonchalant]

I wasn't trying to implie that you were a newbie, quite the contrary. I realized you were simply pointing out a flaw, but I was trying to point out that is already a solution. The Heavy Cruiser should never stumble on any type of fighter without having a balanced fighter screen. Giving the Cruiser the ability to take out half the fighters would be to unbalance the fleet.