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A lot of people are arguing for a speed increase of LRMs. It sounds simple but its effect on all game elements has to be considered. After i explain my idea for a LRM speed system please consider the factors it has on game play.
The idea is: Variable LRM Speed
Before I detail this easy idea let me define a term here: The window of opportunity.
With LRMs the chance to hit is a result of positioning, distance between an attacker and target, your current teams state of engagement towards your attacker, teamplay of your team supporting LRM fire and the whole other teams response to LRM fire. Its a really complex value.
The window of opportunity, i describe as a very high chance to hit with the LRMs. The faster the missiles the bigger it becomes. Effectively translating to a better reach for the missiles.
The idea is to adjust the speed of the missile depending on its flight status. Using this, the missiles can be adjusted to even out the window of opportunity over the whole range without turning them into a unfair/useless weapon at other distances.
Thus the idea is to offer a speed adjustment system which allows fine tuning of missiles combat over all ranges.
Missiles would eventually have four phases: launch, climb, travel and descend.
They launch and propel themselves quickly to their initial speed. This would be the base speed.
Then comes the climb phase. Missiles wouldn't change speed here.
Then comes the travel phase. This seems to be rather short in MWO. But speed increase would *be modest over the climb phase.
At the end comes the descend phase. This is where missiles would increase their speed.
The advantage of such a implementation would adjustable evasion thresholds on different ranges without breaking immersion as much.
This is because if turn rate is implemented as turn rate over time, the agility of missiles is anti proportional to its speed. It means the faster the missiles go the less agile they become. Adjusting speed wont be a deal breaker as much as adjusting turn rate.
Honestly, here my imagination fails to be sure of the outcomes. Generally I’d say the faster they go towards the target, the faster you have to go to dodge. But there are several dodge scenarios to consider. I assume missiles don't have a movement prediction, because that totally changes the following considerations. Ill try to outline some more situations. I'd welcome any suggestions and corrections.
Angle of descend:
The steeper the missiles go, the less important the dodge direction becomes. In the extreme if they come from top down the best dodge angle is already a given, only more speed would get you out of the situation.
A flatter angle would provide chances to improve evasion as dodge direction starts to matter again because missile positioning gets worse.
Dodging:
-If the angle is flat running away in a straight line would be the worst to do.
+Constantly running perpendicular to the missile attack vector would be the best to do.
This can be simplified by imagining a threshold at where a missile cannot hit a moving target. Moving perpendicular, the speed threshold would maybe go down if the turn rate is exceeded by the angular change of the target relative to the missile. The decrease obviously depends on the target speed and the missile turn rate. If the turn rate is not exceeded by the angular change of the target relative to the missile , the movement wont have an effect on the evasion. So if the threshold goes down, below the targets speed the missiles will miss.
Even so after a perpendicular turn the missile angle moves towards 6 o'clock position again. Thus the threshold to hit goes up again.
This behaviour allows sharp turns in the right moment that exceed the missile turn rate. Thus missiles overshoot.
A example with numbers:
A mech moves at 100kph in a straight line aways from missiles. The missiles come down in a 45 degree angle. Turn rate, missile speed, relative angle and target direction would create a hit threshold of 110kph. Thus the missile is going to hit.
The target now has the option to increase its relative angle to the missile to at most ninety degrees. Then the missile hit threshold would fall down to 75kph. If timed correctly the missile would overshoot the target. But if done to early and assuming the target stays on same vector the missile would slowly move into the straight behind position again thus the threshold would climb up again towards it best value.
In this case the missile speed to turn rate relation allows for a 35kph wide dodge range. It means all mechs that go faster than 75kph can dodge the missiles but it depends on the precision of the manoeuvre execution. Faster mechs have it easier to do this trick and even faster mechs would not worry about being hit. Still, the example only counts for a pack of missiles or a single one. Streams of missiles need repeated dodging.
Its easy to see how maximizing the angle to the missile in the right moment is the best choice for dodging.
Issues to consider when increasing the speed
To have missiles not become equally precise against all targets the turn rate has to be fine tuned to combine well with the speed. I imagine a range where there is still room for dodging and evasion.
Neither does a fixed threshold suits a game like MWO. Just fixing the missiles to have a hit threshold of 110kph would be boring and bad gameplay.
Thus we need a more designed approach.
Determining proper evasion thresholds
To allow interesting gameplay missiles should have different agility on different range. Having the missile to accelerate and keep its turn rate will have this effect.
On long range I dont want missiles to be agile and home in onto scouts like a bloodhound. Towards the middleranges the agility of the missile should be higher and on short to middle range it should be fairly decent enough to hit everything that is not actively dodging.
How is this controlled? Do it through missiles speed. Turn rate adjustment would work too of course, but feels highly disturbing to game immersion. Adjusting missile speed depending on the already flown distance is better.
Phase allocation
How is this done? How long is each phase and when is it determined? Variable phase systems could be used where the target distance is evaluated and the phases are allocate or a simple linear acceleration for the whole distance would do as well.
A system based on the actual arcing flight path could be like this:
Launchphase: no length; missile comes out of tubes with the intiail velocity.
Climbphase: missile stays at velocity and usually climbs to gain altitude.
Travelphase: missile accelerates slightly. Assume horizontal flight, speed increase is moderate to minimal.
Descendphase:missile accelerates because of increased descend angle. Missile accelerates strongly.
Phase distances I just picked rather freely and do not adhere to the above: 1st 200m; 2nd from 200m to 500m; 3rd 500m to 1000m. Later I compare it with a constant acceleration over the whole distance and a constant speed system.
I leave the arcing of the missiles out for now. I don't have values for height. Its overly complicated for these example. Also I ignore aerodynamics. Finally I would say the 5seconds for 1000m which I will assume is quite fast. Thus its should not be taken as it is, instead as an example to more clearly highlight the differences.
Calculating phase speeds - fixed phase system
Maximum time to target: This can be determined empirically. Lets say we take 5 seconds to reach 1000meters. ( I choose 5sec because some people argue for the doubling of the missile speed to 200m/s. )
Medium time to target: This again can be determined empirically. I would start with a time to target of 4 seconds to reach 500meters.
Short range time to target: If you assume the missile is slowest after the launch and 180m short range time to target could be 1.8seconds.
If you assume a initial speed of 100m/s ( 2sec )until it reaches the 200m mark. Then 300m (2 sec )linear acceleration to 200m/s. At the end another acceleration over 500meters ( 1sec ) to 800m/s.
Hit thresholds would change depending on the phase. In the slow speed phase the missiles would have the best hit rate. It slowly degrades toward the 500m mark and and even faster toward the 1000m mark.
Obviously this could be broken down in a more fine grained acceleration curve.
Calculating phase speeds – constant acceleration
The missile is fired with a initial velocity. Lets say 100m/s. Then it constantly accelerates to reach 1000m in 5 sec. That would turn into a linear acceleration to 300m/s.
Hit thresholds would linearly degrade towards the 1000m mark.
After 2.5sec half the distance would be reached. Missiles are 3 times faster at the end lowering the hit threshold.
Calculating phase speeds – constant speed
This is the system we currently have. I guess its around 100m/s. Hit threshold of the missile is always the same. Missile takes ~ 10sec to reach 1000m targets.
Some ask for a doubling of this speed to 200m/s . If initial speed is equal to this the missiles travels to 1000m in 5sec. 2.5sec to mid range mark. Hit thresholds are the same all the time.
As you can see in all example missiles would reach the 1000m in 5sec. But not all have the same hit thresholds throughout their flight. Also time to reach targets on mid ranges vary.See how they achieve different hit thresholds depending on the speed of the missiles and how to adjust the speed differently. While missiles still have equal precision on short range in the fixed phase example there is a lot of difference on the longer range as the final speed of the missile is much higher. This would allow less devastating effects or rather said it would allow dodging more easily on long range. Which I guess players would prefer over those bloodhound like LRMs currently in play combined with their speed just doubled. On the other hand its clear that the time to hit towards medium range targets is not reduced as much as the time to hit on long range targets. I assume the threat caused by LRMs doing the midrange 500m in 2.5 seconds would be outrageous again. The midrange is quite common in LRM combat and the 4sec to move into close cover is doable.
Now I hope you can see what I mean with leveling out the window of opportunity.
Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read this. I appreciate any feedback.
