Tempest vs. Thunderbolt vs. Hornet ?

[ttl]

I've been lobbing a lot of Tempests and T-bolts around lately. From the manual description, I gathered that these missiles should behave differently when the target they have been launched at is destroyed before impact.

Tempest should seek a new enemy target (friend-or-foe), hornets should just fly straight and be useless (image reg.), and T-bolts should seek the closest alive target (heat-seeking) - or so I thought.

I just saw a Tempest fly straight without a target after its intended target blew up prematurely. The closest other enemy was far away though, but it left me wondering:

Do these missiles have different behaviour when their target gets destroyed, or do they all just fly straight until the end of their lifetime

[dtrowle]

The Tempest Missle does find another target. Just for kicks one time I entered a Xenon sector and targeted the nearest bad guy and unloaded a cargo bay full of Tempests. I think everthing else in the game basically becomes a dumbfire if its target is destroyed. Could be wrong, the only missles I use are Hammerheads, Tempests, and Thunderbolts. I ussually sell everything else. Just remember, the super-duper intelligent AI is what flies these things after you launch them.