[X3 TC] M8 Woes

[Datamestonic]

I thought these M8s seemed pretty cool so I got one to work as a long range bomber for hitting capital ships. I myself am in a Vidar. I'm attacking this Kha'ak M2 right now, which I can't take in the Vidar alone, so what I want to do is have the Hades jump in, fire the barrage and then jump out again (I think about 20 tomahawks should do it, and I put 21 tomahawks in his hold).

Problem is, I have him jump in, go into his command console, and order the missile barrage on the M2 target and input 20 volleys and then ... nothing. He doesn't fire or move and the info bar at the top of the console shows no orders. I currently have the rear turret set to missile defense and the front turret with no orders.

I tried piloting it myself, and got the barrage to work right away, but then my space suit blew up when trying to get back to my Vidar haha... Plus it's pretty important to me that this works on its own. I figured maybe it wouldn't fire since it wasn't facing the M2, so I made it follow the M2 for a second and when it was aligned properly I gave it an idle command then the barrage command. At this point the missiles fired but they all turned around 180 degrees and went off in the backwards direction (!!!). I know scanners aren't an issue here because both of our ships have triplex scanners and the M2 is only about 10km away.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?

Thank you for your time.

[quarkian37]

Have you checked the following:

1) Are your tommahawks installed as missiles in your weapons menu?

2) Since the front turrets are normally for the missiles - I would suggest setting them for 'attack enemies', otherwise they might not work. That's what I have done on my Claymores.

[Datamestonic]

Have you checked the following:

1) Are your tommahawks installed as missiles in your weapons menu?

2) Since the front turrets are normally for the missiles - I would suggest setting them for 'attack enemies', otherwise they might not work. That's what I have done on my Claymores.

I will try both and get back to you - thank you for the response.

[Datamestonic]

You were right: I had to load the missiles into the bay first. Stupid me =(

My new problem is that this jerk shoots down my missiles that are trying to kill him (imagine that!). I tried launching 50 fighter drones to distract him which seemed to work... sort of. Half of the missiles got through.

Anyone have recommendations in dealing with this?

Also, does anyone know of any scripts or vanilla game functionality that allows more convenient barrage command via keymapping or whatnot?

Thanks for the help so far, quarkian!

[delray]

Wasps. Lots of Wasps. Wasp missile is like "Turn Off Enemy Turrets Software".

Of course it means you have to change your corvette of choice to something from the Commonwealth. It will allow you to use some other tougher missiles too. Don't need anything fancy. Heavy Centaur or Dragon should do the trick.

Vidar might have his M/AM-Ls but no way of mounting normal (Terran ones aren't normal, it was proven many times) missiles kind of cripples it against bigger targets.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

The Khaak are expecially good at shooting down missiles as I've found out with my M7M. I found they always seem to shoot down at leat 50% of the incoming missiles. The fighter drones approach is probably your best bet IMO.

[Aura_Seeker]

Just take the bomber and salvo like a nut job. Then activate your SETA and it will ruin its ability to intercept the missiles.

[Kor'ah]

You are not useing enough missiles. Load that Viper up with 80+ Tomahawks and go for the saturation attack useing half of them at least. Tomahawks still active after the target is dead will auto-target the nearest enemy. You'll need a complex produceing tomahawks to use M8s right. Thankfully a five factory tomahawk complex is cheap.


Oh and Missile Barrage launches 8 missiles each time, so if you tell it to launch "21" you are really asking the M8 to launch 168 Tomahawks.

[Paladin-Solo]

I stopped bothering with missles until i'm insanely rich, unless the target is busy shooting at something or you're using swarm types they just get shot down.

[Carlo the Curious]

Just take the bomber and salvo like a nut job. Then activate your SETA and it will ruin its ability to intercept the missiles.

Old thread - I doubt the OP is still interested.