[TC] Why Dose the AI ignore hammers but not firestorm?

[AfterburnerRex]

My M7M has little trouble pounding enemies to scrap. I seem to get close to a 95% hit rate with single missile hammers. I have taken out capital ships and fighters alike with them. (did not mean to hit the fighters but it always funny)

I don't run my M7M that much so i wanted a good torpedo for my standard ships. I do not have access to the terran missile fabs yet. I figured the Firestorm was an easy to produce missile that most ships can use.

The hammer was effective so i was not prepared for how in-effective the firestorm was. I have fired nearly 300 of these so far and have not hit a single capital ship with them. I have tried different ranges and ships that were fighting or not. Still a 100% shoot down rate. I have even tried firing them from near collision range and they still get shot down instantly.

On a side note, i have killed several fighters with them. At fairly close ranges that fighters try to shoot them down, but if the fighter is 15k or more away they seem to hit every time with no attempts to shoot at them.

I feel the point of a torpedo is to soften up or kill a target from range so you don't have to get shot at. but other than an M7M, Shadow or phantoms i can find nothing that's useful.

Is there a way to get a firestorm to the target that i am missing, should i chase/lead it with a bunch of swarms, How do you guys use it effectively, if it gets used at all?

[Lancefighter]

A clever way...

fire off a missile - any type, at the target. Assuming here the target is either stopped, or heading directly away/towards you..

Target your missile, and fire a firestorm at it. The firestorm will follow your other missile, but never hit.. your first missile will expire (if the case of a mossie), or possibly get shot down, but it shoudnt matter, as the firestorm is still on its way. As the firestorm is not targeting the ship in question, the turret scripts dont read it as a valid target.

[pjknibbs]

I don't think the AI DOES ignore Hammers, but you're forgetting two important things here. Firstly, Hammers are much faster than Firestorms and so harder to hit. Secondly, Hammers will generally be travelling mob-handed--you usually use them as part of a barrage, and even if you don't the cooldown time before you can fire a second one is quite short, so even if the AI gets the first one it might miss the next one along.

[Kapakio]

A clever way...

fire off a missile - any type, at the target. Assuming here the target is either stopped, or heading directly away/towards you..

Target your missile, and fire a firestorm at it. The firestorm will follow your other missile, but never hit.. your first missile will expire (if the case of a mossie), or possibly get shot down, but it shoudnt matter, as the firestorm is still on its way. As the firestorm is not targeting the ship in question, the turret scripts dont read it as a valid target.

Interesting idea, I never thought of that. Of course, it will work only against capital ships. Anything smaller will certainly move after the big missile arrives.

[silenced]

so i wanted a good torpedo for my standard ships.

Did I mention the Typhoon already? I did, for sure, didn't I? May not be a torpedo and not be used with "every" ship, but it's a great thingie to destroy almost everything.


Oh yes, the Typhoon is, oh wait, I mentioned it already ...