Homing vs. Non-Homing and "Target Prediction"

[Stratadrake]

The verdict is, quite simply, homing-direct weaponry sucks compared to its non-homing-direct counterpart.

Not by much. Just a little.

How it is

When any unit in Warzone executes an attack, the game engine performs an accuracy check and tags the projectile as either "hit" or "miss". This is a concession of realism for sake of expediency -- during complicated large-scale battles (especially in multiplayer) the game may have to perform hundreds of accuracy checks per second, in addition to running the rest of the game engine. But that's not the point, moving on.

Ordinary direct-fire weapons have a very simple trajectory - they originate from point A and travel towards point B at speed X. There they detonate, and if it's a hit, inflict damage. The only problem here is that point B is the original position of the target - in the amount of time it takes for the projectile to reach its destination, the unit may have moved, possibly by a lot (if it's a fast unit, like a VTOL). When you see units taking damage from projectiles that explode a good 1-2 squares distant from them, this puts a nice big crack in the suspension of disbelief.

A homing-direct weapon is different. If the target moves, the projectile adjusts its flight path and continues pursuit until it physically hits the target unit's (new) location. At which point it either inflicts damage or passes on through as a near-miss.

This puts homing weapons at a subtle disadvantage - against speedy units there is no guarantee WHEN the unit will actually take damage from a successful attack. (Remember, nonhoming direct-fire units travel a fixed range at a fixed speed, they are guaranteed to hit/miss after specific amount of time)

How it should be

1- All nonhoming direct-fire weapons must be required to lead their target before executing their attack. Isn't this what the flavor text for "Target Prediction Computer" research and so on tells you? No such thing happened in original retail, and I have yet to closely examine this in 3.x . I conducted some experimental cases (in original retail) with extremely fast units making flybys of enemy perimeters and watching the unit take damage because the enemy defenses were able to aim at its current position and fire off a shot, despite that there's simply no way those projectiles would be able to intercept the Speedy Gonzales. You can't just aim at a moving target's current position and fire, you have to combine range and target velocity to yield a viable firing solution (a fairly simple quadratic-parametric equation) to aim the weapon at, THEN fire.

2 - Homing-direct fire weapons can ignore the above and simply fire at the target's current position, knowing that the projectile itself will adjust its flight path accordingly. They're called "fire and forget" weapons for a reason, after all.

The effects on gameplay would be subtle and make it feel slightly more realistic, by making nonhoming weapons require slightly more time to get a "bead" on a moving target compared to a homing weapon, and generally less of seeing projectiles explode slightly off from a target (especially where AA flak guns are concerned). It would also provide a marginally increased survivability for fast units - a potential ability to zip in and out of enemy range before weapons can get a lock on them, at least in limited situations.

[Iluvalar]

The 3.1 system make a target prediction based on speed just as you are asking.

[Stratadrake]

Cool; like I said I haven't actually been able to experiment with that yet (homing weaponry being late T3 and all). Does it apply across the board?

The curious fact remains though that nonhoming weapons are guaranteed to strike the target area in fixed time X. For example, if you're taking down enemy aircraft, a good Flak gun can down a VTOL before it drops its payload, but a homing SAM ... can't. It invariably ends up chasing the VTOL back to its pad.

[Iluvalar]

Yeah, and from my estimation that make such bullets 99% sure to hit. Since the small synch delay between orders (thx it's been improved) make it very improbable that a unit could change speed during the bullet flight. Maybe with some slow-mo rockets ??

[Stratadrake]

Now having reached the final mission of Beta Campaign I've seen AA flak turrets in action, and I'm glad to see them shooting shells at trajectories that visibly intercept the VTOL's they take down. Now in the case of my favorite combination (Mantis Bunker Buster VTOL) I do end up seeing a few shells here and there that don't even come close to striking them, but I'm wondering what is at fault for that. For example, after a successful strike on a sensor tower, the VTOL turning around to fly back, the AA emplacements are still firing from up to 8 squares away (normal), but the VTOL is long gone by the time those flak shells actually reach their target area. Is this just a case of the VTOL accelerating to its maximum speed (which would be expected to ruin linear target prediction anyway) while under fire?