Auto combat and missles

[Cumberlow]

When attacking a planet firing missiles at my ships my priority is to shoot them down to prevent loss of ships. However, if I use auto combat then the AI ignores them completely and I lose half my fleet. Obviously this needs to be addressed.

If you have a fleet that can shoot down these planetary missiles then they seem weak, little more than a decoy for your weapons fire. Suggestion: It would be better if missiles behaved more like torpedoes with a pause in the middle for an automated chance to shoot some down. This could be any weapon that is in arc and unfired. Tactical decisions could then be taken to leave a ship or weapons unfired for defensive fire each turn.

Are missiles behaving like ships, i.e. a single entity? There seems to be a defence to get through and then the lot can be shot down in one go (maybe its just the graphics). If find a couple of heavy lasers seem quite effective. Surely it should be a numbers game and you need lots of small/medium weapons to shoot down a swarm of missiles?

[Zalthun]

I noticed that they didn't seem like much of a threat, and in fact, some of my ships did seem to shoot them down. (Granted, at the time there was nothing for those weapon mounts to do but idle, as my heavy weapons were being used to bombard a planet.)

I did notice, however, that fighters were very very good at destroying them.

[Lithari]

I noticed that they didn't seem like much of a threat, and in fact, some of my ships did seem to shoot them down. (Granted, at the time there was nothing for those weapon mounts to do but idle, as my heavy weapons were being used to bombard a planet.)

I did notice, however, that fighters were very very good at destroying them.

I never used fighters or bombers in MoO2, don't intend to here.

[Zalthun]

I noticed that they didn't seem like much of a threat, and in fact, some of my ships did seem to shoot them down. (Granted, at the time there was nothing for those weapon mounts to do but idle, as my heavy weapons were being used to bombard a planet.)

I did notice, however, that fighters were very very good at destroying them.

I never used fighters or bombers in MoO2, don't intend to here.

That's your choice. I never use a chainsaw when doing yardwork either, but I'm telling you that it would sure make some of that work faster! If you don't like a tool, don't use it.

[StaticSins]

If you don't like a tool, don't use it.

Basically this. There are tools to help prevent, defend, or out perform other tools. It's essentially how technology expands and progresses. If you don't do something to shore up a weak point, enemies will it exploit it until it no longer brings them benefits. If your enemies don't use a lot of missiles, and you don't need to really invest in defending against it, then don't. However, if you end up complaining about not using the proper tool for a job and try to use, for an example, a screwdriver to cut down a tree. Then you complain about the screwdriver not being good at cutting down trees and wishing to re-tool the screwdriver to become useful for cutting down trees; instead of using an axe, saw, chainsaw, missile, or whatever. It's kind of an asinine complaint/argument.

Now, with my rant over on that and my apologies extended; we'll move back to the topic of lasers taking out missiles as point defense. I would actually like to see PD lasers in the game, maybe that's what light lasers are, or could be set to a PD power instead. As ship damaging lasers and point defense lasers have 2 very distinctive and different jobs. The main lasers are for shield/hull breaching, among other planetary objectives, that are straight high intensity laser shots meant to do significant damage. However, PD lasers are a much lesser intensity, may have more of a scatter effect, to help disrupt and disable single missiles or clouds of missiles. These missiles are not the same as a ship, that is likely at least 10x it's size, and multiple smaller laser shots make more sense than one larger shot.

One tool, as demonstrated by Zalthun, that also makes sense is small squadrons of fighters. These carry less powerful ships, they have multiple fighters for multiple shots, and when carried by a bigger ship are usually there for taking out these smaller targets. That way the big ship, who may or may not have smaller point defense weapons, can focus on it's primary task of disabling/destroying the other big ships.

TL;DR Every tool has a specific purpose. Just because you don't want to use that tool for that specific purpose doesn't make you right. It doesn't necessarily make you wrong either, but in general you use the right tool for the right job, or you create a new tool to do the job right.

Maybe the devs can add a Point Defense version of lasers that are good, and AI used, to thwart missile threats.

Otherwise, fighter squadrons are an efficient missile deterent.

[Zaimat]

if I use auto combat then the AI ignores them completely and I lose half my fleet. Obviously this needs to be addressed.

Yes this will be rectified fairly soon, it's on the to do list.

I am looking at different options. Anti-missile rockets that fire defensively or light lasers that prioritize small targets such as missiles/fighters.

Are missiles behaving like ships, i.e. a single entity?

I checked it is indeed counting it as one entity, I'll be fixing that. It will require at least the same amount of weapons emplacements firing to destroy missiles. Thanks!