It is farcical that heavy and infiturbo ships wouldn't be affected.

Re infiniturbo ships: I'd like them to be affected, but couldn't really figure out a good way to go about it without making heavy ships all the more vulnerable.

Re heavy ships: Slow and laborious haulers are already susceptible to flares/rails/etc without also making them a huge target for battery sucking. Was trying to add a fighter pursuit wep without further nerfing trade.

I'm not arguing with here... rather I'm explaining why I made the choices I did.

I had thought of a flare weapon with similar stats to sunnies

The issue with flare-like stats is that the wep would have to be darned heavy to avoid serious pvp annoyance... but being darned heavy means they are nearly useless in a chase. Plus, pursuit weps (in my opinion) should go fast, and 95m/s aint that fast...

Getting 500pks takes is too long a grind to use as a requirement. What if they were manufacturable at conquerable stations? :P

Was spitballing. Good idea re manufacturable, and better idea re conquerable stations.

I worry about how "pursuit weapons" in general would affect group combat. It would be a drag if it made it that much easier for a larger group to envelope and then shred a smaller force. For this reason I gravitate toward modeling the new addon after a short range weapon as then hopefully people would better be able to predict and plan for potential losses of their mobility. And I think that on something fast like a greyhound or a valk a flare-like weapon would be effective enough. But really the idea is still unsatisfactory to me.

We've gotten used to the fact that heavy ships can consistently outrun light ships but this isn't a sacred feature. Making it easier for "fast ships" to chase down "fast ships" while trying to not make it any easier for "fast ships" to intercept "slow ships" doesn't make sense.

There is also the idea of making it so you have to stop if you want to initiate a jump out of a sector. This has no impact on PvP and should prevent people from escaping ships that are as fast or slightly faster than they are. As balance, if this change was made, I'd prefer it if it only applied to wormhole jumps.

I worry about how "pursuit weapons" in general would affect group combat. It would be a drag if it made it that much easier for a larger group to envelope and then shred a smaller force.

That's why I took the rail approach. small projectiles which travel fast, have no aim assist, and require lots of skill to use. Prox is far easier to spray and pray.

You have a lot of other good points that I haven't addressed. I'll get to them when I have some time later today.

I don't mind making it a bit easier to take down trade ships, but I'm concerned about going too far. It's already quite easy to run down and kill a loaded trade ship. Giving certain ship models built-in protection against it would work, as would having an add-on that protects against it, or specific power cells that are unaffected. The add-on should be large-port and very heavy. The power cell should have low grid, capacity and charge-rate.

This is mostly not about jumping out of the sector, but running around within a sector. A decent pilot in a moderately fast ship like an Atlas X can run around a sector indefinitely with multiple pursuers in faster ships. It is not possible for a task force to clear a route of enemies, no matter how large, skilled and well-equipped that force is. It is almost impossible to protect a ship from a pursuer.

I expect these to be interesting in group combat. We'd have to try them to see how it would play out.

As hard as it is to hit a running target with rails right now, I have some preference for the flare-like implementation. Maalik didn't mention it, but I think all proponents of the general concept will agree that the weapon should be fairly light.

I think a pursuit weapon should simply disable turbo for a few seconds; no damage, no energy loss. When hit, heavy ships would continue to coast a bit, while light fighters would decelerate rapidly. In a face-to-face fight, the pursuit weapon would offer no advantage.

That's another reasonable way to do it. The exact implementation isn't so important to me: I just want *something* done about what I consider one of VO's biggest flaws.

I mean... I know I've been on this boat for about 5 years now... but a more logically designed missile is the pursuit weapon being talked about here. What's farcical is this idea that ships can travel faster than the missiles they're carrying.

What missiles should do: punish a target that travels in a linear or nearabout as predictable path, forcing them to roll out of the way.

What missiles shouldn't do: punish a target that travels in an unpredictable rolling pattern, forcing them to engage their turbo.

Give 'em 250m/s, and an acceleration curve. Low ammounts of ammo, high yield damage. The current missiles are more like the second example, and more of a pain in the ass than a real weapon.

What about some EMP Flare?

Stats TBF, but when it 'explodes', instead of damage, it messes with electrical circuits, resulting is complete loss of acceleration (=engine dies for moments).

The length of electrical damage is inversely proportional to distance squared (dmg=1/(dist^2), thus a perfect hit would freeze engines for full 6 seconds, while 10m away results in 3sec, and 20m does 1sec. (Numbers are example, do not take literally).

Another possibility, what about a missile/flare similar to lightning mines, but it kills turbo engine only?

TBH, I prefer it kills all engines. A ship that was hit only drifts during its effect.

Another RP-wise explanation is a Gravitronic warhead. It sends tuned gravitrons that nullifies ships' gravitic engines...

SuperMegaMynt, the current flares travel X m/s faster than your ship is already going. Sunflares are 85m/s, Stars are 75/s, and I think Ice are 70m/s. Instant ~300m/s velocity on any flare fired at max speed from a cheap chaser like a hog2.

He's talking about missiles, not flares. And even if it has nothing at all to do with the thread he resurrected, I gotta agree with him. The current missiles are rather poorly designed.