Torpedo Question

M

Miracynonyx100

Swabbie
Banned
How come during WC2 capship attacks when you're locking your torpedoes, one bomber can't transmit the "phase" shield frequency to all the other bombers, and also program the data into every single torpedo?

I mean a frequency pattern is a frequency pattern...

Vicky Kent
 
I think that the shield generators would change frequency patterns regularly - it would be pretty silly to leave it at a fixed setting. I suspect that torpedoes would also need to be programmed according to the specific approach angle and various other factors (the torpedo lock is broken when the bomber no longer has the capship in view).

From a gameplay point of view, it would be pretty silly to let the player smash a capship in a single bombing run. Wouldn't be a very challenging game then, would it? :)
 
I liked the WC 2 system even best.

I think Wedge gave very good reasons for an in-game explanation, as well as outside. It's like asking the question "Why can't you salvo your torpedoes in WC 2?" (or missiles). We can only speculate on the ingame explanation but I think it's pretty clear why it wasn't in the game. (Introducing the salvoeing took much away in my opinion.)
 
It sure made bombing runs a pain, though, especially against ships with AMGs... Head straight towards it, fire at point-blank range (or almost), run like hell while still being careful not to collide with the ship, repeat until ship blows up.

I think I like the Prophecy bombing system best.
 
Sharpshooter said:
It sure made bombing runs a pain, though, especially against ships with AMGs... Head straight towards it, fire at point-blank range (or almost), run like hell while still being careful not to collide with the ship, repeat until ship blows up.

I think I like the Prophecy bombing system best.
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I didn't, I thought it was the worst. If your torpedo didn't hit a specific part of the ship, then it did no damage... so... what? Now torpedos can only bust through shields at a certain point? Or for some reason shields were weaker around the vital systems? I mean the engines I could understand due to the wash, but weak at the bridge and flight deck? Give me a break. In theory, a torpedo is supposed to have enough punch to get through shields and the warhead is powerful enough to do quite a bit of damage. So even if it didn't hit a vital system, it should have affected its performance.
 
The shield generators probably do change patterns... but how come they've never changed frequency while locking up-- that would screw up your lock?

Even if you could bust through only one quarter of the shield (like from 9 o clock to six o' clock), why couldn't you transmit that to your friends... they could then breach the shield...

If a capship had enough point defenses it would still be hard anyway...


Victoria Kent
 
frostytheplebe said:
I didn't, I thought it was the worst. If your torpedo didn't hit a specific part of the ship, then it did no damage... so... what? Now torpedos can only bust through shields at a certain point? Or for some reason shields were weaker around the vital systems? I mean the engines I could understand due to the wash, but weak at the bridge and flight deck? Give me a break. In theory, a torpedo is supposed to have enough punch to get through shields and the warhead is powerful enough to do quite a bit of damage. So even if it didn't hit a vital system, it should have affected its performance.
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I agree bombing missions in that game needed some more work.
 
I was not too happy with the WCP system as well. I like the idea to be able to destroy certain components but not that this method completely replaces the old. And destroying the engines and bridge makes to whole ship go boom?

I think what would have been great if you had to first fly reconaissance when you first encounter a capship to identify where the engine/brigde/hangar(emitter is...instead of immediately knowing it.
 
From a gameplay standpoint, I preferred WC2, although I wouldn't mind a mix of WC2 and WCP. What I mean by that is that you can target engines/bridge for extra damage or to intentionally cripple a craft in some manner, but an anti-matter torpedo should still cause a decent amount of pain hitting wherever.
 
If approach vector doesn't even matter... even if you broadcasted the ship's shield frequency to all of your friends... couldn't the game engine's point-defenses be set-up to increase the odds of the guns taking down the torp, right meaning few would hit... It would still stay hard to do it... plus performing approaches would be harder. Plus, why can't the phase-shield shift frequency patterns while you're in the middle of a lock-up which would totally screw up the lock and would force you to re-do the lock-up... That would be one advantage that would offset the ability for multiple ships to fire, or even the ability to fire salvoes no?

And even if vector matters, why couldn't you broadcast the data you got so other ships heading at similar angles to the target as you could also get lock and fire also? Again if the point defenses were made harder to slip a torp through, that would still make it a fair play wouldn't you say?


Victoria Kent
 
Your giving the technology properties you don't know if it possesses. We have a very simple understanding of how phase shields work. We know it is possible to acquire the modulation of the shields and in doing so objects can then pass through the shields. We see this done in two different ways, namely torpedoes defeating the shields to do direct hull damage and in FA when Big Duke's marine assault switches the IFF at the last second in order to trick the shields around the hangar bays into allowing them passage.

It seems fairly obvious that each torpedo warhead has to individually defeat the shields in order to achieve a lock. It also seems that the whole point of the locking sequence is to acquire the modulation of the shields thereby being able to defeat their attempts at switching in order to prevent the torpedo from penetrating.

Turrets in WCP/SO are actually very good at downing incoming torpedoes, so much so that on certain ships you either have to destroy them first or come in from such an angle that the turret can't get a shot.
 
Dundradal said:
Turrets in WCP/SO are actually very good at downing incoming torpedoes, so much so that on certain ships you either have to destroy them first or come in from such an angle that the turret can't get a shot.
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As anyone who's made an attack on the aft section of a Triton could tell you about... :)

(Or watched one of their dumb-as-rocks wingmen do so.)
 
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Ironic that the lightest capital ships (if transports could even be called that) have the most effective turret gunners, at least in terms of shooting incoming torpedoes.
 
Wedge009 said:
Ironic that the lightest capital ships (if transports could even be called that) have the most effective turret gunners, at least in terms of shooting incoming torpedoes.
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I don't think it's quite as much an issue of effectiveness as it is turret positioning. IIRC, none of the other ships have a turret mounted to easily cover the engine section from a wide range of angles, and the aft turret on the Triton isn't as big as the other two up near the bridge, or the turrets on the warships, so it's not as readily available for turret plinking to even the odds.

(Hell, about a third of the time I just rammed the bastard to death, it was arguably faster in a crunch situation, as long as your wingies weren't lining up for their torpedo runs. Torpedo enemas suck. :p )
 
I always found that aft Turret on the Triton a pain in the arse to take out, too. Reminds of a mission in Secret Ops where I'd very carefully taken out the rear turret, made my torpedo run, fired and watched a wingman fly straight into the torpedo. Cue Radar filled with red.
 
Oh man, that Triton rear turret was a real pain to take out. Trying to destroy it always lowered my gunnery accuracy quite a bit. All the other capship's engines were effectively defenseless when you shot straight from behind but the Triton's turret seemed to have a 100% success ratio in shooting torps down. And stupid wingmen didn't grasp it...

On a side note: apparently it is possible to salvo torpedoes in WC2 since the Strakhas do it in the intro. So, it's just not simulated in the game.
 
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