Originally posted by penspinner
The FF-swarm strategy doesn't sound too good for me ....
With the speed they fly at, I would imagine they would turn too slow to allow for re-targetting and actually get a good angle on the second target after the first blows up. But then again I mostly use my FF's like HS's anyway .... they miss way too much on their own 
As for FF's hitting the launching ship, I've done that lots of times back when I started playing WC1 ... happens when you launch an FF and there's no enemy ships around. It just blows up right outside the launcher .... lol.
IIRC the AMRAAMs actually work more like WC Spiculums than the FF's .... the pilot has to lock the target before launching, and only then does the missile go autonomous. Maybe the problems they had was just some goof pilot forgetting to switch targets
-pen
Two thoughts:
1. I hate the FF swarm. The Tracker in WCP allows you to
do this. I use to volley them off in the hope that 16 FF
missiles would give the bad guys something to think about.
Instead it gave the closest ship something to think about,
and everybody else just kept coming. It could be made
more effective if there was a single targeting unit in the
Tracker which assigned targets *before* the missile broke up. It would assign a different target to each missile, then let 'em loose. That'll cause a swarm of Morays to think twice!
2. AMRAAM is not *quite* an IR. I've got a book at home
about training F-18 pilots to, among other things, use
the AMRAAM. They described it as like a Rottweiler --
once you let it loose, you don't want to be anywhere near
it. It'll home on the first thing that enters its
search pattern, and can't distinguish between blips. They
described one pilot as washing out for, among other
problems, simulating an AMRAAM firing without looking to
see whether there was anything other than the intended target in the way of the shot. In a real firing, she'd
have killed her wingman.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
