Hold the line heroically? Yes. But equipped specifically as Fire Support? Less clear to me based on the mission description. It could be possible even now to use that variant with the general Paragon buff though. It's pretty substantial.
True enough. Also, I can't see any reason to use missiles over tachyon lances, given their sheer efficiency. Seriously, the missile is pretty easy if you replace pretty much any of the large slots (except maybe the rear ones) with a tachyon lance. They are just so powerful. And un-dodgeable. Seriously, cores a frigate in one shot, when a full volly from two squalls can't match that (Admittedly EMP, so w.e.) or you have to flush at least 3 of the medium hunter launcher thinggies. The lance has all the advantages of missiles, and none of the counters. The only downside is it requires Line of sight, but, well, that isn't nearly enough of a downside.
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On Missile Flux:
The reason that most missile flux costs are high in the case of long range missiles like the the Hunter was originally because ships can mass equip and focus fire those weapons even over allied ships guarding them. Ballistic or energy strike weapons, by contrast, must have a direct line of sight to the target or they will cause friendly fire, so more allies in front to guard have diminishing returns. Those weapons also still cause a lot of flux build up too, but yes the impulse is generally lower that full missile salvos.
True enough. But you can't really build missile-boats, or even get close to them. The flux costs are just too extreme, and you end up at the point where you can't keep up constant fire even with venting after each volly. And it gets worse for those ships with Missile autoload, since that also makes flux.
Strike and support weapons have a similar problem, but nowhere near as extreme.
Fighters also accomplish massed strikes, however, and they are more effective in their strikes since they stick around and keep firing. Limited ammo will help a little bit, but missiles do seem a little weak in comparison. Consider though that missile slots are far more common than fighter bays (It may not seem that way but it is true. ) and so they can be massed more easily and don't have a built-in limiting mechanic like fighters other than flux and regen.
Missile slots are more common, yes, but the flux to run them isn't.
Also, hanger conversion, plus they relaunch without flux (Although fighter replacement tweaks might make the decay more notable)
There are some other reasons, too, like ensuring long range missiles generate a lot of flux to avoid too much kiting from full salvo bursting then 0-flux boosting until you can do so again. In large fleet encounters this is less effective because there are so many fighters to screen against missiles, but in small engagements missiles become overwhelming and cheap when used this way.
True enough, but, well, its more extreme than is needed. I mean, a frigate, except maybe the Hyperion, can't launch a hunter missile without losing it's zero-flux bonus. A destroyer, maybe, a Cruiser, almost always, and a Capital absolutely. But, well, It doesn't need to be that extreme.
If you can only throw one hunter, then shields/pd can probably handle it, even on a frigate.
The volleys are what matters.
Yes, Having lots of frigates shooting one missile while kiting is a problem. But, the flux cost is such that you can't safely even shoot a volly from a single frigate without nearing overload. It doesn't need to be that extreme to avoid hitting the kiting point. Also, as a ship gets larger, the issues with kiting should be smaller, so they don't need massive flux costs either, and probably shouldn't have to slow down to shoot a few small missiles.
That being said, the Hunter and a few other missiles could use a re-evaluation after the power creep of fighters when trying to diversify their weapon loadouts. Vessels firing them should still find themselves vulnerable, but maybe not defenseless as is the case sometimes.
Yea. A hunter ought to eat 10-30% of the flux budget, maybe. Not 50-200%.
But I need to look at the math and figure out what I think should happen to get good answers. After you fix the PD thing ofc.