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Author Topic: Active Flare Launcher Should be Used Earlier  (Read 402 times)

SafariJohn

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Active Flare Launcher Should be Used Earlier
« on: September 15, 2022, 04:10:17 AM »

Active flares are a good system, but the AI holds off using it until missiles are right on top of them. It would work a lot better if they used it at longer range.

Frankly, active flares should almost be spammed any time a missile might be launched. It is not like it costs anything.
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BigBrainEnergy

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Re: Active Flare Launcher Should be Used Earlier
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2022, 07:02:40 AM »

It generates a bit of flux.
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TL;DR deez nuts

Alex

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Re: Active Flare Launcher Should be Used Earlier
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2022, 08:27:59 AM »

Hmm - do you have a specific scenario in mind where they're not fired off often enough? I just ran a quick test (Apogee, minus PD, vs some missile-ships in the simulator - Buffalo Mk.II, Vigilance, and Mule with 2x Salamanders), and it's pretty much firing the flares off whenever they come off cooldown. A case where it's being too conservative would be good to see.
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SafariJohn

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Re: Active Flare Launcher Should be Used Earlier
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2022, 09:17:44 AM »

I notice it on a lot of ships, but the most egregious case I see often is the Roider Union's Argos. As you can see in the first attached screenshot, the Squall round is within a ship's length of the Argos before it launches its flares. While admittedly an edge case, this is way too late.

You can see in the second screenshot that the Hammer Barrage's torpedoes were almost halfway to the Argos before it launched flares. That is the reaction time I have if I'm not paying attention. If I am on point or even launch proactively, I can stop every Hammer.


If a couple ships spammed active flares proactively, it would shut down missiles almost as well as having Omens in your fleet. Maybe the system would warrant a little bit of a nerf if the AI used it that way, but it would be better than seeing the AI get nailed by missiles they could have easily stopped just by using their system at longer range.

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Alex

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Re: Active Flare Launcher Should be Used Earlier
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2022, 09:39:35 AM »

Thank you for clarifying. Hm. With vanilla ships (e.g. the Apogee) this seems tricky enough to do as the player - it really seems to depend on the angle of the flares, and launching too early can actually get them out of position in some cases, hmm. I'm not sure I want to mess with this too much, though I see what you're saying about a couple of ships doing it proactively.
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