I've been playing BTC, and decided to try starting with the Missile Interceptor. It's great fun, I especially love the MIRVs. However, I'm thinking that missiles are potentially a little OP, but think this is due to the AI behavior. For example, I can launch a torpedo at a pirate in a smaller and faster ship, and be able to hit it fairly easily since they don't seem to make any attempts to avoid getting hit. Sometimes they'll destroy it if they have energy weapons and they happen to be shooting at me, but that's about it.
As far as things to do about it, it'd be cool to see the AI make use of the "warp" for general evasive maneuvers, especially to avoid getting hit by missiles. They could also actively try to shoot down incoming missiles (on that topic, I feel that ballistic weapons should also be able to shoot down missiles, not just energy weapons). Something else they could maybe do is if you've locked on to them, they could attempt to break the lock by retreating out of range and attempting hit and run type tactics.
Additionally, perhaps a decoy system could also be implemented (for players too) that gives a limited number of decoys to assist in avoiding locked on missiles. Different missiles could have different tracking types (Heat, Radar, Laser, etc.) that could affect how well the missile tracks, and which decoys work best. For example, a flare type decoy would be most effective against heat seeking missiles. Heat seekers would also get a tracking bonus if the rear of a ship is pointed towards the missile, but would be fairly short ranged. Chaff would be good against Radar guided missiles, which are possibly better suited for longer ranges (tracking is less than heat seekers, and very poor at initial launch). Chaff could also be effective against laser guided missiles, which have good tracking (not quite as good as on optimally fired heat seeker) but require your cursor to be close to your locked on target for tracking to be optimal.
As far as things to do about it, it'd be cool to see the AI make use of the "warp" for general evasive maneuvers, especially to avoid getting hit by missiles. They could also actively try to shoot down incoming missiles (on that topic, I feel that ballistic weapons should also be able to shoot down missiles, not just energy weapons). Something else they could maybe do is if you've locked on to them, they could attempt to break the lock by retreating out of range and attempting hit and run type tactics.
Additionally, perhaps a decoy system could also be implemented (for players too) that gives a limited number of decoys to assist in avoiding locked on missiles. Different missiles could have different tracking types (Heat, Radar, Laser, etc.) that could affect how well the missile tracks, and which decoys work best. For example, a flare type decoy would be most effective against heat seeking missiles. Heat seekers would also get a tracking bonus if the rear of a ship is pointed towards the missile, but would be fairly short ranged. Chaff would be good against Radar guided missiles, which are possibly better suited for longer ranges (tracking is less than heat seekers, and very poor at initial launch). Chaff could also be effective against laser guided missiles, which have good tracking (not quite as good as on optimally fired heat seeker) but require your cursor to be close to your locked on target for tracking to be optimal.
