Hello fellow mercs,

After getting pretty bored in Dust 514 (who would've figured), I decided to see how outrageously slow the missiles were that ejected from the Swarm Launcher.

I positioned myself about 250 meters from an LAV, which wasn't moving, distance taken relative to a capture point while I was on top of a large tower.

Lock, and release swarms, and time the amount of seconds it takes to reach 250 meters. I got roughly 6 seconds.
Now, what does this mean?

Divide 250 meters by 6 seconds; the speed of the Swarm Launcher's missiles go about 41.667 meters/second (rough estimate, but pretty close).

Now, look at the Wikipedia article about the RPG-7 (a real weapon, serviced in 1961), and take a look at it's rocket velocity; It's initial velocity is 115, and its max velocity is around 295 meters/second.

Now, out of curiosity CCP, why is it that a handheld rocket propelled grenade launcher created in the 1950's and serviced in the 1960's has rockets that are 7.07 times faster than a swarm launcher (math: [ 295 / 41.667 ]) made AT LEAST tens of thousands years after present time?

We have railguns (on tanks and installations) and forge guns that fire and hit (almost) instantaneously (or at least close to), but we have "Swarm Missiles" that go about 7 times slower than a grenade with a rocket attached to its a** in the distant future, in a different part of the universe?

Because of gameplay balance.

This. Also, RPG's aren't heat-seeking.

Your grenade flies straight while your missiles turn and track.

Physics says that the radius of a turn increases as the square of the speed.

So your misdles fly fast or they can have that tiny turn radius, but not both.

Increase the speed by much and vehicles can start to dodge them.

You don't need much a turn radius when you go mach 2.2(see my post above).

Talking about turn radius on a missile with a slow moving target is like talking about turn radius on a sniper bullet.


Munch

Because of gameplay balance.

Then of course there is game balance. Lock-on weapons are already easy mode.

If we make weapons that allow you to get a lock followed by an instant hit against vehicles I'll ask for the same thing in a sniper rife.

Take a look at present day automated aiming before you tell me that it wouldn't be possible in the future.

In fact if you want to extrapolate technology to what the real battlefield of he future would look like, just take a look at modern airliners. Pilots of old hand flew, but modern pilots just program systems and monitor them. Your merc would look in the direction of his enemy and will his weapons to auto aim and fire, taking into account the available rounds. In fact, your weapons would probably fire before you were aware of the threat because that would give an overwhelming advantage.

That's far more realistic, but makes for a lousy game.

If you really wanted tech from the future every battle would be over before it starts.

Missiles don't have anywhere near the velocity of a railgun slug.

My point is about the relative speeds of the projectile and its intended target.

The sniper bullet travels much faster than a running guy. Chick chick boom.

The missile travels much faster than the vehicle it is aimed at.

Turns can be fast and have a short radius or slow and have a long radius. You can't do a U-turn at the fastest velocities or your vehicle will flip (then, to add insult to injury, the missile will hit you). A pilot would black out (then the missile will hit you or you will hit the ground). Besides, a U-turn will just point you at the missile.

Obviously, it won't help much if your vehicle's turn is relatively slow.

In both cases the missile can alter its course to follow the target.

Chaff or flares might help, depending what the missile has locked onto.

In any case the odds are stacked heavily in favour of the missile.


Munch

Yes, you can have super high acceleration missiles that would likely strike the vehicle every time.

Is that what you are asking for? A no aim auto hit weapon? In a FPS game?

Because that is what it sounds like you are asking for.