Missiles

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The Vela Pulsar, very much resembling an exploding missile. Image by NASA/ESA

A Missile is a small self-propelled projectile that contains an explosive warhead and/or a sensor platform. Missile warheads explode on impact, creating a triangular damage pattern in armor.

Missiles must be designed and researched, built on planet, loaded onto ships missile magazines and launched by missile launchers. They can use on board fire control and its own sensors for target acquisition.

Missiles require missile launchers of an appropriate size to launch them, however missile launchers can launch smaller missiles than they were designed to accommodate, i.e. a size 5 missile launcher can launch size 1-5 missiles. Each launcher can store one mounted missile. All reloads have to be carried in missile magazines. Missiles cannot be transported in Cargo Holds.

Missiles and Sensor Systems

A successful missile system contains three components that must work together:

1. the Missile
2. the Active Sensor spotting the target
3. the Fire Control directing the missile to the target.

If your anti-ship missile has a range of 40m km, make sure that:

• a) someone's Active Sensor in the Task Group can see the target at that range (doesn't have to be on the same ship)
• b) your FC can see it too.

So range and resolution of sensors and fire controls should be matched to the missile.
Of course there's no harm in Actives with the best range possible, but if missile or FC are mismatched, you're wasting tonnage, time and money.

Missile Warheads and Damage

Missile Damage scatters on impact before penetrating:

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The most efficient warhead damage sizes for armor piercing are as follows:

1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, ... (Square numbers)

For the exact amount of squares pierced, compare to square numbers. Take for example, 3x3, or 9. The damage on impact will be 5-3-1 for each layer of armor from the first to the third. For 10, a non-square number, the damage on impact will be 6-3-1. This means that for each point of WH over a square number, add one to each in a downward fashion. Like this:

WH 10: 6-3-1.
WH 11: 6-4-1.
WH 12: 6-4-2.
WH 13: 7-4-2.

And so on. When there's at least 3 squares on the lowest level, the next WH will place the next point on the next level down. E.g. WH 24 will do 9-7-5-3, WH 25 will do 9-7-5-3-1.

Missiles can be designed down past whole numbers as well so you can have a missile that is 1.25 size, but it can only be fired from a size 2 or larger launcher.

A Word about Agility Tuning

Play around with the Agility value and see how it affects hit chances. Begin with 0.2, then 0.4, 0.6, etc., until you see the numbers drop again. You'll find a maximum somewhere, after which additional agility makes the missile just heavier and lowers hit chances again. When you've found it, play with the second decimal, e.g. 0.42, 0.44, 0.46 etc., for optimization.

Types of Missiles

Missiles can vary in size but can have the same job, smaller is usually better so more get through Point Defense Systems.

Long Range

Favoring fuel and speed, these are mostly for 'hit first at range' tactics, they also are important to mop up any remaining hostile forces that may run, as it can be a problem to chase every single ship down, they also work to weaken hostiles before shorter ranged higher damage missiles finish them off.

Long range Missile Designs

LR Missile	LR High Speed	LR High damage
1 Warhead	1 Warhead	2 Warhead
1.5 Engine	2 Engine	1 Engine
1.5 Fuel	1.5 Fuel	1.5 Fuel
1 Agility	.5 Agility	.5 Agility

Short Range

Balancing out speed and warhead size, these are for quickly destroying hostiles before any severe conflict can begin, a successful use of these missiles can severely weaken, if not destroy your opponent.

Short Range Missile Designs

Base Missile	High Speed	High damage
1.5 Warhead	1.5 Warhead	2 Warhead
1.5 Engine	2.5 Engine	1.5 Engine
.5 Fuel	.5 Fuel	.5 Fuel
1.5 Agility	1.5 Agility	1 Agility

PD Missile

A missile best designed with a 1 damage warhead, this missile should instead balance out speed and fuel, with a majority for agility, these missiles should also be at max size one, as any bigger is a waste of space and material unless an enemy is throwing size 50 missiles at you then situations may deem a change in tactics. PD Missiles need to be at least Strength 1 to destroy enemy missiles. Depending on your Warhead Strength Per MSP technology level, the warhead size in these example designs may need to be increased to ensure the missile is Strength 1 instead of Strength 0. You may need to sacrifice Engine, Fuel, or Agility to ensure the PD Missile is still size 1.

Point Defense Missile Designs

Mid range PD Missile	Short Range PD Missile	V. Short Range PD Missile
.2 Warhead	.2 Warhead	.2 Warhead
.4 Engine	.4 Engine	.44 Engine
.1 Fuel	.05 Fuel	.01 Fuel
.3 Agility	.35 Agility	.35 Agility

Drones

As of Aurora v6.00 there is no longer a separate category for drones in the missile design menu

A drone is a type of missile with a set amount of Engines and no agility. Drone engines are 10x more fuel efficient than missile engines granting them incredible range with little fuel.

These can be used as very long ranged missiles with terrible to hit chance on faster ships, or they can be used to carry your missiles half the way to the enemy before then launching their salvo of faster smaller missiles for the final half million kilometers.

Types of Drones

Long range Anti Ship Drone

Since drones have 10x more fuel efficient engines they can have ranges exceeding 1 billion kilometers while the average missile sits around 50-100 million.

The downside to using them like this is that their hit chance is very low due to no agility.

When you create these designs in game you will probably have 6x longer range with the LR Drone, and 3x longer range with the High damage drone than with a standard missile.

Long range Drone Designs

LR Drone	LR High damage
3 Warhead	4 Warhead
5 Engine	5 Engine
2 Fuel	1 Fuel
0 Agility	0 Agility

MIRV Drone

Drone that carries within it multiple smaller missiles that make up the second stage that when near its target will split off at much higher velocity and high damage to their final target.

With this mix you get the best of both worlds, a Drone that can carry very short ranged missiles a very long distance and high damage/speed/agility missiles with low range for the final stretch.

First Stage

First stage MIRV design

MIRV Drone Designs

LR MIRV Drone
0 Warhead
5 Engine
5 Fuel
0 Agility

Your first stage should mainly be fuel, since the MIRV during first stage will be a slow missile carrying ship for all intents and purposes till it closes to the separation range and the Second stage releases.

Second Stage

Second stage MIRV design includes missiles you previously designed. You can choose what separation range and what missiles you want the MIRV to carry to that range.

Second Stage

MIRV Second stage Designs

MIRV Second Stage Missile
2 Warhead
2 Engine
0.1 Fuel
0.9 Agility

The missile you put on the MIRV will need a very small amount of fuel because you'll only need it to travel less than 15 million kilometers. Go as short range as your enemy's point defense allows though.

Buoy

As of Aurora v6.00 there is no longer a separate category in the missile design window for buoys

A Buoy has a reactor and can be used as a Mine, Sensor, or a geosurvey for bodies.

They have a set lifespan which you adjust when you design them, however so they don't live forever and require replacement eventually.

Types of Buoy

Buoys have multiple purposes from sensors to mines (the kind that explode)

Mine

Mine Buoys are exactly that.

Mines use the second stage ability to release their payloads when an enemy closes with the mines via the separation range setting.

Mines are a very cost effective weapon for jump point defense without dedication of ships.

Mine Designs

Big Mine
20 Reactor Duration
1 size 100 missile

Mine Payload

Mines can carry as many missiles as you want them to.

Sensor

Sensor buoys are good if you want a look at a system to see if there is any activity without risking a ship. Just drop one of these near the jump gate and go back home while this tells you everything that is occurring in the area.

Sensor Buoy

Buoy
20 Reactor Duration
80 Active Sensor (resolution 100)

GeoSurvey

GeoSurvey Designs

Geosurvey
2 Reactor Duration
20 Geo Sensor

Missile Engines

From v6.00, Missile Engines have to be designed separately from the missile, and a single missile can have multiple engines. The four elements of missile engine design are described below.

Engine Technology: Exactly as ship-based engines. For example, the Magneto-plasma Drive has a rating of 16 power per hull space, so a Magneto-plasma missile engine of 1 Missile Size Point (MSP), which is 1/20th of a hull space, would provide 16/20 = 0.8 power.

Fuel Consumption: The base fuel consumption of a missile engine is five litres per Engine Power Hour (which is one point of engine power for one hour) and can be improved through research. So a max size missile engine (5 MSP) with 4 power and a racial fuel consumption technology of 0.6 litres per engine power hour would use 12 litres per hour. This is higher than shipboard engines as missile engines are designed for single use and therefore long-term fuel efficiency is a low priority in their design. They are also solid-fuelled for easy storage, which is less fuel efficient than liquid-fuelled ship-based engines.

Engine Size: Missile engines can range in size from 0.1 MSP to 5 MSP in 0.1 MSP increments. It is hard to create very small fuel efficient engines, so smaller missile engines suffer a further penalty to fuel consumption. The formula is: Fuel Modifier = Int ((Engine Size in MSP / 5) ^ (-0.683)). There is no need to remember this formula as the % change to fuel consumption is shown for each size option in missile engine design. For example, the following sizes of missile engine have the listed fuel consumption penalties

5 MSP x1.00 4 MSP x1.16 3 MSP x1.42 2 MSP x1.87 1 MSP x3.00 0.5 MSP x4.82 0.3 MSP x6.83 0.1 MSP x14.47

Power / Efficiency Modifiers: Missile engines use the same principle as ship engines and use the same tech lines (Max Engine Power Modifier and Min Engine Power Modifier). However, the upper end of the range is doubled for missile engines. So if the Max Engine Power tech is x1.75, missile engines can use up to x3.50. The rationale is that these are designed for single use, unmanned craft and therefore have significantly different engineering requirements, such as no radiation shielding or maintenance access requirements. As with ship-based engines, increasing power has a significant effect on fuel efficiency and decreasing power can provide huge savings in fuel efficiency. As the missile modifier is double that of ships, power can be increased by up to six times normal and decreased to 10% of normal if you have the prerequisite techs. The dropdown on the missile engine design window has options from the minimum possible to the maximum possible in 0.05 increments. So 0.40, 0.45, 0.50, 0.55 ...... 1.80, 1.85, etc. Each engine power modifier percentage is accompanied by a fuel consumption modifier, based on the formula Fuel Efficiency Modifier = Engine Power Modifier ^ 2.5

For example, a 1 MSP missile engine with a x3.00 engine power modifier would have a x15.59 fuel consumption modifier for the engine power modifier and a x3.00 fuel consumption modifier (x3) for the size of the engine, which is a total fuel consumption modifier of x46.77.

A 0.5 MSP missile engine with a x5.00 engine power modifier would have a x55.90 fuel consumption modifier for the power modifier and a x4.82 fuel consumption modifier for the engine size.

Here are the three examples of 1 MSP magneto-plasma drive missile engines, using x1 power, x3 power and x6 power, with a racial base fuel consumption of 0.6 Litres per Engine Power Hour

0.8 EP Magneto-plasma Drive
Engine Power: 0.8 Fuel Use Per Hour: 7.2 Litres
Fuel Consumption per Engine Power Hour: 9.006 Litres
Engine Size: 1 MSP Cost: 0.2
Thermal Signature: 0.8
Materials Required: 0.25x Tritanium 0.2x Gallicite
Development Cost for Project: 40RP

2.4 EP Magneto-plasma Drive
Engine Power: 2.4 Fuel Use Per Hour: 336.92 Litres	Fuel Consumption per Engine Power Hour: 140.385 Litres
Engine Size: 1 MSP Cost: 0.6
Thermal Signature: 2.4
Materials Required: 0.25x Tritanium 0.6x Gallicite
Development Cost for Project: 120RP

4.8 EP Magneto-plasma Drive
Engine Power: 4.8 Fuel Use Per Hour: 3811.86 Litres
Fuel Consumption per Engine Power Hour: 794.137 Litres
Engine Size: 1 MSP Cost: 1.2
Thermal Signature: 4.8
Materials Required: 0.25x Tritanium 1.2x Gallicite
Development Cost for Project: 240RP

Missile Sensors

In Aurora v6.00, missile sensors were changed and buoys, which previously had long endurance sensors, were "removed". It is still possible to create a "buoy", see below.

Missile sensors must be powered. The power requirement for any sensor is equal to its 20% of the sensor strength. So one missile size point (MSP = 1/20th of a HS) allocated to an EM Sensor using a base EM sensor strength of 8 would result in an EM sensor strength of 0.4 (8/20). This would require a reactor with a power output of 0.08 (0.4/5). The reactor space is allocated automatically but displayed as if it was added by the player. Ship-based sensors do not require reactors as their needs can be met from the general power generation of the ship. On a per HS basis, passive sensors are much less powerful than active sensors at the same tech level, which means missiles will require less reactor space per MSP of passive sensors compared to active sensors.

There is no longer a separate 'buoy' category but you can create the same effect by designing a missile with sensors and no engine. The necessary reactor space will be added automatically. Missile reactors have unlimited endurance so there is no longer a need to replace buoys every few years.

You can create a single stage missile with both an engine and a reactor, which means you can create a self-deploying 'buoy' without the need for a two-stage missile, although there are situations in which you might still use a two-stage missile anyway.

Missile series

Missiles can be organized into missile series. This feature allows a ship rearming in a depot to load another missile similar in size and role if no stock of the required missile is available. For example, your standard loadout for a Broadsword destroyer is 25 Long Lance Mk4 missiles. If only 8 are available at the depot, the game will automatically try to load other missiles from the same series, so you might end up with 8x Long Lance Mk4, 13x Long Lance Mk3 and 2x Long Lance Mk5, because they all belong to the Long Lance series and perform a similar role.

Missile Design Spreadsheet

There are a couple of very useful on-line spreadsheets available for calculating optimal missile configurations.

As with any Internet source... Caveat Emptor 

• spreadsheet
• Missile design aid spreadsheet or App by Romalar1