Missile mechanics: Difference between revisions

A missile's explosion expands in a bubble of its own. The speed at which this bubble grows is called the <span style="color:#ccffee">''explosion velocity''</span>, and the maximum size that the bubble will reach is called the <span style="color:#ccffee">''explosion radius''</span>. A missile does not so much "hit" a ship as explode near it. EVE uses a [[#Missile damage formula|mathematical formula]] to compute the precise amount of damage that the explosion does to the ship.

[[File:QSG_missile_terms.png|thumb|right|upright=0.8|A Missile Explodes|alt=drawing showing SR and ER]]

Every missile has a <span style="color:#ccffee">''Base Damage''</span> – which is listed as "explosive damage", "kinetic damage", or so on in the Attributes tab of the missile's Get Info window.[[File:SampleMissile.png|thumb|Heavy Missile Attributes|alt=Get Info window showing heavy missile attributes]] This amount may be augmented somewhat by certain skills and/or equipment, and when the term "Base Damage" is used here, it means the listed damage of the missile plus any augmented damage … in other words, the damage you expect the missile to do if it scores a direct hit.

*'''Explosion velocity''', in the simplest terms, determines how fast a ship needs to be moving to escape some of the damage the missile inflicts. Think of this as being able to somewhat outrun the shockwave generated by an explosion. The farther away a ship is from a warhead when it detonates, the less powerful the resulting shockwave will be when it hits the ship. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s3-c2gpbEs This video] is a good example of the principle in action; the explosion is clearly massive enough to kill anyone standing nearby, but the people filming were far enough away that, when it finally reached them, the force behind it had dissipated enough that they only got buffeted by the wind.

*'''Explosion radius''' is best described as how small a ship needs to be to only be hit by a part of the explosion it's flying through. A good analogy would be to fragmentation grenades, which cause injury not by the size of the explosion they make, but by filling the air with hundreds of metal fragments moving with the speed of bullets. Something like a human being is going to be hit by many of these fragments and suffer horrible injury as a result, but a sparrow is small enough that it might not be hit by anything large enough to cause it serious injury, and a bee is so small that the chances of it being hurt at all are slim to none.

In practice damage is usually reduced by the combination of these two factors.

{{Note box|In the simplest terms: big, slow ships can take up to 100% of missile damage. Small, fast ships often take less damage. It is '''NOT''' the speed of the missile that matters; but the speed and size of the explosion.}}

*If you are using missiles, you want a faster explosion (''more explosion velocity'') and a smaller one (''less explosion radius'') – in other words, a short, tight explosion is more effective than a long, loose one.

*If a missile reaches its target, it will always do ''some'' damage. It is the speed of the explosion that helps determine how much ... not the speed of the missile.

*Unlike with turrets, the angular velocity of the target does not matter ''for computing damage''. The missile still has to get to the target, but once it arrives, damage is computed using the target's absolute velocity.

*Because damage is related to both speed and Signature Radius, using a microwarp drive, which increases both speed AND Signature Radius, will not significantly reduce damage. Afterburners do not affect Signature Radius, however, and so could possibly help.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; text-size:90%"

! scope="col" width="130px" style="background-color:#222222; text-align:left" | Missile

! scope="col" width="90px" style="background-color:#222222;" | Explosion Radius

! scope="col" width="90px" style="background-color:#222222;" | Explosion Velocity

! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;" | Base Damage (Thermal)

| style="text-align:left" | Inferno Precision Light Missile|| 25 || 204 || 83  

| style="text-align:left" | Inferno Light Missile|| 40 || 170 || 83  

| style="text-align:left" | Caldari Navy Inferno Light Missile|| 40 || 170 || 95  

| style="text-align:left" | Inferno Fury Light Missile|| 69 || 143 || 116  

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; text-size:90%"

! scope="col" width="130px" style="background-color:#222222; text-align:left;" | Missile

! scope="col" width="90px" style="background-color:#222222;" | Explosion Radius

! scope="col" width="90px" style="background-color:#222222;" | Explosion Velocity

! scope="col" width="100px" style="background-color:#222222;" | Base Damage (Thermal)

| style="text-align:left" |Inferno Light Missile|| 40 || 170 || 83  

| style="text-align:left" |Inferno Rocket|| 20 || 150 || 33  

| style="text-align:left" |Inferno Heavy Missile|| 140 || 85 || 149

| style="text-align:left" |Inferno Torpedo|| 405 || 78 || 450  

 

Skills and ship equipment can have a direct impact on missile damage. A number of implants do the same. In addition, modules such as Target Painters and Webifiers can affect the target's signature radius and speed, thus making missile damage more effective.

 

*{{sk|Guided Missile Precision|mult=yes}} reduces the impact of the target signature radius on the damage. This effectively decreases the explosion radius of the missile by 5% per skill level, which makes it more likely to do full damage to a small/fast target.

*{{sk|Target Navigation Prediction|mult=yes}} reduces the impact of the target velocity on the damage. This effectively increases the explosion velocity by 10% per skill level, which makes it more likely to do full damage to a small/fast target.

*{{sk|Warhead Upgrades|mult=yes}} provides a 2% increase in missile damage per level ... this appears to apply to Base Damage.

 

*Warhead Calefaction Catalyst: increases the base damage of the missile but increases the CPU requirement for the launcher.

*Warhead Flare Catalyst: increases the explosion velocity of the missile but increases the CPU requirement for the launcher.

*Warhead Rigor Catalyst: decreases the explosion radius of the missile but increases the CPU requirement for the launcher.

 

*Precision Missiles are more effective than Furies against smaller, faster targets, but do less base damage per missile.  

*Fury Missiles have a larger base damage per missile, but are less effective than Precisions against smaller, faster targets.

*Both have a somewhat shorter range than regular and Faction missiles.

 

==== All Missiles ====

 

*Zainou 'Deadeye' Guided Missile Precision: 1% to 6% reduced factor of signature radius for all missile explosions

*Zainou 'Deadeye' Target Navigation Prediction: 1% to 6% decrease in factor of target's velocity for all missile explosions

 

*[[EWar_101_Guide#Target_Painting_.28TP.29|Target Painters]] can effectively increase the Signature Radius of the ship. This makes the ship bigger and more likely to take full damage.

*[[Stasis_Webifier_Module#Web | Stasis Webifiers]] can decrease the ship's velocity. This makes the ship slower and more likely to take full damage.

==Missile damage formula==

{{Note box|<big>''WARNING: '''Math''' below!''</big>}}

:<math>\displaystyle \text{Damage}= D \cdot \min\left( 1, \frac{S}{E}, \left(\frac{S\,V_\mathrm{e}}{E\,V_\mathrm{t}} \right)^\mathrm{drf} \right)</math>

 

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed sortable" style="text-size:90%"  

|-

! style="background-color:#222222;" | Missile Type

! style="background-color:#222222;" | DRF  

:<math>\displaystyle \mathrm{Damage}= \mathrm{Base damage} \cdot \min\left( 1, \frac{S}{E}, \left(\frac{S\,V_\mathrm{e}}{E\,V_\mathrm{t}} \right)^\mathrm{drf} \right)</math>

|-

! style="background-color:#222222;" | Missile  

! style="background-color:#222222;" | Minimum Velocity<br />Factor (V_e/E)

:<math>\displaystyle V_\text{t} = S \times \text{MVF} </math>

{{Example | Example 1:  

The Heavy Missile has a MVF of 0.648.

Since the speed of the Drake (140 m/s) is below the required speed (191.16 m/s), the speed does not affect the missile damage. The damage is determined by 1, the lowest of the three factors and the missile does full damage.}}

{{Example | Example 2:

The Heavy Missile has a MVF of 0.648.

The required speed stays the same. As the drake is now significantly faster than the required speed (273m/s vs 191.16m/s) some damage is lost (the missile does approximately 72.6% of maximum damage).}}

{{Example | Example 3:

The Heavy Missile has a MVF of 0.648.

Since the speed of the Drake with a MWD (675m/s) is below the required speed (1051.38 m/s), the speed does not affect the missile damage. The damage is determined by 1, the damage is 100% of the possible damage and it is no different than the damage the ship receives without the MWD.}}

{{Example | Example 4:

The Heavy Missile has a MVF of 0.648 and explosion radius E of 140m.

Since signature radius of Griffin is smaller than missile's explosion radius, we are limited by the second term in the missile damage formula - S/E, which is 0.3. That means that at the best we are able to do only 30% of Heavy Missile's damage when firing at Griffin, even when Griffin is not moving at all. Also, we can notice that in this case, Griffin's speed will take effect much later than at required speed. While required speed is 27.216m/s (42 * 0.648), at this speed third term in the missile damage formula is 1, however, it still does not have any effect because second term is 0.30. We will need to solve different (and more complicated) equation to get the speed of Griffin which will lower damage further below those 30%. After calculation we see that speed of the Griffin needs to be at least 141.89m/s to have further effect on reducing damage, which is more than 5 times more than required speed of 27.216m/s.

::''Maximum Distance ≈ Speed x Seconds of Fuel''

Eve uses 1 second ticks. If the missile flight time is not an integer then the missile will fly for the integer number of seconds shown and has a chance to fly one more second. For example a missile with a flight time of 7.5 seconds has a 50% probability to fly for 7 seconds and a 50% probability to fly for 8 seconds.<ref>If the flight time is a fraction EVE rounds it up or down. At times this produces considerable departures from the computed range. See [https://youtu.be/fyKTHfDYeqU Missile flight time demonstration]</ref>

This information, as modified by your skills and equipment bonuses, along with the missile's dps and type of damage, is shown when you move your mouse over the icon for a missile launcher while in space.

If the target is moving directly away from the missile, then it will take the missile longer to reach the target than it would a stationary one. In fact, if the target is moving fast enough, the missile may not be able to reach it at all - in this case, the target would be considered "out of range." Note that the target does not have to be moving faster than the missile ... just fast enough to stay ahead of the missile until it runs out of fuel.

| [[File:QSM_missile_orbit.gif‎]]|| [[File:QSM_missile_catchyes.gif‎‎]]|| [[File:QSM_missile_catchno.gif‎]]