Missile command

The MISSILE command launches a guided hyper-missile at a selected ship. Its charge is drawn from the firing ship's neutron-flux pile when the missile launches; see Missiles for flight, interception, and damage.

Syntax

Classic: MISSILE ship-letter charge
         MISSILE @ charge

ge-next: MISSILE ship-letter [charge]
         MISSILE @ [charge]

The command may be abbreviated to MIS. A ship letter selects a target from the current scan table; @ selects the ship remembered by LOCK. That remembered target is only a selection shortcut: every launch still makes a fresh missile-guidance calculation.

MIS A 10000
MIS @ 5000

Classic requires a charge, with an intended range of 1–50,000. ge-next 0.2 accepts a charge from 2,000 to 20,000, uses 5,000 if it is omitted, and clamps an out-of-range supplied value to the nearest limit. Classic rejects zero and values above 50,000, but its parser fails to reject a negative value before converting it to an unsigned charge (Classic bug: Negative missile charge).

Launch checks

The firing ship must have missile capability and at least one missile on board. It cannot be cloaked. The target must be valid, visible, within scanner range, and outside neutral-zone protection; the firing ship must also be outside the neutral zone. Missile guidance must be functional, interference must permit a lock, the target must have an open incoming-missile slot, and the ship must have enough flux for the requested charge. Unlike torpedoes, missiles can be fired while either ship is traveling through hyperspace.

Guidance is deterministic and depends on the initial distance, not either ship's speed:

factor = (5 - distance in sectors) / (MISFACT / 10)
launch succeeds if factor > 0.7

With the stock MISFACT of 21, the limit is just under 3.53 sectors, about 35,300 distance units; scanner range can impose a shorter limit. A LOCK target must still pass this test. Classic uses general fire-control damage for missile guidance and rejects a launch under any jamming; ge-next has distinct missile-control damage and permits light, but not severe, jamming.

Each target has three incoming-missile slots shared by all attackers. Classic's ship-class setting is simply missile-capable or not, with no separate launcher reload counter. ge-next allows zero to three missile launchers per class; each launcher can fire once per ship-state update before reloading on the next update, normally about six seconds later. When another attacker occupies a full target's slots, ge-next can identify that attacker in the refusal message.

Flux and failed attempts

Classic stores the full selected charge in the missile but charges the firing ship only charge / MISENGFC flux, using integer division. The supplied configuration defaults MISENGFC to 100 despite its description saying 10: a 50,000-charge launch costs 500 flux by default, and a charge below 100 costs none. Classic's availability check can allow the subtraction to drive the stored flux pile below zero; see Classic bug: Flux subtraction underflow.

ge-next 0.2 removed that ratio: a 5,000-charge missile costs 5,000 flux. Its normal automatic flux-pod loading can supply energy when a pod is available; otherwise the launch is refused. See Missiles for how the smaller charge range was balanced for damage.

Only a successful launch consumes ammunition and flux. Classic lowers raised shields before checking ammunition, syntax, flux, target, guidance, or available target slots, so even a failed command can leave the firing ship unshielded. ge-next lowers raised shields only after all launch checks pass; successful firing leaves the shields down until the player raises them again.

A successful launch notifies the target and starts combat-exit timers for both ships. Classic can also notify the target, start combat timers, and provoke a Cybertron during a failed guidance attempt against an otherwise eligible ship. ge-next does not notify the target or start combat timers for a failed launch; it can still provoke an NPC once guidance succeeds, even if a later slot, launcher, or flux check refuses the launch. An explicit LOCK remains a hostile act.

Missile command

Contents

Syntax

Launch checks

Flux and failed attempts

See also