Rob Alexander
	Hi, I just saw a battle report in which a starbase attacked a ship as it entered orbit. The ship was destroyed by missiles in the first round, but none of the photon weapons fired at all. The ground combat doc says: "Energy weapons can only target things in line of sight, while missiles can fire indirectly." Presumably, then, the target ship was outside line of sight. In what circumstances is this the case? Would the photons have worked if they had been on a platform? rob
David Bethel
	You can not fire direct LOS weapons (Energy weapons, tractor beams or Rail guns) from a planet to a target in orbit _unless_ that target is attacking you with either tractor beams or energy weapons. Note that you can attack a ground target with rail guns and still not be fired on by that target with direct LOS weapons - as it is considered that you can plan to orbit of the projectile while the target can not move.
Rob Alexander
	Are torpedoes exactly the same as missiles in this regard? rob
David Bethel
	Yes torps of all types are just a type of missile and are treated in exactly the same way as missiles. They do have different effects but there is no specific code for a torpedo over a missile. It is quite possible to research different weapons that will fit into the missile catagory and have a totally different stats but they will all be handled by the same code.
Rob Alexander
	What can platforms do in this regard? The same as starbases? rob
Rich Farry
	QUOTE (David Bethel @ Jun 12 2003, 07:39 PM) You can not fire direct LOS weapons (Energy weapons, tractor beams or Rail guns) from a planet to a target in orbit _unless_ that target is attacking you with either tractor beams or energy weapons. If there is not already an option to do so would it be a good idea to have a combat option toggle for ships to either remain out of LOS of a starbase, or to engage within LOS? It sounds like a ship armed with both direct fire and indirect fire weapons would automatically move into LOS of a starbase to attack with its direct fire weapons, even though it may be more prudent to just attack with its indirect weapons.
David Bethel
	QUOTE What can platforms do in this regard? The same as starbases? Platforms can attack any positons in orbit or landed on the planet. They have no restrictions. If they use directed weapons vs another starabse then they are treated the same way as ships and can be fired on by the targeted starbase.
Romanov
	While I know that most if not all people are in this situation, why were "hit anything in orbit" plasma projectors converted to LOS rail weapons at conversion? Plasma projectors were the best colony space weapon in BSE but rail weapons appear to be the worst space defense weapon in Phoenix. Plasma projectors would have been better converting to torpedos. Nic
David Bethel
	QUOTE Plasma projectors were the best colony space weapon in BSE but rail weapons appear to be the worst space defense weapon in Phoenix. Plasma projectors would have been better converting to torpedos? Not really as torps will only hit stationary targets from a starbase. -12 Acc per g difference in combat speeds for torps. So that would have been bad when introduced that Basically the rail guns are not useless, put them in a platform.... end of problem. The main colony defence in BSE were space fighters not plasma projectors and they work just the same. Any colony that had production spare for plasma has enough to build the platforms presently.
Lord Scrimm
	QUOTE (David Bethel @ Jun 22 2003, 06:16 AM) Not really as torps will only hit stationary targets from a starbase. -12 Acc per g difference in combat speeds for torps. So that would have been bad when introduced that Does this apply only to Torps or to Missiles as well? In another thread, Torps were classified as indirect fire weapons just like Missiles. Sorry if this was covered earlier in the Torp/Missile debate, but I wasn never really sure how that was resolved Rich Fanning aka Lord Lawrence Scrimm CIA Director of Regional Operations
David Bethel
	All of the torps have a -12 ACC per g difference in the the launchers combat speed and the targets combat speed (this does not apply to missiles). Only the subtype {Torpedo} of the item type missile is effected by the torpedo acc rules. As you fire more missiles/torps at a target point defence becomes more effective. 1 hit from point defence can convert to many missiles/torps destroyed. The more incoming missiles and torpedos and the greater the dmg of the weapon the larger this effect is. So torps are badly effected by point defence and missiles are effected less.