Jet Radar Missiles Issue
This post is mainly for my notes and so I can time stamp it, but sharing for those who are interested. Conducted testing today with Jet Radar missiles vs stationary/slow moving Attack Helicopter using flares. One of three things happens after missile is fired (assuming it locks):
Missile hits for full damage
Missile is deflected by flares for zero damage
Missiles is deflected by flares but does 2 damage since it either impacts the heli or detonates too close to it (unsure which one)
When deployed in time the Flares worked as described in 2 and 3 above. However, if the missiles was fired at close range or if the target didn't flare quickly enough then the missile would hit for full damage. The in game behavior of Flares appears to be such that it effectively creates an invisible force field that the missile can't penetrate. This is why you see the missiles do loops in front of or around the target. If the missile is already past the field then the missile ignores the countermeasures and hits the target. This was tested with two computers sharing the same connection so ping was good and even in those conditions it was hard to flare in time when the missile was fired at short/medium range. I imagine once you insert lag into the equation it becomes even more difficult.
One thing to note is that even in close range, if I deployed flares simultaneously with the missile, the flares would deflect the missile. Obviously this is impossible to pull off in a real game as there is always some lag in seeing the missile incoming indicator and when you actually flare but it was reassuring to know that at least the underlying flare mechanic was working properly.
Some things to look at potentially would be missile initial speed, acceleration and max speed. Tweaking especially the first two should give opposing pilots a lot more time to react and deploy flares in time. To compensate and keep the range the same you'd likely have to increase the time to live slightly. http://ambrnet.com/CalcPhysics/FreeFall/FreeFall.htm
