What are the cons of modelling each individual rocket?

What are the cons of modelling each individual rocket?

 

In the fixed wing context, especially, I expect the aircraft will dump its entire load of rockets on a single, large DP target (e.g. an airfield) in a single pass.

 

So typically something like 80x 2 DP rockets in one go. I would have to dumb down the pH to make the total DP inflicted more palatable.

I'm missing something here, isn't that what hit chance % is meant to do? If you have many individual rockets, the hit chance of the individual is less than a salvo of them. In theory, on the average you can work out the PH and DP values to make the two arrangements similar. That leaves me wondering if there is a game limitation you are trying to overcome by modeling salvos instead of individual rockets.

I'm missing something here, isn't that what hit chance % is meant to do? If you have many individual rockets, the hit chance of the individual is less than a salvo of them. In theory, on the average you can work out the PH and DP values to make the two arrangements similar. That leaves me wondering if there is a game limitation you are trying to overcome by modeling salvos instead of individual rockets.

 

I am always trying to work around game limitations, you know that. You're steadily making the list shorter, though!

 

When I say salvo here, I am talking about modeling the entire pod of rockets in a single shot. (As was the case in the HCDB.)

 

Let's say it is a 19 tube Hydra 70 pod of 19x 70mm rockets. As a salvo, it might have 38 DP and pH 60%.

 

This mandates firing the entire load (salvo) of rockets against each individual target, whether that target is a lone truck (in which case the entire pod of rockets is very likely to be overkill) or an airfield (in which case it is not). Not really a satisfactory solution.

 

Also, with that salvo model, pH is applied across the board to the entire pod of rockets. Either they all hit, or they all miss. Both probabilities are not terribly realistic. It is far more likely (in reality) that some would hit, while some would not.

 

Modeling individual rockets is preferable, but it also has drawbacks.

 

Using the same example, our rocket pod might have 19x rockets, each with 2 DP and pH 60%.

 

A player controlled helicopter might find this set up extremely useful, because he can 'plink' a target with as many rockets as necessary to inflict the desired damage. Especially if there are multiple targets with low DP, e.g. a convoy of trucks. It also works well realism wise, because that helo can hover at distance and fire away at leisure.

 

An AI controlled fixed wing aircraft, however, might dump a significant portion of its rockets at the first truck in the convoy or dump its entire load of rockets on a high DP installation (e.g. airfield), causing little damage, while ignoring the nearby truck convoy that would have made a much more useful target. A fixed wing aircraft is also more likely (in real life) to launch many more rockets at a time (I hesitate to use the term salvo, to avoid confusion with the earlier discussion, but that is what it is) in a single pass by virtue of its speed, orientation, exposure to counter-fire, etc.

 

One option is to employ a mixed model - both salvo and individual - but that means more complexity and work for me.

 

Right now I am leaning towards the individual rocket (some folks will already have noticed this in the HCDB2) and see what happens.