I’m guessing they don’t, but missiles do have a tracking speed stat, so it’s possible…
My guess is that they do increase missile tracking speeds, but probably only cliffski can answer for sure.
yes they do, but you are much better off using target painters if you are relying on missiles. They literally guarantee a hit. (whilst active)
Interesting note: target painters seem to guarantee a hit for each missile launched while they are active, even if the beam deactivates before the missiles reach their target. It does not, however, guarantee hits for missiles that are launched before the painter fires but that strike the target while the painter is active.
It makes perfect sense given the to-hit mechanics, but is slightly counterintuitive and probably makes people think that painters don’t actually guarantee hits.
Indeed, it’s a fair point, but your analysis is correct. It would be a nightmare to change to a different system. One of the many optimisations in the game is that missiles that will miss don’t do any clever calculations mid flight, they just keep going.
It seems to me that it might be a slight improvement (and perhaps a touch more realistic) to do the “hit” calculation when the missile first goes active rather than when it leaves the launch tube. There is a certain minimum range below which a missile can’t do anything anyway, it’s just a nifty graphic. For missiles that split into multiples with decoys, the calculation could happen when they split up.
It would be a significant improvement if missiles in flight when a target is destroyed would try to pick a new target, (since the missile launchers will all immediately re-fire anyway, just recalc’ing the current missiles shouldn’t be much harder than generating new ones)