ya… but if it hits the shield, does it just get “absorbed” by the shield or does it explode dealing AoE anyways?
Good point - normally I would say it is to be used against fighters (unshielded) but the way the AI fires everything at anything - not sure. I would like to say explode anyway – but I believe most missiles just get sucked up by the shields. You know it would be nifty if missiles after fired and miss could re-lock on to the nearest target in front of them… That would be - really nifty…
Berny
very nifty, and hellish to code. i asked a friend of mine who works in designing computer programs (including games), and she said it would be difficult to do
The ideas awesome and could look very cool, but having limited ammo… just do-sent seem right unless all weapons that are not energy based are as well. Perhaps a new order or pd/gs could be brought in that specialises with these new warheads? Perhaps a new turret that slows down missiles or a shield that slows them down?
Some serious necromancy at work here.
Anyway I don’t see the use of this weapon… At all. Every decent long range fleet comes with matrix of scramblers or tank/smart bomb, so it simply won’t hit anything. And even if we assume the other fleet don’t have scrambler, the slowing down will still make its DPS horrible due to the 1 missile per launcher limit.
Though it will look really funny against fast frigates. Like the missile will slow down and the frigate will zoom past it.
It would be nice though if a ‘scrambled’ missile could simply lock onto the next visible target if it still has the juice available. It would make the choice of scramblers or point defense weapons more of a balancing act. Do I chose the much more effective GSB though it means the missile might just possibly hit the guy behind me - or the less effective PD weapon that would end the thread permanently.
I would say this idea is more for missiles/torpedos than rockets.
Berny
Since we are on the subject of missiles and scramblers.
What about a “return to sender” beam ?
Percent chance that the beam turns the missile around and target the ship that launched it.
(Be a nice counter to missile spam.)
EPIC WIN… i mean IDEA! 
its a really cool idea, but wouldnt the fuel run out in 90% of the cases?
TOBUSCUS!
From real long range yes there will not be enough fuel in the missile to turn around and become any threat to the ship that launched it. However as the lines of skirmish close together - maybe there will be enough fuel to hit the ship that sent the missile.
Missile spammer never close together though, and a rush cannot afford a scrambler in place of an engine or a CL.
That said, Missile Spam is already a one trick pony as is, and doesn’t need anymore counters than it already has. The thing is missile shoots faster as you get closer due to the 1 missile limit, so scrambler becomes progressively useless as the distance decrease. A fast 55 tank is a much better close in strategy.
When Cliffski mentioned this, I knew I could get behind it immediately. Here’s hoping that The Parasites get it and really shake things up.