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Neko: Please look at game 4834 turn 3> Why is there an unexploding missile (340) in the same hex as fighter (zarby)

Hollander wrote:

The movement system is that all fighters move first and then all missiles move. They happen at different times. During a fighters movement it checks for collisions on asteroids. However, if you start your turn on an asteroid you cannot collide with that asteroid. When a missile moves it checks for collisions with asteroids and fighters the same way. Therefore it cannot hit a fighter that moved into its hex.

This is a good way to dodge a missile. Basically think of it as charging the missile head on and then making a quick move at the last second. The missile is moving too fast to adjust in time and over shoots your fighter.

Zarby wrote:

While Zarby correctly describes why it happens, I think the collision detection algorithm should be changed to prevent this sort of missile dodging (though I'll admit to having done it myself once or twice when it was the only option to avoid being hit). It just doesn't make any sense for the missile to miss simply because it has reversed course and returned to it's starting point during the turn. In the game referenced by Hollander, the missile used all of it's thrust for the turn, but there are often situations when a missile can reverse course with thrust points left over. In that strange situation it can neither move closer to its target nor explode, so it just sits there. It also loses it's targeting lock, since berserk missiles can't see targets in the same hex as them (presumably nobody thought to include that in the engineering specs).

From a code perspective, I guess there would need to be a special case for zero-speed moves where the collision detection algorithm makes an extra check to see if there's anything to collide with in the original hex. For the purposes of keeping just one collision algorithm, I'd also make it so that fighters collide if they end their turn on top of an asteroid even if they did not move at all. If you start a turn on top of an asteroid you could still avoid colliding by moving off immediately.

BlckKnght wrote:

I think it would be easier to put a check after the fighter move to see if it landed in the hex with the missile. You can then have a roll against piloting to dodge the missile. Failure to dodge could then trigger a flag for auto collision.

Zarby wrote:

Hmm, that could work I guess. I think it makes more sense though for you to be able to move onto a missile as long as it's starting speed is such that it can't come back to hit you. The missile might not even be targeting you, in some cases (I've dodged out of the way of a missile that I'd just fired this way before). The idea that the missiles really do move entirely after the fighters have moved is silly. The only reason the game works that way is so that the missiles can track their targets' movements during the turn. You can think of it instead as them identifying the target's new vector immediately at the start of the turn, then moving at the same time as the fighters. In that model, a missile that can't quite reverse itself leave the hex right at the start of the turn, breaking hard to kill most of it's speed.