Inaccurate missiles

[quarkhopper]

A general question: Even if you get your inaccuracy to 0 blocks by using a launcher platform, it still seems as though your missiles land 10 - 20 blocks from the target specified. I'm using all T3 equipment.

Is this a designed limitation in the game? Is there something I can do to ensure that a missile fired 500 blocks or more away will hit the target I specify? I know how to use the tracker and homing missile, but maybe there something I'm missing with the other types of missiles...

Any help would be appreciated.

[quarkhopper]

I think there might be an effect of elevation difference but I'm not sure.

[xtrasyn]

There's always a little inaccuracy so I suggest to deal with it. :/

[Teraku]

You can make your missiles 100% accurate by putting a Launcher Support Frame T3 behind the launcher, right next to where the missile is stationed.

That said, there might be a tiny bit of inaccuracy if you fire from really far away.

[quarkhopper]

Well, the flight path to cruising and from cruising to target looks to be roughly parabolic, but you might be able to roughly approximate a linear ascent/descent for the vertical distances covered. As such, I ran some experiments.

I created a map with a "near" platform at y=200, and three "far" platforms almost 1000 blocks away at y=1,100,and 200

I conducted five tests with a breaching missile: from 200 to 200, 200 to 100, 200 to 1, 1 to 200 (reverse direction), and 100 to 200 (reverse direction again). The graphical results are at the link below (seen from overhead). They show the crater in red, and measurements from the intended targets. The lines have a dot every 5 blocks.

Predictably, the 200 to 200 launch was a bullseye. Apparently it has everything to do with your height difference and nothing else.

I compiled the raw data in a table (link below) and discovered that the distance that the missile lands from the target is about 0.3 times the difference in Y between the launcher and the target. Using some trigonometry, you can solve for the corrections in X and Z that will nail the target.

From this I was able to hack together a calculator in Excel. I enter my launcher X,Y,Z and target X,Y,Z and it spits out the corrected X and Z that I *should* use ... and live happily ever after.

[Xylord]

A general question: Even if you get your inaccuracy to 0 blocks by using a launcher platform, it still seems as though your missiles land 10 - 20 blocks from the target specified. I'm using all T3 equipment.

Is this a designed limitation in the game? Is there something I can do to ensure that a missile fired 500 blocks or more away will hit the target I specify? I know how to use the tracker and homing missile, but maybe there something I'm missing with the other types of missiles...

Any help would be appreciated.

An imprecision of 10-20 meters really is pretty damn good, knowing that the most precise ICBM the U.S. could come up with, the Peacekeeper, has a pretty dodgy accuracy of 100 meters.

In all seriousness, it's always nice to see people doing minecraft science. Props to quarkhopper in this regard; both images you uploaded are identical though.

[quarkhopper]

In case you're curious how the calculations panned out, here are the figures I put in to my balistics calculator to retry the y=200 to y=1 test shot again (cX and cZ are the new values to use instead of the actual target coordinates):

... And here's the resulting strike. The red blocks in the background were with the uncorrected target values (from my previous data), and the blue hole in the middle of the crosshairs is the result of using my correction calculator and the new coordinates

Bullseye!

[quarkhopper]

An imprecision of 10-20 meters really is pretty damn good, knowing that the most precise ICBM the U.S. could come up with, the Peacekeeper, has a pretty dodgy accuracy of 100 meters.

In all seriousness, it's always nice to see people doing minecraft science. Props to quarkhopper in this regard; both images you uploaded are identical though.

Thanks! The images were identical until I edited the post, try reloading. I fixed it, I promise :)

[Xylord]

Thanks! The images were identical until I edited the post, try reloading. I fixed it, I promise

Ha, that's quite alright, your plans are pretty cool. And of course, the necessary NPC village at hand in case you need a nuke test as a stress reliever during the more serious tests. ;D

[quarkhopper]

Ha, that's quite alright, your plans are pretty cool. And of course, the necessary NPC village at hand in case you need a nuke test as a stress reliever during the more serious tests. ;D

Incendiary missiles may have been used as a celebration... >:)

[Teraku]

For stuff like nuclear missiles, you could reduce the height difference in some scenarios to mitigate the inaccuracy.

Of course, when you're using nuclear cluster missiles, an inaccuracy of 20 blocks doesn't really matter.