T2 Cruise Missiles -- Well, Okay, Maybe More Rigors

Today I want to do a review of the 3rd and most complex component of the equation that determines how much missile damage is applied, and what it means for T2 cruise missiles.

The damage modification is uses the lesser of the value 1, the target signature radius divided by the missile explosion radius, or another more complex equation that takes target velocity into account.  The goal is to get each part of the equation up to a value of 1 or more to apply full damage.  In my prior T2 cruise missile post, I looked specifically at the 2nd part of the question, to determine how we make sure full damage can be applied.  But this is only guaranteed for targets standing still.  For the full damage to actually be applied, we need to make sure the 3rd part of the equation approaches 1 as well, and it turns out this is pretty significant when it comes to T2 cruise missiles.

I am going to keep this simple, and ignore the parts that we don't really care much about.  The 3rd part of the equation has an exponent that involves the natural log and some mysterious damage factor, but we can actually ignore this for what we are doing.  When we approach 1, the exponent will have no effect.  And even when under 1, the effect is less with cruise missiles than it is with other types of missiles.  So lets just keep it simple and ignore it.  (If you want to see the gory equation specifics, check it out on Eve University)

What we are left with is S / E * X / V, which we want to raise to the value of 1.  S is sig radius of target, E is explosion radius of missile, X is explosion velocity of missile, and V is velocity of target.  Now S / E was the equation from the prior blog post.  We have already looked at what we need to do to make sure this is 1.  Looking at the stats for Fury Cruise Missiles, we find that the explosion velocity X is 58.  This means as soon as the target exceeds a speed of 58 m/s, the damage applied starts to drop!  And it can drop a lot, when explosion velocity is only 58.

How do we fix this?  Our options are:

1. Slow the target down.  Webs.  But you have to be pretty close for webs, so this is out.
2. Increase the explosion velocity.  This can be done, but how much effect will it have?  There is the Target Navigation Prediction skill, and probably some modules that can help.  But will it be enough?
3. Compensate for X / V being less than 1 by making S / E more than 1.  Ah ha!  Other writings don't always make this clear, but this is why you might go overboard with increasing signature radius of the target and decreasing explosion radius of the missiles -- not because of the 2nd part of the equation, but rather because of the 3rd -- to compensate for explosion velocity being less than the target's speed.

I'll look at doing some specific calculations in a later post, but the moral of the story for today is that target speed can be a problem for T2 Fury cruise missiles. We need more missile explosion velocity, less missile explosion radius, and/or more target signature radius.  Maybe I should sacrifice a mid slot item for a target painter.  And maybe a 2nd Rigor Catalyst is a good idea after all.