[spaceships] Proximity Warhead damage

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Computer issues might not be that necessary...modern air-to-air combat is missile-centric but it's not a Macross Missile Massacre, so getting from there to Elite might be reachable.

However...
-Atmospheric flight makes a long-range, fast missile also a big expensive missile. Burn-and-drift spaceflight means range as such is no issue to space-borne missiles.

Burn-and-drift is useless if the target performs meaningful amounts of manoeuvring. Sure, there is no drag, but if distances are even somewhat bigger than in atmo (and remember, full 3D due to no ground), hoping that the opponent is still there is less realistic.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

-Aerodynamic maneuvering allows for surprising quick course changes. It's much harder to pull such things off in space. (Consider how hard it would be for a standard-rules missile to catch a Boost Drive spaceship.)

The worst thing is that G:SS ships turn really fast. If ships have high accelerations, but still take a long while to turn, like in Star Control, course changes still look 'furious'. Elite doesn't rely on this one, though.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

In Spaceships, a turn is at least 20 seconds. A moment to designate the missile's target before launch could be included in that without being worth mentioning, though missiles taking direction after launch (as they do in Spaceships) may be more realistic. Though one might think that directing a flock of missiles might take some time after launch in that case.

Yes, a turn is 20+ seconds, but a missile locks on at those huge space ranges in the same 1 second as it does in human-scale combat. Compare to locking on target in the Trench Run at the end of A New Hope (cinematic, of course).
A variation with some level of verisimilitude (though still probably too cinematic) would be to say that locking on at greater distances takes extra time.