The Missile Destroyer was a Super Capital Ship designed to deal with strike craft used by the Kushan and Taiidan Empire in Homeworld.
Background[]
Missile Destroyers are actually just modified Destroyers, but instead of ion cannons and mass drivers, the main -- and only -- weapon was several large missile laucher mounted on the front of the vessel. These ships were capable of taking down large groups of fighters and each launcher stored up to 8 missiles and produced an additional one each 2.3 seconds, thanks to which the Missile Destroyer was a hard enemy to engage by all light units.
However, the biggest flaw of the ship was disclosed during attacks on larger units such as cruisers or even other destroyers. When the destroyer had run out of missiles the destroyer was left with a very small amount of firepower and could then be easily destroyed. As such, Missile Destroyers should not go without an escort and usually operated in groups of two or more, thanks to which they could handle various tasks, and easily destroy very large groups of corvettes.
Overview[]
Missile Destroyers are effectively a ship used for launching Guided Missiles at targets. These missiles are, however, extremely powerful and are primarily meant to be used to deal with large attack wings of fighters and corvettes, which are harder to target for other capital ships.
The ship holds onto a supply of 32 missiles while not in combat, allowing it to quickly deal with an incoming attack, but once the supply runs out, it will become much more defenceless, because while it can produce an infinite supply of missiles, the rate at which they're made is reduced, leaving it open to being attacked by other vessels who have noticed the reduction in missile quantity. The missiles launched by the Missile Destroyer seek out enemies, meaning that despite its lack of other weapons to defend itself, the missiles provide 100% coverage against any ship.
It is possible to launch a Burst Attack with the Missile Destroyer, which causes it to launch the entire stockpile of missiles that it has instantly on the target. This can be useful in some situations if its necessary to very quickly deplete a targets' health, but leaves the entire ship defenceless for much longer than if the burst attack was not used. The special order should thus be used sparingly to avoid losing the vessel to an attack.
Dedicated Missile Destroyers fell out of fashion by the time of the Beast War, although the Taiidan Imperialist Faction still retained a few in some situations. Most had instead chosen to include missile technology into other ships to improve their functionality, such as with Kiith Somtaaw employing missile technology in Acolytes and their own Destroyers and Dreadnoughts. By the time of the Vaygr War, missile technology had evolved into torpedoes, which did much more damage and could splinter into multiple smaller entities to do rapid damage.
Trivia[]
- In the Homeworld: Cataclysm manual, the Kushan ship is codenamed Perdition and the Taiidan ship is codenamed Skaal-Fa.[1]
- In the Homeworld single-player campaign, the Mothership Fleet will come into contact with a Missile Destroyer during Sea of Lost Souls, making it possible to gain access to the Guided Missiles technology much sooner and without needing to research it to gain access. Simply disable the Ghost Ship without destroying the Missile Destroyer and access to building your own will happen automatically.
- In the original Homeworld, missiles launched from the ship will path straight to the vessel that it has targeted, whether that's a straight line or by other means. In Homeworld: Cataclysm, the missiles from the Taiidan vessel are launched in such a way that a semi-circle is formed in front of the ship, vastly reducing the effectiveness of the missiles as they're less likely to impact anything.
Appearances[]
References[]
- ↑ Homeworld: Cataclysm manual