[Tk3997]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Kane generally has an entire alfabet of plans.

Well maybe sometimes, but others he seems to be making it up as he goes along... early in Kane Wrath I saw allot more "okay we'll try this shit, it might work" then I did any kind of master plan.

Hey, if you're right, you're right. *shrugs* I'm not going to argue a point when canon blatantly contradicts me.

I was just being a bastard anyway.

No, she just got a nice visit from the most powerfull dragon in Warcaft lore.

I do know her back story again being a jackass.

Hmm, I don't really have that problem. Then again, I tend to plan before I write to the point where most crack will have vanished by the time I start writing.

This isn't really crack so much as a habit of rabbling beyond the point the average reader will care when it comes to military tactics. Basically sometimes I find myself having to trim and edit when I realize I've inserted a 500 word mini essay on some aspect of military strategy that really adds little to the flow or the plot. Sort of like a penchant for tactical techno-babble, tacto-babble perhaps?

For instance I once wrote about some guys setting up an ambush and suddenly found I had the commander doing a hundreds of words long mental monologue about why and how he was setting up his machine guns for maximum effectiveness (which thinking about it logically he'd have no reason to do as he'd KNOW all this already) . I was also taking about shit like enfilade, beat zones, grazing and plunging fire and realized that non Mil-otaku were going to need a damn dictionary to even try and figure it out even if they read it when really "he order the machine guns positioned for maximum effect when the trap was sprung." or something only slightly more involved would have sufficed.

Note to self: Tk likes girls who can strategize.

Correction: TK likes girls that are intelligent and level headed.

My patience. Trust me.

We'll see.

Canon proves you wrong, though. Take a look at the Vita/Nanoha fight after the upgrade, as soon as Nanoha shoots her Axel Shooter, Vita says 'you can't control that many shots at once' now, if there was a chance that the spell was auto-homing, Vita wouldn't have said this now would she? Also, there are many spells in Fate's spellbook that are not homing. Plasma Lancer for example only has a 'turn' abillity (commanded by Fate).

Canon seems to prove that there is no such thing as a homing shot, only shots that can be controlled by the user.

Acutally one could twist this to allow homing shots (which I personally don’t mind and indeed support, no human is going to be able to command guide a half dozen projectiles IMO they have trouble with one missile IRL.) Basically just because a weapon “homes” doesn’t mean an infinite number can be deployed and just because its being “guided” dose not mean the user is directly controlling it. Nor IMO should we use ONE example of a guided spell and assume ALL most operate on the same principle this is like seeing one type of missile and assuming they all work exactly the same.

On that not once more I shall venture into the arena of modern air combat for an analogy. Don't look at me like that! They bring these on themselves with all their damn talk about "Air Forces" and "aces "!

Ever heard of a semi-active guided missile? Basiclly this is a missile that homes in on a signal projected on the target by the firer this is normally radar or laser based. Anyway the weapon will home in on the signal being projected onto the target and follow that signal around to the best of its ability. The problem is that normally you can only designate one target at a time if you only have one radar/laser since the weapons are specially keyed home in on one specific signal.

Unfortunately you can’t really get around this as if they aren’t keyed in like so they might fly off and chase any errant signal they see and counter measures could easily decoy them. Anyway the problem with this though is that these missiles are keyed to his highly specific signal and will only chase that signal. So if you only have say one radar/laser you can only guide one missile. This is why older ships often mounted a bunch of seemingly redundant radars and why when fighter radar sets began being able to target multiple enemies simultaneously it was consider a big deal.

So assuming Nanoha’s bolts where semi-active in nature and assuming most such spells are it’s likely that Vita simply assumed she wouldn’t have enough radars or “channels“ to illuminate her intended target for all the shots she’d just fired. Obviously she was wrong and Nanoha’s “avionics” where more capable then she thought. Basiclly under this scheme the mage isn’t directly the bolts himself he’s illuminating the target with a distinct signal the bolts are homing on it. This probably still requires focuses and energy and managing a number of signals at once for multiple shots would still take effort, but at least it seems humanly possible with a bit of assistance from a good device.

Of coruse if the shots can home on one sort of energy transmitted by the mage the question then becomes why can’t they home in on other sorts of energy? The answer of course is that there is not good reason they can’t. But wait you say! Why use semi-active homing at all if fire-and-forget is possible well I was getting to that good sir!

Semi-active homing has several advantages over other methods the first is that one of its weakness is acutally also a strength the missile ONLY homes on a very discreet signal and ignores others. This makes it very hard to jam as it merely has to follow one clear and strong signal transmitted by a (hopefully) power transmitter (the mage). This would make much to harder to decoy. (But possibly easier to dodge if you can get out of the beam that’s illuminating you or get into cover that blocks it).

Semi-active weapons tend to have longer ranges then many fire and forget weapons the reason being that they’re target is being illuminated by a larger and powerful transmitter where as a fire and forget weapon must rely on a much smaller transmitter or seeker crammed into the weapon itself. This is why modern long range fire and forget weapons aren’t truly such at anything besides short ranges and at longer ranges they still need guidance from the launcher until they close in and can engage there seekers for terminal guidance.

Semi-active weapons are more accurate and easier to control to some extent when a fire and forget weapon enters its terminal phase it becomes a menace to anything in the target area. Most of them aren’t smart enough to tell a friendly tank form an enemy one and the same goes for aircraft as such if they can’t find the intended target the have a nasty habit of attacking anything in the area that looks like the target… In a swirling aerial melee this has the potential for disaster written all over it. In fact there even a radio call used to inform others in the area when a missile enters autonomous self guidance: “Pitbull” I leave it you to decide why the call is named after a dog breed renowned in popular culture for indiscriminate aggression… Again though the Semi-Active weapon only wants to find its one discreet signal and follow it so assuming you aren’t actively painting a friendly unit for the missile the friendly fire risk in a cluttered sky is much reduced and if it loses the signal it normally just streaks off into the blue rather then roaming around looking for targets.

Of coruse other sorts of fire and forget guidance have there place particularly at short range or when only enemy units are in the kill zone.

I also like this set up as it opens up and entire new area of battle beyond simply defense, offense, speed a sort of magical electronic warfare with jamming, counter jamming, and different sorts of seemingly similar spells for different situations. It makes the entire affair allot more tactical and less “charge and wail on each other, stronger guy wins”, IMO.

Of coruse I like my combat deep and complex with many intricacies to exploit and use IMO it makes for a richer more cerebral battle. Something which is particularly import in prose were lacking impressive visuals to rely on a mentally stimulating and interesting combat doctrine and tactics can make combat considerably more interesting. Sure in animations just having Nanoha overpower her foes in a orgy of pyrotechnic destruction can actually be pretty satisfying, but there are only so many ways to write “she fires a huge beam and blasts the enemy” before it seems a tad stall and you find yourself wishing for something a bit deeper.

That my opinion anyway take my tactical ramblings as you will.