Attacks that home without lock-on

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Porcupine
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Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 19:07

Attacks that home without lock-on

Post by Porcupine »

Without lock-on, all attacks lose tracking (ability to aim straight towards the opponent) but may retain homing (projectile ability to curve towards the opponent after being fired). However, some time ago I noticed that homing behaves weirdly without lock-on. I finally figured out how it works. When fired without lock-on, projectiles only acquire horizontal homing when they are within a certain distance to the enemy. This distance varies with the attack. In the general case, such a projectile could start out moving straight, then start to home in as it nears the enemy, and finally stop homing some distance after missing and overshooting the enemy.

Vertical homing works differently. Without lock-on, all attacks retain full vertical homing, but get no vertical tracking and fire in a default direction, typically parallel to the ground. Vertical homing strength can be different from horizontal homing strength for some projectiles.

With lock-on, attacks gain tracking and the horizontal homing restriction is removed, but many projectiles have other restrictions that continue to apply. Some projectiles don't gain homing until they have traveled a certain distance. Others lose homing after traveling too far. My newest discovery is that some projectiles lose homing after changing their direction by a maximum allowed angle, rather than being distance based. These various phenomena can make it very difficult to discern projectiles' true homing strengths.

Here is a list of attacks that home in horizontally without lock-on, with their homing ranges. Height is included in the distance for jumping attacks.

Temjin: RTLW (100m), all LTCW (200m)

Stein-Vok: crRTCW (200m), giant ball (1000m)

Grys-Vok: CW (60m), LTCW (60m), RTCW (380m), jumping LTCW (60m), jumping RTCW (60m), crRTCW (1000m), super nuke (1000m)

The jumping LTCW bouncy pineapples are rare in that they behave the same with lock-on, as they do without lock-on. They will only home in when the pineapples get close to the enemy. The launch pattern of the pineapples is also slightly random, just as is the case for Grys-Vok crouching napalms.

Specineff: all normal LW (65m), rotating LW (70m), jumping LTLW (45m), RTLW (75m), crRTLW (80m), jumping RTLW (80m), LTRW (45m), jumping LTRW (45m), RTRW (60m)

RTRW has to travel some distance before gaining homing, so without lock-on it has two homing restrictions. The rotating LW wisps behave the same with or without lock-on, like the pineapples. Without lock-on, the LTCW shurikens slant towards the enemy but fly straight with zero homing.

Dordray: LW (330m), jumping LW (200m), all LTLW (20m), RTLW (980m), jumping RTLW (200m), RTCW (300m), crRTCW (500m), jumping RTCW (450m), LTRW (35m), jumping LTRW (35m)

Raiden: LTRW (145m), crLTRW (25m), RTRW (240m), crRTRW (380m), jumping RTRW (400m)

Fei-Yen: pink crLTLW (200m), pink crRW (25m), gold LTRW (30m), gold jumping RW (30m)

Hyper jumping RW is similar to the pineapples, even with lock-on the homing only kicks in when a projectile passes very close to an enemy. This is fortunate because this move is a nice spread and prediction laser attack combined. If the homing had been normal, all of that would have been ruined. It's important to shoot this with lock-on for the vertical tracking.

Angelan: all normal CW (infinite), all RTCW (infinite)

The ice dragons are unique in that they retain tracking even without lock-on. From the instant they appear they are aimed straight at the enemy. The position of the dragons relative to Angelan's body is fixed though, so firing double dragons without lock-on still displaces their paths somewhat.

Bal-Bados: LW (25m), crLW (195m), jumping LW (250m), crRTLW (195m), jumping RTLW (100m), all normal CW (infinite), RTCW (infinite), crRTCW (infinite)

The CW arm bits effectively retain tracking without lock-on, but technically they don't. They launch unaimed, then reorient themselves towards the enemy during the second before they start to move, which is technically homing.

Apharmd S: LTLW (200m), crLTLW (40m), jumping LTLW (150m), CW (25m), RTCW(L) (235m), crRTCW(L) (390m), jumping RTCW(L) (390m)

Apharmd B: LTLW (200m), crLTLW (40m), jumping LTLW (150m), crLTCW (1000m), all LTRW (290m), all RTRW (290m)

Apharmd C: LTLW (200m), crLTLW (40m), jumping LTLW (150m), LTCW (190m), jumping LTCW (190m)

10/80 SP: RTLW (100m), all LTCW (200m)

Ajim: all LW (200m), all normal CW (1000m)

Cypher: nothing
Last edited by Porcupine on 03 Mar 2016, 15:58, edited 14 times in total.
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Palmpoa
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Re: Attacks that home without lock-on

Post by Palmpoa »

Do projectiles fired in lock on exit lock on homing when the projectile has passed its closest point between enemy and projectile or when projectile exits a certain radius around its target?

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Porcupine
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Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 19:07

Re: Attacks that home without lock-on

Post by Porcupine »

Sorry, I made a mistake. Since you made your response I've decided that phenomena is unnecessary and probably doesn't exist at all. My original post has been edited, but for posterity's sake, I'll copy what I removed:

When attacks fired with lock-on miss the enemy, some continue to home in afterwards while others give up and fly straight almost immediately. I now realize that after missing, all projectiles start behaving like attacks without lock-on. They continue curving until the missed projectile travels beyond a certain distance to the enemy. This distance varies with the attack, and is generally not the same as when the attack is fired without lock-on from the start. When this distance is larger than the projectile curve radius, the projectile can become persistent. Otherwise it results in a meaningless visual effect, which makes some projectiles appear to have better homing than they really do.
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