The missile has infrared tracking, and requires a 3 second look at the engines of an opponent to lock on before firing.

Cheetah IR Concussion Super Missile Stats
Speed: 400 m/s
Maneuverability: Excellent
Detonator: Proximity 20m
Concussion Blast: Imparts sufficient spin to delay running for three seconds
Damage: 100 (token damage)
Tracking: Missile looses lock if target engines are hidden (if he turns to fight the missile disengages)
Flight duration: 30 secs
Port: Small
Weight: 500 kg
Number Missiles: 4
Delay: 10 secs
Cost: 10,000
Reload Cost: 500
License: 4/4/0/0/0

Speed seems a bit high compared to others in VO, but overall... +1

The speed is intended to be high enough to be effective against runners. This missile could not be used in a dog fight because an opponent doesn't show his engines for the three second lock on period. Also, it is non-lethal. Given these reasons, would you suggest a different missile speed?

+1 ... good idea, creative, original. And really easy to dodge/avoid, one just have to give up on escaping.

Ah, well... makes more sense now.

+1.

Infrared.

weight is a bit low in my opinion, a missile with a 12000m range would require tons of fuel, thus be quite heavy. Otherwise, I'm all for it, I don't run and would be useful in both pirating and getting rid of those annoying people that start fights in a valk, nearly die then run like hell.

"getting rid of those annoying people that start fights in a valk, nearly die then run like hell." +1

Lots of the ship models have engines or thrusters on more than just the back. Take the Prometheus for example. Perhaps have this missile only lock on to ships which are turboing at the time of launch?

Cool idea though. Sort of reminds me of the FireCracker missile in a way. (high speed, low damage, large concusssion/blast)

"weight is a bit low in my opinion, a missile with a 12000m range would require tons of fuel, thus be quite heavy."

An ultra charge powercell is 100kg, if there are four missiles that's 400kg, an engine could be 50kg and the warhead could be 50kg... So the entire package should be around 800kg-900kg if you want to account for the stuff keeping the missiles attached to your ship.

A uc powercell on anything that other then a greyhound does not provide 12000m of constant thrust at anything even remotely resembling 400m/s Either make it a heavier large port missile (1000-1500kg) or lower the range/duration, maybe something like half? 10 second duration still gives you a range of 4km, though 6km at 15s would probably be more useful

"A uc powercell on anything that other then a greyhound does not provide 12000m of constant thrust at anything even remotely resembling 400m/s"

It's a freaking missile, not a spaceship.

its also 6x the range and more then 4x the speed of any other missile in the universe. Besides, you're the one who decided to compare a ships powercell to a missile fuel source.

Many accurate scale arguments were made above.

From a practicality standpoint, the Cheetah is a lost weapons port- chasing runners doesn't happen often. Therefore, to make this limited application weapon useful, I think it should not be heavy or short-ranged.

actually it happens quite a lot mission, for instance, this weapon would most likely see the most deployment during station conquest battles, likely from either side (attackers swarming defenders, then firing one of these to ensure a hit OR defenders firing at bombers to force them to be hit by turret missiles, their own fire) and would change a considerable amount of balance if not carefully implemented. Its also not exactly lost, if it creates enough force to spin a ship for 3 seconds, well frankly there are virtually no ships in VO that can stand 3 seconds of sustained fire from even a single weapon. I like the idea of a weapon that can prevent running, but you have to consider all the aspects besides the ones which you yourself might use it for. Effectively, a single defender using this weapon could seriously hinder a multitude of attackers, not through his own weapons, but by slowing them down long enough for turrets to kill them before their missiles land.

Might be a bit OP when used for other purposes.

There wouldn't be a single trader who could escape from a pirate using one of these things.

Which on second thought might be a good thing...

You mean you consider using it on traders to be "using it for other purposes" ? That was the first thing I thought of using it against.

I think ghost was affirming that other purposes, like station defense would make it overpowered, traders could still escape if they were crafty enough, or if other nifty things were put in like chaff or electronic countermeasures put into effect.

I actually hadn't thought of that but yeah, it would be OP in station defense too. When in a field of turrets, knocking someone around enough so that they can't turbo in a straight line to accelerate quickly is essentially one shot killing them.

"traders could still escape if they were crafty enough, or if other nifty things were put in like chaff or electronic countermeasures put into effect."

Personally, I like to use newbies as shields. Don't get to do that often though, as there usually aren't any newbies at hand when I need them. :(