Time on target, aka (TOT), primarily refers to let multiple types and salvos of missiles to arrive at the target at approximately the same time.



There are mainly Four reasons to plan tot missile strikes on targets.

First, being able to spam a lot of missiles on the target, with limited missile programming bus. And thus we can overwhelm the pd threshold of target fleet with sheer number of missiles, or use some missiles to cover the others, etc.

Second, to strike the target fleet from multiple angles and directions, limiting evasive maneuvers and rock pd maneuvers, and making our strikes harder to jam since they come from multiple directions.

Third, being able to let two different type of missiles to hit the same target, (e.g. s3h and s3 ToT), making use of the different characteristics within one missile strike. For example, to hard kill s3h we need laser pd and anti missile-missiles. To hard kill s3 torpedoes we need a lot of CIWS PDs like defenders. It is very difficult to equip a 3000 points fleet with that much of pd, which makes this strategy useful.

Forth, to hit the capital ships with a massive amount of missiles, thoroughly destroy their components, remaining restores and DC capabilities. Thus we put them out of action once and forever.

Fifth, create a massive emotional damage to your poor target :P

Type one Tot refers to tot strike where all the missiles within different salvos shares roughly the same maneuverability. And in most case this means the exact same type of missiles. But some missiles like s2 and s2h actually have similar Tot on most ranges. We will talk about this later.

Type two Tot refers to tot strike with different missiles. For example, s3 and s3h Tot, or s2 and containers Tot, etc.

Type 3: talk to your buddy teammates and plan a tot strike

Note it is possible to use all both type of Tot strike at the same time.

Again, here, we are planning more than one salvos of missiles with similar maneuverability so the only way to do it is let different salvos travels different time in the air before they arrive at the target.

There are mainly two different ways to plan this.

First one is traditional and more experience based: just simple plan several different routs for your salvos, and the time difference between the routes = your missile programming time.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/MRSI_animation_SMIL.svg

The second one is easier: the tot planning via pre-experimented and determined pattern of way points.

Image from wikipedia

This methods is simply to plan different routes (with different total length) for each salvos and lets the salvos arrive at the target at the same time. We can use the in game time estimator of way point missiles.




Say we first launch a salvo, salvo 1, which takes T1 second to hit the targets, then we launch salvo 2 which takes T2 second to hit the targets. T1 - T2 should be approximately equal to the actual programming time of your salvos.


(In this image above, sgm-h-200 is the first salvo I launched, through a longer set of way points, and sgm-200 is the second salvo through a shorter sets of way points. T1 - T2 = programming time of sgm-200)

So, your missiles programming time is a very important parameter you need to calculate and remember if you want to plan this. It is equal to the original programming time of missiles / missile programming speed.

For example, If we have 135% of missiles programming speed, and the missiles takes 20s to program (which is a contaienr), the actual programming time will be 20s / 1.35 = 14.8 seconds. And this is approximately the difference between the routes of your tot salvos.

Note the ETA (estimated time of arrival) you see when using the way point missiles are just ESTIMATED since the actual trajectory of missiles maybe a little bit different than what you planned.

For example, in the picture below, the red lines are the way points I set, the yellow line is the actual trajectory of missiles. Best advise: TRY to avoid sharp turn on the way points, and let the distance between the last way points longer. But stil, don't end the way point too close to the target.


Another factor u have to consider is the time gap between missiles being launched out of the tube/ container bank, and the actual ignition of their boosters. For example containers need more than 4 seconds (sometimes more), while s3h take at least 2 seconds. Note the bigger your launch ship is, the more time it will take.

This one is to plan Tot strike via pre-experimented and pre-determined way point pattern so that you don't need to think or plan too much in the game.

Basically what we need to do is to launch salvos, let them perform some maneuver in the air, and wait for later launched salvo to catch up.

Here, for example, i let the containers spin in the air, and wait for later salvos to catch up.
















Note most of the missiles can do it, not just containers. So here we use s3h as another example. Their cruise phase maneuverability is in the image below.






And the video below shows how exactly you can do it:

https://youtu.be/rXMZWeBFveQ?si=HtRXMrBa0FuhGCL0

Here in this video, I first planned a 3 salvo s3h type 1 tot with method 2, and then i planned a type 2 s2 tot. We will take about type 2 later. The pattern i use is simple: let s3h weave and spin and wait for the later salvo to catch up.




In the image above, the red lines shows the way point of the first salvo, white lines shows that of the second one. Third salvo is just a direct trp( target reference point) fire to the target.
Note the way point I set for the second salvo is simple: an almost 90 degree turn, and then another sharp turn back to the route where the third salvo will go. The distance between those turning way points are roughly 1.1km. And the way point for the first salvo, is simply doing the exact same thing twice. Since this sharp turn and back pattern takes exactly the time i need to program a s3h, with the buff of a missile parallel interface.



So, summery up: for 3 salvo s3h Tot, my first salvo did this sharp-turn-and-back-maneuver twice to waste twice the time of the missile programming time. And my second salvo only do this maneuver once to waste exactly the time needed to program s3h. And third salvo just go directly towards the targets. And three salvos of s3h arrives approximately at the same time.

And this is the core idea of method 2: Player can find a pattern of way points in the shooting range which the time missile finish these way points are mostly the same, and of course, equals to missile programming time. Thus, player can plan as many salvos of tot strikes as they their missiles can (because the limitation of range) when they know the pattern which consume the exact same time they program that missile.

And after that, for X salvos of tot, the first salvo you launch just plan X-1 times of that way point pattern, second salvo just do X-2 times, etc, and the Xth salvo, the last salvo, just directly launch towards the target.

Note before you do it in the game, probably figure out that pattern first in the testing range.

Here is another example of container Tot. Note the containers here has about 180 m/s of speed and 2g of turn rate.
https://youtu.be/PqWiMlhtjgA?si=mW_MiIfM6ijfRMas


And in addition, everyone can find their own, unique pattern of way points. For example, another pattern is just launch your earlier salvos to the opposite direction where you last salvo goes, and get back to the real direction half-way. The amount of time this back and forth waste = missile programming time.



(In the image above, first salvo launched opposite to the direction where the target at, for about 1.3 km, and then take a sharp turn, direct back to C - REF point, and finally being directed to the target. Second salvo launched directly to the target. If a 3-salvo Tot is necessary, the first salvo can go two 1.3 km-way points backward, and then head back. And the second and the third salvos are just like the first and second salvos in this picture correspondingly)

Note with different mobility of your missiles, you need to adjust the distance between way point when you are planning the same pattern.

Also, here the launch ship is stationary. When it moves, you need to do a little adjustment to your patterns. Say when your launch ship is running away from your target, the first couple of salvos should waste more time in the air.

Finally, for the last salvo, its totally up to you whether you TRP your missiles to the target, or way point it to the target, as long as those salvos hit the target at roughly the same time.

Type 1 Tot is a heavy big punch on the target which takes a relatively longer time to plan and to launch. And thus we first need to be quick and planning and we need to predict where the target will be while we are planning.

For example, for a 3 salvo method 2 container Tot, my sequence is: plan salvo 1, weapon ctrl -> hold fire, plan salvo 2, weapon ctrl release, and during the launch, plan the third salvo.

Besides, you don't want your target know that a big salvo of missiles is coming. So the way point pattern you sets, and the place your missiles waste time in the air, should be as hidden as possible to minimize the reaction time for your target. And of course, guiding all your Tot salvos around the rocks helps. In order to make it easier, you can set a TRP on the map as a rally point for Tot salvos, so that all salvos will go thru that trp ( you have to do this manually ) before hitting the targets.

In addition, don't forget the range limit of your missiles. Tot requires missiles to waste time in the air. So the more salvos you stack in the Tot, the less reach you have. ( And that is one reason I seldom plan more than 4-salvos Tot.)

(This chapter aims to give players some tips or tricks to make tot easier, will keep updating it)

This one is pretty similar to type 1 method 1, use the ETA estimator and remember your missile programming time. Launch slower missile first, wait for the right timing, and launch fast missile afterwords.

Say it takes T1 for the first, slower salvo to hit the target, and T2 for the second, faster salvo to hit the target, whereas the missile programming speed is T3 seconds. Then what you need to do is launch first salvo, wait for T1 - T2 -T3 seconds, and then launch the second salvo.

And yes, you can perform mixed types of tot and mix methods of tot. For example, in the previous video I planned a tot including 3 salvo of s3h and 1 salvo of s2. S3h is launched first since they move slower (that s2 got like 270 m/s of speed).

Another example is launching containers with both method 1 and method 2.



In the picture above, upper cluster is 3 salvo of 12 containers, and the lower salvo is another 12 containers salvo. Upper cluster launch first, through a longer route, bottom salvo launch later, through a shortcut.


Combined BB fleets reversing to use the rock pd (let decoys and rocks hit the rock), while using pd man to shoot down the containers (which you can't do it now)


But 48 containers from 2 directions hit the target regardless

Video here

https://youtu.be/D20SF1p3rdQ?si=goKeFKqp-OAx4DEs

This Chapter is added after the updates around 06/24/2024. In previous patches, EO seekers mysteriously and very confusingly get removed from OSP. As a result, SAH(semi active haoming seeker) containers and other EACT[validater] containers are everything OSP have besides rocket container lottery.

Though the mobility of containers improved during the patch, the removal of EO seeker enables ANS to do 99% or even 100% omni-soft kill builds, (yes, including Torp Ocellos) which not only can walk thru crazy missile spams like they are nothing, but can use soft kill countermeasures to win E-war against OSP outside pinpoint locking range as well.

And mostly, those omni-soft kill builds need a jamming sprinter somewhere 1000 m behind the capital to Jam out SAH illuminators, to flash the jamming to attract hoj seekers so that those missiles will go for the jam ship instead of the capital. If OSP got no hoj seekers on their sah missiles, those sah
cruise missiles will get jammed out. If OSP give up sah and use Act, arad or cmd seekers on their cruise missiles, those missiles will get easily soft killed by simply dropping active decoys and turning on omni-direction COMM jams.


WIP

No matter how many salvos of Tot you plan, it definitely will take a lot of time for the salvos to get to the target. For example, a 3-salvo Tot containers may take 3~4 minutes to plan and hit the target. That is at least 180 seconds. For Ships moving around 30 m/s, they can travel 5400 meters if they are running in full speed. Typical ANS Axfords takes only around 20 seconds to fully accelerate or decelerate, while Liners with CHI 7700 drive only takes less than 10 seconds to do that.

So, when planning Tot, we not only need to predict where the target will likely be after some time, but also we need to plan Tot QUICKLY since the window of attack may not exist forever. In addition we want to attack the target that are less likely to get into rock covers ( rock PD ).

If you really think it is necessary to attack a target near a rock, make sure to plan the attack from angles which the target is exposed more to your salvos. Thus they are less likely to rock pd your precious salvos.

(That's why hybrid Tot is way easier to plan than container Tot: they travels way faster)

The first time i feel the need of planning tot is during when manual pd is viral. At that time, all decoy missiles are basically useless, especially the containers. So I thought, what if we spam 50 containers to target at the same time? I don't think most people can manual target to that much of a big cluster.

And yes I was right.

I started with type 1 method 1 tot with container liners, but found it pretty hard to plan, especially many targets are high time-sensitive. So I tried for a long time, to figure out a simple way to plan tot. And there comes type 1 method 2 and the others.

In fact type 1 method 2 have 2 different versions, the current one is the simplification of previous one. Which, i hope, can enable fairly new players to start playing tot.

Anyway, I will keep posting some thoughts about tot in this chapter later.

Thanks for reading.