Roboteching: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Said of missiles or beam weapons that fire along trajectories that are at an unlikely angle off of their target, streak along for a fair distance, and then make sudden synchronized turns in order to actually bring themselves to bear and hit it. The individual missiles of a [[Macross Missile Massacre]] almost always robotech on their way to a target. Often, it seems the best (or only) way to avoid this or a [[Macross Missile Massacre]] is to perform a [[High-Speed Missile Dodge]].

 

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Transformers Energon]]'', [[Combining Mecha|Wing Optimus's]] "Meteor Attack Mode" fires a [[Beam Spam]] along with a small [[Chest Blaster]], which then absorbs the individual streams of energy to form an insanely powerful [[Wave Motion Gun]].

* In ''[[Dragon Ball|Dragon Ball Z]],'' Piccolo becomes irritated at Android 17's ability to dodge his attacks, and develops the Hellzone Grenade, which fires a swarm of small energy blasts at seemingly random angles. They hover in a rough sphere around the target, at which point Piccolo exclaims "Try dodging ''this,''" and it goes boom.

** Predictably enough, in the various Budokai Tenkaichi games the attack is perfectly dodgeable as long as you time it right.

** Goku was once able to control where his [[Kamehame Hadoken|Kamehameha]] was going against Raditz.

* In ''[[Space Runaway Ideon]],'' the missiles Ideon fires act like this. When they are powered by the god-like Ide, they then fire off as beams of light, with 90-degree angles.

* In her ''Pactio'' powered-up form, Chachamaru from the ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' anime is seen using a roboteching [[Beam Spam]] attack that emerges from her back.

** The same system appears again in ''[[Gundam Unicorn]]'', as part of the Shamblo. Here, as well as using it to confuse the opponent, it was also used to reflect incoming beam attacks back at the attacker.

** This was touched on again in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'', where {{spoiler|[[The Woobie|Louise Halevy]]}}'s [[Lightning Bruiser|Regnant]] is shown to be extremely dangerous due to the fact that that the shots from its main beam cannon were able to change their paths multiple times.

* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]],'' Gokudera's Rocket Bomb attack does this with hand-thrown dynamite by having secondary and tertiary charges explode to allow him to control the trajectory. At least some mention is made of how difficult a technique this is.

* Many of the ships in ''[[Gall Force]]'' do this too, as lasers will be shot out at right angles to their ship, and once clearing the hull profile, make a 90-degree turn forward to bombard their target.

** Even when they're not controlled by the computer, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|the Elite Four are cheating bastards]]!

* [[Playing with Fire|Hikaru's]] [[Kill It with Fire|Flame Arrows]] in ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]''. Much more egregious in the [[OAV]] continuity where, even though they're shot straight at an enemy, the fire bursts robotech ''around and past'' the target and then strike it in the back.

* In ''[[Uchuu Senkan Yamato]]'', Gamilus uses mirror satellites to direct their reflex cannon at the Yamato even when it is on the other side of a planet from their base. [[Fridge Logic]] asks, if they have something that [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] just bounce right off of, why not use it for shields? {{spoiler|Eventually the good guys do exactly this to defend against the Desler Cannon. It's a pretty awesome [[Deus Ex Machina]], but it doesn't explain why the Gamilusians didn't think of it first.}}

* Similarly, some robot-controlled planes in ''[[RahXephon]]'' are launched straight upwards and suddenly turn downwards to attack their target from above.

* Beams fired by Nobles' ships in ''[[Wolf's Rain]]'' will maneuver quite extensively to track their target, if they don't hit it straight. At one point, a single beam splits in two to hit different targets.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Also seen in the Ultimate Nullifer in the [[Marvel Universe]].

* In the earlier issues of [[Image Comics]]' ''[[Stormwatch]]'', Flashpoint (one of the members of Stormwatch Prime) also had the ability to control the direction and intensity of his eye blasts. It was ''very'' cool. Too bad the character was a prime [[Jerkass]] and [[The Mole]] (actually, all three members of Stormwatch Prime were moles, but he was the only one who enjoyed it and stayed evil. He [[Karmic Death|got his in the end]], too.)

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In the film adaptation of the comic book ''[[Wanted]]'', this is [[Improbable Aiming Skills|the power]] of all the main characters. They do it with ''bullets.'' Fired from ''regular guns.''

** The ''bullets'' are far from regular, though. They're shaped to be capable of curving as needed (even to hit a specific spot across town if fired from ''exactly'' the right place. It's improbable, yeah... but not ''quite'' as ridiculous as normal weapons and ammo doing this for no reason.

* The film ''[[Runaway]]'' includes a handgun that fires target-seeking minimissiles.

* There looks to be some of this in the upcoming ''[[Battle: Los Angeles]]''

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* One episode of ''[[Airwolf]]'' had a missile fired in '''very''' approximately the direction of the enemy ground troops. They laughed when they saw the missile's flight path wouldn't bring it near enough to hurt them. Then the gunner activated the terminal-guidance laser....

* [[Kamen Rider Double]]'s '''{{color|gold|Luna}}{{color|blue|Trigger}}''' form fires Roboteching [[Energy Weapons|energy bullets]]; its [[Finishing Move|Maximum Drive]], Trigger Full Burst, fires a barrage of them.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* Rare fantasy example: The Egyptian-themed unded Tomb Kings in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' field archers equipeed with magic arrows that, in the fluff, do exactly this- at some points they even soar past the target entirely, only to change direction in mid-air and hit enemies in the back. In the actual game, this is represented by their having no positive or negative modifiers to hit, ever.

* One of the ''Champions'' rulebooks has statistics for an energy beam that follows the target until it hits. The rules were complex enough to defy even ''Champions'' attack powers, so the designers wrote it up as a summoned creature instead.

** This is also often an explaination given by GM's and some source materials as to why the spell Magic Missile (and, in certain versions, some higher level versions) ALWAYS hits its target.

* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' supports three different feats for this. Indirect lets you explicitly avoid obstacles between you and the target. Ricochet allows one bounce per level. Homing makes the attack continue trying to hit after you fire it off.

* The Annihilator Beam in ''[[Metroid|Metroid Prime 2: Echoes]]'' is capable of this.

** Also occurs with missiles and the wave beam in the first.

** And ''[[Dungeons and Dragons Shadow Over Mystara|Shadow Over Mystara]]''.

* Similar to the Magic Missiles, one of the Ghost elemental mage spells, Soul Strike, in the MMORPG ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' summons a varying number of white glowing orbs which then streak towards the target.

* The swarm-firing missiles in [[Simulation Game|space sim]] ''[[Free Space|Descent: Freespace]]'' and its sequels. More advanced versions even ''corkscrew'' all the way to their targets. Later games in the ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' series also included this trope.

* ''[[Zone of the Enders]]'' and its sequel had Jehuty, the player's [[Humongous Mecha]], equipped with a laser weapon whose beams Roboteched out of thin air to home in on locked targets, in a bright-blue rendition of a [[Macross Missile Massacre]].

* ''Jumpman'' for the Commodore 64 has projectiles that move slowly from the side of the screen. Once they get a clear aim at him (i.e. save horizontal/vertical position), they accelerate and move in.

* Several warships in the ''[[Xenosaga]]'' series fire beams at angles away from the ship, which then make a sharp angled turn straight ahead.

** This also occurs in the anime ''[[Gall Force]]'', although the "lasers" may actually be cheaply-animated missiles.

* Taito's Ray Series (''[[Ray Force]]'', ''[[Ray Storm]]'', and ''[[Ray Crisis]]'') and several other shmups by them have Roboteching lasers sometimes fired by enemies.

** [[Crimzon Clover]] took heavy inspiration from this, but with ''more lasers'' - an adept player can fire about 30 homing lasers in one second.

** MLRS units can also do this in some games of the series, aswell as in other games. ''[[World in Conflict]]'', for example.

** This is a default behavior for games using the ''Red Alert 2 / Tiberian Sun'' engine. If an ordinary missile (ie. one that does not have a model like V3s) has its target destroyed before impact, it will Robotech vertically upwards and explode harmlessly.

* In the ''[[Super Robot Wars|Super Robot Wars: Original Generation Divine Wars]]'' (yes, [[Word Salad Title|that's the title]]) [[Blow You Away|Cybuster]]'s Cosmo Nova special attack is depicted as a Roboteched [[Beam Spam]].

* You can Robotech the shots of the RPG in both the original ''[[Half-Life]]'' and ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' by waving the laser guiding dot around. [[Justified]] because of some nebulous technology that causes the rocket to seek the guiding dot out, and a necessary gameplay element as Combine gunships will attempt to shoot the rockets down and will succeed if you don't bother to Robotech.

*** Actually, manually guided missiles really move quite slow, which is why they were phased out.

** Also, this partially makes up for how slow the missiles travel to target, in comparison with real life.

** Likewise in both games, the AVRiL anti-vehicle missiles only home in to a vehicle while you're aiming at it, allowing you to turn them at the last minute, making them harder to dodge or shoot down. Further, the target only receives a "Missile Lock" warning when you are tracking them, making it a viable strategy to dumb-fire a rocket to near the target and only lock on when it is close by.

* A late weapon in the ''[[X-COM]]'' games was a guided rocket launcher that you set waypoints for the rocket to pass through before striking its target. More specifically, the first game had the Blaster Launcher while the second had the similar Distruptor Pulse Torpedo Launcher.

** ''X-Com Interceptor'' had a missile with vector thrusters. It was designed to be capable of extremely sharp 180° turns thus outmaneuvering it is impossible.

** For that matter, ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' had a missile that, once fired, the player would control in first person view. One puzzle required the player to guide said missile through a maze of ventilation ducts. I am not making this up.

*** It actually showed up in the [[Older Than They Think|original]] ''[[Metal Gear]]'', as well as the first ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''.

*** The concept of player-guided missile is [[Older Than They Think|older than that]], though. It was used at least in the 1986 Commodore Amiga classic ''[[wikipedia:Starglider|Starglider]]''.

*** And earlier, in the 1984 classic ''Archon II: Adept'', for the titular game piece.

* In ''[[Fable]]'', the arrows generated by the "multi-shot" spell do this on their way to the target.

* ''[[Drakengard]]'''s Dragon has a lock-on attack that fires several fireballs that robotech. The Chaos Evolution of the Dragon has fireballs that robotech in straighter lines with more angular turns.

** ''Armageddon'' also has the Magic Bullet that is Roboteching set to ''eleven''.

* The Drunken Missile launcher in ''Rise of the Triad'' fires a salvo of missiles which fly in random directions until they sense a target, at which point they converge on the target from all angles making it difficult to avoid all of them.

* In ''[[Call of Duty]] 4'' the Javelin missile launcher does this, quickly popping up after being fired and then slamming down on the targeted tank from almost directly above; see Truth in Television examples.

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni|Higurashi Daybreak]]'' has this, in the form of Rika's charged ranged attack. She fires a bunch of purple missiles that robotech to the person you're currently locked on to.

** Especially obvious if the target teleports while the attack is in flight; partnering a [[Mighty Glacier|sniping power]] with [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Teleport Foe]] often resulted in the over powered attack making u-turn.

** The Bullet Rain power in the Dual Pistols set does this whether or not the target moves; your character fires a spray of bullets in a cone, which then all arch back toward your target, hitting them and the targets around them.

* Hit detection for non-ballistic long-range attacks in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is done upon firing. If the target moves, the projectile will track the target until it hits, even ignoring obstacles. In earlier patches, this also applied to beam-type spells like the warlock's Drain Life or the mage's Arcane Missiles. As long as the magic-user could start casting the spell, it would continue to hit the target, no matter how far the target moved.

** Fun fact: a player on an upgraded flying mount (which allows one to travel at about 4x normal speed and... well, fly) is ''faster'' than most spell "missiles". It's possible to actually string missiles along behind you if you fly far enough. You'll take damage from the spell pretty soon even if it doesn't catch you, but the visual effect will keep following.

* This is the key ability of the ''[[Ace Combat]]'' QAAMs, given how wimpy the standard missiles are at tracking and staying with targets. Some anti-ground missiles also make sharp turns to hit their targets from above. You also sometimes have cruise missiles leading you on a rather spinny chase.

* The early Mac game ''Airborne!'' (lone anti-aircraft gunner in the corner vs. the world) gave you the option of guided or unguided shells. With the former, the mouse controlled all friendly bullets on the screen as a unit, turning them into an undulating wave.

* Battlefront 2 plays this trope straight and averts it. Interceptor fighters' and Imperial and CIS shuttles have small guided missiles that can sometimes dodge around things to catch their targets (though their targets are more maneuverable), while normal anti-tank rockets mostly just travel in a straight line.

* The Bullseye of [[Resistance]] does this with bullets much like The Fifth Element. You shoot a tag onto an enemy and all bullets head directly to said target regardless of trajectory.

* [[Tyrian]] calls these 'semi-seeking missiles'. They fly vertically down the screen, in the scrolling direction, then when they're level with the player, they turn through 90 degrees and fly towards him.

* Thanks to a [[Good Bad Bugs|Good Bad Bug]] in [[Red Dead Redemption]] that involves the lead character's [[Bullet Time]], you can induce this behavior in thrown projectiles and explosives, making them perfect anti-air and anti-ground weapons.

* Another non-missile example is shown in ''[[Mega Man Battle Network|Mega Man Network Transmission]]''. Both Brightman and Bass use lasers that adjust angle mid-flight; Bright's lasers adjust themselves once by 45-degree angles, and Bass's twice by 90-degree angles.

* In ''[[Bulletstorm]]'' you can robotech your sniper rifle bullet, in [[Bullet Time]].

* Guided missiles in the ''[[X Universe]]'' games fire from ventrally-mounted, forward-facing tubes (or flank-mounted tubes, in the case of missile frigates) and immediately curve off after the target. Leads to some spectacular visuals when you're dealing with [[Recursive Ammo|swarm missiles]], which tend to fly in a spiral pattern.

* Missiles in ''[[Escape Velocity]]'' likewise fire forward, then curve off after their target.

 

== Webcomics ==

* [[Schlock Mercenary]] touches on this behavior at some points, with a possible [[Justified Trope|justification]]. Missiles can be fired in "random walk" mode, presumably involving repeated and sudden changes in velocity as they close with their targets, in order to make it harder for point defense to shoot them down.

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

** More directly analogous, many missiles launched out of vertical tubes on warships will robotech almost exactly: the missile goes straight up (to clear the ship), then abruptly change direction. On their final approach to a ship, they will "pop-up and dive" onto the top of the vessel. Some anti-tank missiles will do the same thing, flying over the tank then dropping straight down.

** The AIM-54 Phoenix long-range air-to-air missile was designed to climb to high altitude immediately after launch, in order to take advantage of the thinner, less draggy upper atmosphere. When approaching the enemy it would perform a diving attack from high altitude, striking the unfortunate target before it knew what was coming.

*** The BBC's Foreign Affairs Chief John Simpson reported seeing a cruise missile in Baghdad fly "down the street and turn left at the traffic lights."

**** A Bloom County comic strip even depicted a missile stopping to ask for directions, "Excuse, please, which way to Saddam Hussein?"

** The AIM-9 Sidewinder missile series reputedly got its official designation from the side-to-side wavering performed by early models, similar to that of the Sidewinder snake. "Top attack" missiles designed to fly straight to a target, climb to a high altitude nearby, and "drop" on top of enemies are a standard of NATO military forces, under the rationale "people don't armour the top sections of tanks as much as the front or sides."

*** The top of the tank is almost always the weakest point, and tanks have not been redesigned since these missiles have begun to be deployed en mass. However, it is likely that newer tank designs will sport significantly stronger armor on the top because of this trend.

** The latest variant of the Sidewinder, the AIM-9X, has an ability to be aimed via a helmet-mounted sight and obtain lock-ons from almost 90 degrees off the direction of the firing fighter's nose. Furthermore, it can robotech a full 180 degrees off its rail to pursue a target. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g4_jzqBJnA Check it out here.]

** The Russian [[wikipedia:Vympel R-73|Vympel R-73/AA-11 Archer]] is also aimed by a helmet-mounted sight, can can "see" targets up to 60° off the missile's centerline - and entered service 18 years earlier. After NATO learned about the capabilities of this missile, development of the AIM-9X, the IRIS-T and others was started.

** Pretty much the point of guided weapons ''period.''Thrust vectoring and hover/loiter capabilities on newer missile designs will most certainly take future ordnance in this direction.

* Modern torpedoes behave like this. The United States Navy's ASROC weapon system fires a rocket off a destroyer/cruiser on a ballistic path that drops a torpedo into the water miles away. The torpedo will then go around in one of several search patterns so the torpedo's sonar system can lock on to the target sub before finally closing to attack.

* The CBU-07 Sensor Fuzed Weapon. It dispenses 10 submunitions, each containing 4 individually auto-targetting, self-guiding skeets. They have a VERY complicated way of maneuvering themselves at each stage so that they can effectively saturate an armored force over a substantial area.

* The M982 Excalibur is a GPS-guided artillery shell that can robotech mid flight to curve around obstacles. In one of the tests the shell was deliberately fired 4 miles off target and was still able to strike within a few feet of the bullseye.

* Any missile with a top attack mode, like the FGM-148 Javelin does this to a certain degree. When firing in top-attack mode, missile go up a long way, then shoot back down to hit the top of tanks, but they aren't fired in that trajectory. They just first straight, then the missile does the rest.

* The latest in [[Homing Projectile]] technology is [http://io9.com/5880884/this-self+guided-bullet-can-chase-you-down-from-over-a-mile-away a self-guiding bullet] equipped with a targeting laser, an eight-bit CPU, and movable fins.

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]