Practice to get the timing right. As with any flight/space sim, the range of the wep plus a few meters, get lock, and stay behind the target. But with any sim, the NPC's have countermessures to help them, therefore presistance is needed. I lock on within 200meters of a target so they have less reaction time. But, practice will help in any case. In game, create a save point, load up missiles and go. After you use them up, reload the save point and do it again. That way you waist little money and still get the practice.

Michael And the world is passing away, along with its desires. But whoever does God's will remains forever.

Actually, I've heard that if you keep locked on your target, (the cursor spins) then your missiles have a much better chance of hitting your target. So, if you keep it locked, your missiles will perform better.

____________________________________
Titan, Sabre, Eagle; yeah they're great
But if you want to turn, then you'll have to wait.
So if you wanna get the job done
And you want some fun
Then hop in the Defender
And don't forget your gun!

Hmm, nope . Stalking ability and engines are all ini-related to the weapon. once fired, it's on its own.

Staying locked does give you time to fire additional missles if needed though.

Ooops. Sorry about that. Heard that tip from someone. Well, thanks for clearing that up!

____________________________________
Titan, Sabre, Eagle; yeah they're great
But if you want to turn, then you'll have to wait.
So if you wanna get the job done
And you want some fun
Then hop in the Defender
And don't forget your gun!

Fire missiles while thrusting, that way your missiles travel at their speed plus the speed of your ship. When firing missiles, it's best to fire when you are 300-150 away from your target. And having your mouse focused on the target doesn't change anything. Missiles are not cost effective weapons. 50 cannonballs cost around 300k. The most cost-effective missile is the Lancer missile. For missions, I'd think you'd be better off with Starkillers.

strafe!

Missiles? pish, waste of credits. Stick with your guns and save yoru credits to upgrade them quickly and as much as you can. The only exception to this rule are torpedoes, those are critical in storymissions later on. --- VH16

I am Nobody; Nobody is Perfect; Therefore, I am Perfect

Some notes on missiles.

Do NOT use them like torpedos. Using engine kill is an effective strategy to boost torpedo range to about 15 K or so, but only against stationary targets. When you launch whist thrusting the intertia that the missiles undergo makes it impossible for them to turn and track a target. Always, Always, Always fire when a target is coming Towards you, not when you are behind. This increases your hit percentage dramatically. Always fire from point blank range when the target is about to pass you going the other way (you can do this with torpedos). Missiles are usually a waste of credits, but they sure can be fun

For most of my time playing freelancer. I have not used missles.I also found that they were more money than they were worth.........

Up close is better.........................AZAR

I use missles like this:

the enemy tends to do a run at you ( he flies straight at you), then fire your mssiles, for me, i had 94% chance of hitting them

Missiles have one use, fun. Shooting another player with 6 firestalkers or cannonballs,

I fired a javlain once when my enemy had no shileds
he had full hull and i killed him with one missle
how?
I GOT IT UP HIS TAIL PIPE

so some times it good to fire from behind the enemy because of this good trick
and only use missle if you have to get somewere in a hurry
And a anothor tip only use missles when your emenys sheild is down
kill them quicker this way

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I don't suffer from insainty,I
enjoy every bit of it.
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I'd just like to put in my two cents,
Once i had the dromadary and i was attacking the xeno base ouray in colorado, i had a really hard time killing them because my ship was too slow, those stafliers had a nasty habit of staying on 1% health even if i shot at them continuisly for the better part of 30 seconds, the problem was, the guns don't home in on the target. I bought a Catapult missile and i had no trouble with killing them, the missiles are good to use on ships that can evade your guns easy (starflier, patriot ect.) they can blow em up in one hit. Most of the easier NPC's do this: they fly away from you (to about 700-800 meters and then they rush at you, if you watch them long enough, you'll pick up when they do it. If you fire the missile as they start rushing you, they and your missile are on a head on collision course, and beacuse the low lvl NPC's aren't particularly smart, 80% of the time your missile will hit them. Just don't try it with the high lvl NPC's, especially on the first encounter beacuse they swerve up and down alot.

thanks for reading my rant
Did i ever mention, that i hate the Xenos.
Did you know xenophobia is the fear of people from another culture?

Well human players can enable their countermeasures so the countermeasures will auto. shoot when a missile is fired at the ship, so i always need to fire a few missiles to get a fatal hit on a ship.