I understand that the lookouts are not linked to the FCR, however getting an earlier warning allows you to go on the defensive instead of just waiting for the missiles to innevitably hit.
For example if a kilo launches from 7nm away, if I happen to be on the bridge or at a lookout station I can instantly determine to within 3 degrees where the missile was launched from. After this, I can throw up several countermeasures and begin evasive maneuvering (even though you have only 15 seconds or so to do it, if you're travelling at 29 knots you can turn pretty quickly.)
At the moment the autocrew will not report any vampires until far too late. If the smoke trail is visible, the auto crew should report it. A human player would. I don't think it's really asking too much, the odds are so extremely stacked against the OHP when missiles are involved (mainly because mission designers don't include aegis ships but include lots of akulas or klub kilo's) it's almost not worth trying.
IMO the solution is to either increase the autocrew's visibility and the speed at which they report inbound vampires, or trigger an audible warning the instant it spots a smoke trail from a rocket motor. If this is unreasonable then the smoke trails should be removed from all missiles that do not realisticly have smoke trails. If a human player in multiplayer can spot it, the computer should as well.
The time gained may be only a few seconds, but trust me it makes a big difference.
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