'''What are Missile weapons?'''
Missile weapons tend to do a lot of damage per ton with quite a few **but not all** missile weapons being able to lock onto a target and track it. The downside is that they can produce a lot of heat, are very dependant on ammunition, require active radar to lock a target, can be shot down with LAMS and even evaded by some Mechs that are fast enough to make it to cover. This can be offset however by a spotter “Tagging” a Mech using a NARC Beacon which allows missiles to lock onto a target without switching on a Mech's radar as well as activating it's LAMS. Equipping BAP can reduce the time it takes to lock onto a target with Missiles while facing an ECM equipped Mech will increase the time it takes for you to lock. Missile weapons can be quipped in Missle Hardpoints (Green), Heat Generating Hardpoints (Purple), Ammo Consuming Hardpoints (Cyan) and Omni Hardpoints (Grey).
There are 6 primary types of Missiles:
>SRM's
SRM's are essentially short ranged direct fire Missiles. They do decent damage, fire relatively quickly, don't produce a lot of heat but can chew through ammunition. Clan SSRM's are the only kind that can lock onto a target requiring not only an active radar to do so but to be aimed at the target. InnerSphere do not lock which can make them hard to aim, but fire faster and also causes an opponent's heat levels to rise.
>LRM's
LRM's are long ranged indirect fire Missiles. Although they can produce a fair amount of heat, take a while to lock and not a lot of damage per shot, they weigh relatively little and will chase down targets at range. There are a few subtypes of LRM's such as Infernos, Thunder and Artemis. It is not uncommon to see players “boating” LRM's.
>MRM's
MRM's are slow firing, high damage, high heat Missiles. They tend to weigh a lot but also deliver a lot of damage per ton. They are similar to SRM's in that the InnerSphere MRM is unable to lock onto a target while Clan SMRM's function like SSRM's. Overall they are a relatively rare sight to see.
>ATM's
ATM's are Clan exclusive missiles that weigh more than LRM's but offset this by delivering more damage per shot and having a quicker lock on time. They come in two varieties; Mediums have less range but do significantly more damage while Extended has more range and only deals slightly more damage than LRM's.
>Rockets
Rockets are available to the InnerSphere via the Periphery **Battletech's equivalent of South America** While they cannot lock onto a target and are very hard to aim they weigh virtually nothing, deal significant damage and fire relatively fast. They also come in Heavy versions which have insane amounts of range and have the choice of doing more damage or causing a lot of heat.
>Arrow IV
Basically Missile artillery. While it weighs a lot, takes up a lot of space and produces a lot of heat, it has long range and not only causes a lot of damage but produces splash damage as well. It can also be fired blindly with the aid of a NARC beacon which it will then home in on to ruin somebody's day. Comes also in Cluster and Artemis editions if you feel that firing miniature Cruise Missiles at an unsuspecting target wasn't dickish enough already.