Elite Phase 4 results - combat - PC3 (PicoMiteHDMIWEB V6.03.02b3, 378 MHz)
Measured 2026-09-10.

The laser does not travel.  Firing tests whatever is lined up and hits it at
once, which is why Elite is about pointing rather than leading a target.  The
test is on lateral offset alone and ignores range entirely: a ship is hittable
while it is within 256 units of the line of sight in both axes and its squared
offset is inside the blueprint's targetable area.

Verified end to end against an asteroid placed dead ahead - the one thing with
no AI, so it cannot evade and a fixed forward shot is certain to connect:

  34 shots fired, 10 hits, 1 kill
  cash 100.0 -> 100.5 Cr, exactly the asteroid's blueprint bounty
  4 hits x 15 damage = 60, exactly the asteroid's energy
  laser temperature reached 241, just under the 242 cut-off that stops firing

What the hit rate demonstrated, before the asteroid was added: a passive trader
took six hits and then stopped being hittable.  That is correct.  Anything hit
turns hostile, and a hostile ship runs the tactics routine and evades, so fixed
forward fire cannot stay on it.  The demo cannot aim; a player can.

Frame cost with combat live: 41 ms, against 34 without.  Tactics runs one slot
in eight per frame, as the original schedules it.

Implemented
  laser firing, heat (8 per shot, 1 back per 8 frames), the 242 overheat gate,
  pulse rate limiting, the alignment hit test, damage, kills, bounties
  explosions: the cloud grows by 4 a redraw to 128 and then the ship is removed
  tactics: closing, evading, breaking away inside 1024 units, firing arcs
  damage to the player through the fore shield then the energy banks, and death
  shields and energy recharging on the original's eight frame schedule
  combat rating from the kill tally

Missiles, E.C.M. and consequences (added to finish the phase)
  A missile is a ship like any other, with its own blueprint and its own slot.
  What makes it a missile is that it runs its tactics every frame instead of one
  frame in eight, so it out-turns anything it chases, and that reaching its
  target destroys them both.  One E.C.M. burst destroys every missile in the
  bubble, whoever fired it, and drains energy while it runs.

  Verified in the same demo run:
    missiles 3 -> 2 after one launch
    energy 255 -> 240 across an E.C.M. burst
    cash 100.0 -> 100.5 Cr, the asteroid's bounty
    legal status reported, and shooting a police Viper marks the record

  Also in: cargo shed on death, about half the time and up to the number the
  blueprint allows; the combat rating; and a death screen.

Still open, and belonging to later phases
  the police response to an outlaw record (needs the station, Phase 5)
  fuel scooping and cabin temperature near the sun (Phase 5)
