is that even possible? That's like, 0.9 c!
Yep, Steve had to put in a specific cap a few years ago when people realized it was completely possible to make FTL missiles and Fighters. The cap limits them to a max of 299,000 km/s.
In the current version, here is an example of an ASM hitting the cap from a high tech-level game.
S-9 "Cracker" ASM
Missile Size: 9 MSP (0.45 HS) Warhead: 90 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 54
Speed: 299000 km/s Engine Endurance: 12 minutes Range: 210.2m km
Cost Per Missile: 64.25
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 16146% 3k km/s 5346% 5k km/s 3229.2% 10k km/s 1614.6%
He probably meant ~280,000km range, given that that's roughly 2/3 of the distance those 90,000km/s missiles would travel in a 5-second tick.
You haven't been able to brute-force FTL since before the drive mechanics update.
Nope, I meant 280,000 km/s, as I said. Max range for a fire-control is 1,400,000 km, so to cover that range in one 5 sec interval and not leave your missile open for multiple shots it needs to have a speed of 1,400,000 km / 5 s = 280,000 km per second. In practice, you'd want your missile speed to be even higher than that to cover for relative speed of the target.
edit: Ah, I get the disconnect, we are coming at it from opposite directions. You are going for what range would you need to get multiple shots on missiles travelling at 90,000km/s, whereas I am going what speed does your missile need to avoid ever allowing more than one shot.