Missile Lock??

[RavenFellBlade]

I'm flying an Endeavor, and have the tier I LRM and the Combat Radar QQ installed... and I still can't seem to get a missile lock in combat. I'm not really sure how this mechanic works. Do I just hover the aiming reticule over the intended target and wait for it to lock? Is there a button I am missing to lock it? I'd like to know how this works, because at the moment, my missile launcher is dumbfire only, and requires a lot of dumb luck to hit anything.

[FlessenGreendart]

Yeah, just hit the "R" key (default), and then you start to lock. Took me a while to find it at first too xD
If you hit F1, you get a help screen with default keybinds

[RavenFellBlade]

Thanks I actually did look at the F1 help list, and just somehow overlooked it. I looked again after reading this, and it most certainly is there. Well, now I just feel foolish. I appreciate the help, Flessen.

[Lurler]

That is actually a good point guys, we will make a tutorial screen that will pop up when you equip missiles for the first time to explain how to use missile lock.

[RavenFellBlade]

Excellent plan, Lurler! The information IS there, but that would definitely tidy things up for folks like myself who seem to completely miss blatantly obvious information in the help screen :-/

[Hecter94]

Would their be any way to make an auto-lock feature?

Something like, whenever flying around any ship that gets within your missile lock zone gets "tracked" by a passive radar.

It takes longer to lock on than with your active lock-on but allows you to lock on to quick, fast-moving targets that you can't get your mouse on and also allows you to target enemies that are off-screen.

[Lurler]

If we have the opportunity I would actually like to completely rework the way targeting works.
1. Allow to have more than one target locked at the same time.
2. Allow to quickly switch between acquired targets.
3. Some form of auto-targeting.
etc.
But it will definitely have to wait until after the release. I am really hoping the game does well on Steam to allow us to implement all these features we wish we could.

[Hecter94]

If we have the opportunity I would actually like to completely rework the way targeting works.
1. Allow to have more than one target locked at the same time.
2. Allow to quickly switch between acquired targets.
3. Some for of auto-targeting.
etc.
But it will definitely have to wait until after the release. I am really hoping the game does well on Steam to allow us to implement all these features we wish we could.

Yes, that would be greatly appreciated.
As it is right now, whenever using a "lock-on" weapon, no matter how good my Radar is I tend to take damage just trying to get my mouse over them to lock.
Not to mention the annoyance of having a Radar that can actually lock on to things further away than I can see but not being able to utilize that as my cursor can't reach them.

[RavenFellBlade]

I would recommend making auto-tracking a Equipment feature. Make a couple of different tiers of Epuipment modules that have progressively better target acquisition and tracking, and make them progressively more expensive and with higher Engineering requirements. Initially, I thought doing these as Boost modules would be a pretty nifty idea, since I haven't really found many Boosts that spoke to me enough to buy them... but Boosts are passive. Making them an Equip means that you could activate the auto-acquisition and auto-tracking by activating the Equip slot. OH OH OH! How about this: TWO different items!

The first is an auto-target Boost in three tiers, each one increasing range and acquisition speed, but at higher prices and Eng reqs. Simply pressing the 'R' key while no target is under the cursor will automatically attempt to lock on to the nearest ship on the first or first/second tier, and the second/third would additionally specifically target the nearest HOSTILE ship.

The second is an auto-tracking Equip set, again in three tiers. Each one makes turreted mounts automatically track targeted ships faster, at better ranges, and with greater accuracy than the last, but at higher energy costs. If you activate the Equip, all of your non-fixed mounts will attempt to track any ship you have targeted. The highest level should be able to practically snipe ships from maximum effective range with Gauss weapons.

Of course, both sets are completely independent of one another, but together, they would basically allow for some pretty interesting and effective strategies, especially on a ship with mixed mounts. You could independently attack two or targets, if you throw mines into the mix. I would have to imagine that the NPC targeting AI could probably be implemented in the turret AI. I would also imagine that the effectiveness of either of these items would be dependent to some degree or other to your equipped radar/sensors.

Even better would be if the first two tiers of each item were purchasable, but the third of each were only craftable "upgrades" of the second tier, once crafting gets implemented. Just my two rubles.

[RavenFellBlade]

I still really want these equips and boosts, but I can also see how they could "break" the game.
I wonder if it would be possible to make these as mods?