Tell me about target sighting from a pro's perspective... autolock or not?

My current situation:

I like to dog-fight. That means I'm driving my boat... aggressively... at all times. That leads me to relying on target-lock an awful lot. That's partly to keep the target locked and partly to keep my view sane enough to process the visual information. That, of course, has it's downsides. Sometimes lock does the weirdest things for no apparent reason. Other times, like the target becoming momentarily invisible are understandable but frustrating. Then, of course, the biggest downside... trying to pick the target you want out of a swirling pack where "left" and "right" are changing constantly. I vaguely gather that the pro's don't tend to rely on target-lock.



Let's hear your thoughts on target lock and how you manage various difficulties.

 

2k to 3.2k I used auto lock. All the advantages and disadvantages you mentioned I experienced.

I don't use it any more.
I find I can switc from boat to boat quicker. And get combined damage more often by having the target be fluid.

If I ever need to lock on one boat. I can hit the button and do it in game.
But honestly. Don' hardly hit that either.

Went all the way to 5.2k not locking the target.

Here is my best exception to this from talking to guild members. (REBELLION)

Is this. Speeders who are speeding hard left to right. Right to left. Would hit thr target lock button during the battle .Especially speeder using grenade. And then disengage the buttton. But this only happens maybe 5 to 10 percent of the time for the speeders.

But even then. The majority of our 25 members. Don't use it on auto. And most don' hardly use the target lock.

What the majority use....is
The Zoom. For long distance shoots.

Happy hunting

 

Im always using target locking, because when i dont my sight will change every time. Im mk5 shooter at 4200 infamy atm.

 

What do you mean by zoom? Like when we hold weapon before shooting? Is that it or did i miss some feature lol

 

When you hold down the fire button it zooms in like a scope. I don't use it much, it's disorientating.

 

Thank you for the detailed reply.

 

Heh... so there's hope for my target lock ways? Out of curiosity do you tend to be a brawler in among the pack? Do such things even exist at that infamy? I feel like it'd be a lot easier to not use lock if I my own maneuvering weren't quite so taxing. But it may also just be training wheels I'm relying on.

 

You may want to try out sticky targets, it's in between the usual targeting and target lock sensitivity. You won't ever experience the target switching randomly just as you release your fire button anymore.

 

Im one of the people who attacks when its possible, im not using sticky target. And i switch target with the auto lock.

 

Will do. I'm gathering it's up to me to keep the target mostly aimed but the sticky target keeps it locked on?

 

Snapshot, if you really like brawling, you should try out the yellow boats. I used to play shooter, mk3 at 900-1000 infamy. I was using Dual Explosive cannon and blast (before it was a thing). I switched to speeder (which bumped me to 1400 in a week or two) and then learned to play enfo.

Personally, I use target lock when far away. Once I get up close, I don't use it. It's really, really hard to look around for the proper target when you are in the pack. I also don't use scoping, I've gotten to the point where I can instinctively drag and hit (although I do scope if I'm really, really far away).

Best of luck, and see you in the bay!

 

Oh yes! I'm looking at the speeder closely. I've always preferred subtlety over brute force and as you say, the speeder is geared for it. Once I get my shooter to M5 I'll probably push my speeder up there next. It's just the early speeders are pretty ineffective... or it looked that way to me when I glanced at their capabilities. Insofar as scoping, like you I use that almost exclusively with my sniper cannon and when I'm far away or the target is particularly hard for some other reason (#!$*&%! speeders!). I had written off enfo's entirely until I saw what a beast they turn into at higher levels and when handled well.

 

I use a defender at 4.5k infamy right now and I can’t remember the last time I fired and my target lock wasn’t on. I think you just have to find what works for you.

 

It's just like the regular targetting with a hint of auto-target lock, downside is it's a little harder to change targets manually. But you don't have to worry about target switching itself when you're trying to fire at a single boat near another one. Works well for me.

 

I used to use target lock all the time, when I was mk1-mk3, but after I started using the Tesla Bolt, I found that I often wanted to juggle more than one target, so it became easier to keep it floating, and then I just got used to it.

I still use it occasionally. If I’m about to Nitro past someone, I’ll often lock them first so my turret tracks a bit quicker. And if I’m fighting two ships close together, and circling (usually a fixer and another ship), then I’ll lock the one I want to shoot. I find I can still hit the other ship with the Tesla Bolt just by leading, or waiting until it is in the way.

I seem to rember @American Marauder saying that he doesn’t use it much either. So I guess even on Shooter, it’s useful to keep it floating. If you suddenly need to Carronade a Speeder that pops up next to you, you don’t really want to be locked onto a distant target that you were hammering with your LRM.

 

Thank you everyone for your input. I think the plan is to experiment with sticky.

Obviously that'll crater my infamy so I think I'll wait. This season I'm going to make a push for master (rather than tanking/questing at 1250 as I have before). Then I'll swap over to sticky right away because I don't want to spend any more time being punished for tanking than I must and that seems like a likely outcome of trying a new targeting system *lol* Hmmmm.... unless I'm really right about everything getting reset at season end in which case it makes the most sense to crash my infamy right at the end of the season then log off for a day or two.

 

Yeah, that is essentially what I do.