Combat targeting

navan1

So when I think I have all the nuances of how things target, something comes up throwing it off. For instance, it appears team does top to bottom on targeting, but occasionally other ships get attacked out of order. These never seem random and the noticeable aspect is that when it happens, the one being attacked seems to lack scramblers compared to their other team members. However, another team combat later same ships on your team, but now the opposing team is targeting the top.

Has anyone here had a chance to maybe see if this is based on range values (or if the admin might educate us)? My thought that just doesn't seem to pan out (I've seen where it's obvious this is the case but they still attack the top ship) is that maybe it has something to do with when the two teams have range values overlapping each other rather then one side being overwhelmingly superior. The idea being is that when a ship out ranges one of the opposing ships, but not the others, they attack that ship instead of just attacking the top most.

Further, is there a reason Solar Lance (probably all Lance) every so often will seem to target AC even if there are viable ships in range (it usually targets ships that I see even with AC out)? This used to be common occurrence for me fighting Cruisers using AC. However, Lance claims "prior to attack ships" which I can only deduce as really meaning "Attack Ships first" since prior to aircraft or prior to ships on so many weapons just doesn't make sense.

lovegaming

If opponent's has targeting module and our 1st player has scrambler, thus range of the 1st player on our side is decreased, just like the 1st players steps back. So opponent's ship will fire our 2nd player first. So be sure that Tank of a team is in the 1st position in team battle.

navan1

Ah very good to know then as I didn't catch the Targeting use aspect. By that idea, it also means you don't want the tank using Scramblers if you want them to remain the preferred target. Thanks!

lovegaming

Reply 3# navan1
you are welcome, have fun

navan1

This really feels more bug like, but maybe someone can shed some light on this. I just had a battle with a guy who sent out AC. My BC then proceeded to target all weapons on the AC while his BC ignored my AC. Course in this battle I did miss sending my AC out by a round, but that shouldn't have made a difference once it was out. I missed the layout on his AC but I'm betting it was Laser Beam with Mil Targeting, while my AC were using Heavy Armor and Adv Missiles. My BCs in this battle were using all armor mods with Mil Targ, Adv Targ, Heavy - Solar, Turret and Cap - Mill Miss while his BC was using Heavy Shield, Metal Armor, Heavy Armor, Mil Targ, Mil Scram, Turret - Laser Beam, Heavy and Cap - Solar Lance.

From the weapon descriptions, Solar Lance both Cap/Heavy versions says "prior to attack ships" and many I think believe that to really mean, "Attacks Ships First." This would seem reinforced since the vast majority of time it will target the main ships. It's only in times that I cannot find a way to reproduce reliably that it appears that Weapons with "prior to attack ships" go and attack AC instead. It seems related to targeting/scramblers in general since it's only when both sides are using these that it seems AC suddenly get targeted by these weapons.