Ships It's Time to Fix the Gimble / Turret weapons Glitch

[HvyHauler]

This post is not about the benefits of fixed weapons so there is no need to post about it.

The glitch I refer to is the weapons going all over the place when a ship fires off the chaff. Yes, it should break a target lock but let's be honest. Engineers in the 20th century would write a simple line of code into the operating system for that weapon to become a fixed weapon until the chaff clears out and a target lock can be reacquired. Are you seriously going to provide a logical example of how engineers in the 33rd century can not accomplish what can be done in the 20th century? Weapon designers want to provide their clients with the highest probability of survival so they get repeat customers.

Just force the weapons to become fixed and add a 2 second "penalty time" after the chaff is over for target acquisition. Simple, easy, and more immersive.

 

[GeoJase]

Just deselect the target and your gimballed weapons will act as fixed.
Or use the time to recharge your WEP capacitor.
Or use the time to get into an optimal firing position for when chaff finishes.

 

[Northpin]

Aww, and i thought you are miffed about the wobble.
Oh well, nothing to be seen here

 

[d8veh]

Just deselect the target and your gimballed weapons will act as fixed.
Or use the time to recharge your WEP capacitor.
Or use the time to get into an optimal firing position for when chaff finishes.

That works, but can be a bit dodgy in a busy RES. It's too easy to retarget the wrong ship. Also, the ship can move out of the centre of the screen so you can't easily retarget it. You can use "target next hostile", but there can also be problems with that. Also, if you had pre-targeted their PP or any other module, you're going to lose that. Basically, it's the same as when they drop a heatsink or go silent running, which is also really annoying. The easiest thing is to suck it up. Put 4 pips to shields and wait and/or use the time to recharge your weapons capacitor.

 

[Homerzilla]

This post is not about the benefits of fixed weapons so there is no need to post about it.

The glitch I refer to is the weapons going all over the place when a ship fires off the chaff. Yes, it should break a target lock but let's be honest. Engineers in the 20th century would write a simple line of code into the operating system for that weapon to become a fixed weapon until the chaff clears out and a target lock can be reacquired. Are you seriously going to provide a logical example of how engineers in the 33rd century can not accomplish what can be done in the 20th century? Weapon designers want to provide their clients with the highest probability of survival so they get repeat customers.

Just force the weapons to become fixed and add a 2 second "penalty time" after the chaff is over for target acquisition. Simple, easy, and more immersive.

Some points here:
1 - do not expect bugs fixing from the lazy EDevs, when they are up to the neck on that failure called "Odyssey".
2 - "Engineers in the 20th century would write a simple line..." well, are tons of even dumber things who are against logic and common sense - we have hyperspace drives, but we do not have a nav computer able to avoid a huge planet/star, so you will crash on instead of just avoiding the obvious obstacle. Something that was made in 1960 ....
Or carriers who cost a small fortune per week and, even with 24 000 tones of tritium onboard, and a full crew of lazy dumb AI, are unable to plot alone a multi jump.... and, even more stupid, require human player action in order to refill the tritium deposit .... that when the said carrier is filled with tritium !
3 - Now, about turrets and chaff: my solution is far simple: just get close, make the fight personal - you can have the NPC spamming chaff 24/7 ( those DBS ....) but when you stick with them at 200-400m, 90% of my MCs gimballed/ turreted weapons still hurt them badly . When you are very close, the chaff is rendered useless. And I love to fight very close.

 

[Old Duck]

Aww, and i thought you are miffed about the wobble.

I'm impressed with how X4 handles gimbal and turret tracking. Instead of having inherent jitter, gimbals "hunt" until you are able to establish a lock on the target. Once locked, however, the gimbals will smoothly and accurately track the target until the target flys past the gimbal arc, no jitter!

What this does is put more emphasis on pilot skill, since you have to fly in a way to allow those gimbals to lock in the first place, similar to aiming a fixed weapon but not quite so difficult. Once locked, then you really want to try to keep your target within the gimbal arc so not to lose that lock. Again, it's basically taking the best of both worlds of gimbals and fixed weapons in Elite. I definitely feel that it takes a bit more skill to use gimbals in X4, but once you master it, you get better results and it just feels more realistic.

Oh, and the only way to break a gimbal lock is through good flying - chaff only affects missiles, not gimbals.

 

[Northpin]

I'm impressed with how X4 handles gimbal and turret tracking. Instead of having inherent jitter, gimbals "hunt" until you are able to establish a lock on the target. Once locked, however, the gimbals will smoothly and accurately track the target until the target flys past the gimbal arc, no jitter!

What this does is put more emphasis on pilot skill, since you have to fly in a way to allow those gimbals to lock in the first place, similar to aiming a fixed weapon but not quite so difficult. Once locked, then you really want to try to keep your target within the gimbal arc so not to lose that lock. Again, it's basically taking the best of both worlds of gimbals and fixed weapons in Elite. I definitely feel that it takes a bit more skill to use gimbals in X4, but once you master it, you get better results and it just feels more realistic.

Oh, and the only way to break a gimbal lock is through good flying - chaff only affects missiles, not gimbals.

Kinda makes sense.
In ED things are artificially toned down otherwise there would be little to no reason to use fixed weapons.
Which fixed weapons have little to no reason to exist in the first place, but... gameplay...

 

[Para Handy]

This post is not about the benefits of fixed weapons so there is no need to post about it.

The glitch I refer to is the weapons going all over the place when a ship fires off the chaff. Yes, it should break a target lock but let's be honest. Engineers in the 20th century would write a simple line of code into the operating system for that weapon to become a fixed weapon until the chaff clears out and a target lock can be reacquired. Are you seriously going to provide a logical example of how engineers in the 33rd century can not accomplish what can be done in the 20th century? Weapon designers want to provide their clients with the highest probability of survival so they get repeat customers.

Just force the weapons to become fixed and add a 2 second "penalty time" after the chaff is over for target acquisition. Simple, easy, and more immersive.

You know there is a simple solution - don't fit gimbals or turrets.

 

[Homerzilla]

You know there is a simple solution - don't fit gimbals or turrets.

I think the compromise is even better ( that is, if you use a medium / big one, with enough hard points) - have a mix of fixed and gimballed; In my Vette I use 3 fixes ( 2 cytos who will insult any shield tank) and the class 3 , the lower one, is also a fixed burst OC ; but I use also the Huge points with gimballed OC MCs - so I will hurt a target no matter of chaff spam.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

3 - Now, about turrets and chaff: my solution is far simple: just get close, make the fight personal - you can have the NPC spamming chaff 24/7 ( those DBS ....) but when you stick with them at 200-400m, 90% of my MCs gimballed/ turreted weapons still hurt them badly . When you are very close, the chaff is rendered useless. And I love to fight very close.

That is exactly how I do it... Provided my limited flying skills allow me to do that... But with some less maneuverable targets, this is what works best... Just stay close... When the target fills 50% of your view, that means you are close enough...

 

[Rubbernuke]

Back in alpha the last mission was to attack an Anaconda and Sidewinders. The Anaconda had a beam laser turret that was 100% rock steady and if kept in would have been OP.

Gimbals have gone through many iterations, with circles in the HUD where they can aim being adjusted a few times to (almost) having sensor grades link to gimbal and turret effectiveness.

 

[Northpin]

Gimbals have gone through many iterations, with circles in the HUD where they can aim being adjusted a few times to (almost) having sensor grades link to gimbal and turret effectiveness.

Sensor grades affecting gimbals and turrets stability and tracking would make sense.
Currently nobody is using anything but D-rated sensors with either long range or lightweight (*).

Sensor sizes would also make sense to affect stability and tracking.
Currently sensor sizes above size 4 make no sense whatsoever, especially on a 400t hull Anaconda whose sensors can weight from 64t (D) to 160(A, C, E) and 256t (B).

*(i know of some people using wideangle - but this one is really niche and it's used only for material farming)

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Engineers in the 20th century would write a simple line of code into the operating system

Engineers in the 20th century would conclude that crewed spaceflight was an expensive liability and fully automate the entire ship.

That wouldn't be a particularly interesting game.

 

[Krieger]

Good tips given above. In addition, here's my tip: equip your ship with a mix of fixed and gimballed weapons. When chaff is active, switch to fixed. My preference is: fixed beams (efficient) and gimballed multicannons (short range or overcharged with one corrosive). Your ship will be like a chainsaw against chaffing NPCs.

Btw: If the game were consistent chaff should make the aimpoint shown in the HUD for fixed projectile weapons wobble as well because target lock is disturbed. But who cares, it's a game...

 

[metatheurgist]

The amount of wear and tear damage gimbals generate from waving around like the arms of the robot in Lost in Space must be incredible.