Engineers Surface combat could use another look?

[Valence]

Tonight I was winged up with the old man and we decided to try a surface mission to kill 3 skimmers. They were located in a sprawling +++ base with multiple goliaths and a lot of guardians. We both landed and approached the base, we immediately were swarmed and I died first while tried to flee to regroup. I spawned in my anaconda in orbit and proceeded to dive as fast as I could to provide air support and keep him alive.

Except you pretty much can't now.

As I desperately boosted towards him and came within range, I realized I couldn't lock the skimmers with my weapons (I had remembered reading about this change). So as I fumbled into the right screen to set my turrets to forward fire, I turned my view back to watch him die. Now I understand that FD implemented this because people were cheesing bases with their ships, but this solution just feels...lame. The only way I could lock the skimmers was to try to graze them with my turrets in forward fire, then when they attacked, I could lock for a few seconds after switching back to target only. This is a sloppy fix. I'd rather          s be able to do their cheesy activities on their own time then deal with these screwy mechanics as some kind of fix. Meanwhile, if you roll onto a base that has its own air support, be prepared for your SRV to be absolutely obliterated from the sky as you can do absolutely nothing. Don't even get me started on what happens if you collide with a skimmer.

I'm not trying to be super negative here, I just think it was a lot more fun before to be able to swoop in and save the day with your ship. It gave such a great sense of scale. Sometimes it was nice to just melt skimmers from the air because it revealed just how big and powerful even the small ships are against lesser machines.

I can pilot a warp bubble encapsulated ship through the corona of a star and refuel myself...but I cant lock onto an RC drone with a gun bolted to it. That seems wonky to me...

Here's hoping for another pass at surface combat yes? please? Thank you.

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Yikes this is a duplicate post. How do I delete?

 

[Memnoch]

I'm pretty sure there is a trailer for Horizons which shows just what you describe, with SRV's assaulting a base while ships(s) are giving air support. That video is now to be marked with a "Not illustrative of gameplay" disclaimer I guess?

 

[Gedemon]

Dumbfire missiles may be a bit less effective, but I still find them very good as air to ground weapons (including vs skimmers)

Fixed weapons works too.

You may want to use smaller and agile ships against ground targets.

 

[stripealipe]

Strafing still works, even if you can't get a lock, though i'm actually finding it easier and more fun to go in with the SRV. Base raids are good fun btw. Never really done them before 2.1, but now i know i can get interesting stuff from the data points, i'm giving them a go.

Some of them are exquisitely made and the larger higher security ones sometimes look amazing. Anyone come across one with a huge green diffused light beaming high up into the sky from one of the buildings? Also loving the very moody security sirens and chatter echoing around...

 

[Tusken]

The lockon thing doesn't seem like much of a problem.
It just takes a little getting used to.
The only lockon when fired upon thing is wierd though and should be changed IMHO.
I was getting shot at by a AA missile turret.
I had a hard time dealing with it because I kept loosing my lock, the lock on time was just to short.
The AA guns should simply be lockable, there massive, stationary and only a risk to a ship.

The skimmers only lockable when they fire on you is just silly.
What's the lore explanation on that mechanic?
Just make them unlockable or when they are firing at anything. (Heat level makes you able to pick it up)
They go down really fast. Just 2 strafing hits with a beamlaser and poof.
So with a little practise you could still swoop in and save the day, even if you can't lock on at all.

 

[nothingfaced]

I didn't realise this was an intended change! I got around this by bumping into skimmers to aggro them to get a lock.

It was pretty silly.

 

[Kneejo]

Dude, your turrets always fire forward when not locked.. no need to fiddle in the screen.. just make a button that unlocks stuff, for instance, the function to select the next nav point on route.. it's in settings, I have it next to my trigger, to quickly unlock and shoot if need.

 

[DrakeAurum]

One tip, incidentally - when you get a mission yo kill skimmers at a surface base, you don't actually have to kill them at the base. I don't know the precise range (it doesn't work on the other side of the planet) but if you look for POIs anywhere within a couple of dozen kilometers of the base, any skimmers you encounter will count towards the mission.