OddBob wrote:
Second, l0mars01 said ARTIFICIALLY challenging (however I don't believe aiming is an example of artificial challenge in this case).
Only to clarify, I meant artificial like 'I would hit this more easily if it weren't for these discrete angle artifacts'. Often times I will know the best discrete striking angle, yet skip over it and have to correct myself several times due to the nature of the controls: this is not gentle on the hands. For 40 discrete angles, the best two angles have error e <= 1/40 and error 1/20 - e, and all other angles have errors that are multiples of 1/20 greater than the best two (where 0 is the least error and 1 is the greatest error). In a game without discrete angle artifacts, you will have a range of angles that strike the target and any angle with insignificant error away from the best angle will strike. Discrete angles, however, are less forgiving and limit you to a scant few choices, usually one, sometimes none depending on distance.
OddBob wrote:
When I said "all or nothing" it wasn't so much a realism point but a gameplay one: you perform all flight maneuvers manually except for the ones that involve lining up on target? Why not take the manual flight out of the equation and issue general orders instead?
Let me also clarify auto-aim would be something you use at your convenience, not forced on you at all times. You use auto-aim only when you want to, just like everything else (thrusting, firing, targeting, docking): you make the commands. Sometimes you can tell how a target will change course based on the way it's facing and will want to fire manually. I suggest the idea because it's only natural and practical when you have automated targeting, steering, and weapons to combine the 3.
OddBob wrote:
my problem is with the way the auto aim is implemented - I think what bothers me most about it is that it is a weird workaround to the counter-intuitive and unrealistic fact that all the weapons point forward anyway - but also it's the matter of manuevering - it's awkward for me to have control over three aspects of maneuvers most of the time but then have to keep toggling in and out of auto aim to get the third.
Why not slap a togglable (you need to be able to toggle it so that if you want you can shoot crates/wrecks etc manually without it deciding that that corsair is mre important) 45 degree swivel on all weapons (to further the concept of the blind spot fixing swivel)? (to add difference you could varyt he swivel of different weapons) You'd need a much more complex targeting system to avoid the clumsy target cycling routine but I think this would do the same thing without the awkwardness, as well as provide more maneuvering opportunities, especially if you can have weapons point to the sides or aft (this is only really feasible with swivel weapons anyway)
This would also be more in line with auto aim in a shooter like you mention - the game doesn't turn your character's body to the right (making it so you now run in a different direction), it just moves his arm to line up the shot.
The game is already set up so the weapons point forward. I was trying to propose the least radical change to the game that would introduce the most natural progression. You don't have to toggle it on/off like Caps Lock; you could use something like Shift, although that key is taken. When you're steering to attack, instead of pressing 2 keys to turn clockwise and counterclockwise to aim, you simply press 1 key to aim: 1 key instead of 2, simpler. Then you can steer away with the regular keys like usual. Again, it's only a convenience: you could do it manual at all times.
Lots of games feature greater precision in aiming than sprite illustration: they usually denote direction with reticles rather than aim for you. Check out some old scorched earth-like games. It's not that clumsy, awkward, or strange.
OddBob wrote:
I'd like it if it did so and then displayed the result onscreen as a line/cone of fire, which I could then manually execute.
A lead indicator is fine, too. Let's do that, at least.
