9 replies to this topic

[Archangel Dino]

I know LRM's Lock-On; who doesn't know that (psht).

But do SRM's Lock-On? I've always fired them straight at targets close-range without worrying about Locking on. Am I doing it wrong? Should I be locking on?

Also, does Locking-On affect direct fire weapons AT ALL?

Will Locking-On affect my Lasers? Or my PPC's? Or my Autocannons?

Does Locking-On provide any benefits OTHER than Weapon Locks?

[Macksheen]

Only LRMs and Streak SRMs lock on, the rest fire roughly where you've placed your cross-hairs.

[TripleEhBeef]

Macksheen, on 20 December 2014 - 08:59 AM, said:

Only LRMs and Streak SRMs lock on, the rest fire roughly where you've placed your cross-hairs.

This.

However, ALWAYS target what you're shooting at.

First, targeting enemies allows your teammates to lock onto them even if they don't have direct line of sight. This greatly helps your team's LRM mechs rain hell onto your enemies.

Second, targeting a mech will allow you to see their status, such as the health of each component and their weapons setup. Note that it can take some time for this information to be displayed depending on distance, line of sight, ECM, and whether you have the Beagle Active Probe or the Target Info Gathering module.

[mailin]

3rd, locking on to a target lets your friendlies know where there's at least one more enemy, so there's a greater chance of several mechs focusing on that one enemy. (ALWAYS a good thing.)

[Vlad Striker]

Locking can sometime save your mech because mates will view enemy on minimap.

[Wintersdark]

Locking and targeting are two different things. You target by pressing R, this gets the square box around your target and shares it with you allies.

Do this. Always.

LRM's and SSRM's can lock on, so they fire guided. This is represented by the circles - white large ones while trying to get a lock, red once a lock is achieved. This only matters for your own LRM's and/or SSRM's. It doesn't affect any other weapons, nor do your allies benefit.

I'll repeat, though. Always target what you're shooting at, or at least something. If you see a hollow red triangle, then target that mech: it means nobody else has him targeted, so allies without line of sight to him won't be aware he is there. Once you target him, his position is revealed to all allies.

[mailin]

A minor point of difference to what Wintersdark said. When you lock targets, your friendlies DO indeed benefit. Any lrm users on your team can piggyback onto your lock to lock their missiles on your target. When they do this, you get a spotting assist, which means you help your friendly lrms get and maintain a lock AND get additional experience for it.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

just wanna say, lock on =/= targeting.
If you don't have a weapon which requires or comes with a "lock on" you simple can't lock on at all.
LRM actually don't require a lock on (thought, artemis will only kick in with line of sight AND lock on) Streaks won't fire unless onto a locked target.

If you want to let your team know that you got an enemy hit "R". Makes sence in almost all situation.
(i often find my "prey" to be scared away from "friendly" lrm spam (regardles if said LRM would ever hit or not) so i sometimes tend to not target what i'm going to engage (a.k.a. backstabing). on the other hand it's kinda nice to know what you're engaging (be it to know if your target is carrying Streaks /ac20/ppc/erppc, even if his ultra(s) jammed and what not.)

[DEMAX51]

mailin, on 20 December 2014 - 03:11 PM, said:

A minor point of difference to what Wintersdark said. When you lock targets, your friendlies DO indeed benefit. Any lrm users on your team can piggyback onto your lock to lock their missiles on your target. When they do this, you get a spotting assist, which means you help your friendly lrms get and maintain a lock AND get additional experience for it.

No dude, The way Wintersdark described was perfect.

Targeting and Locking On are two different things.

Targeting an enemy (by hitting R) will allow your teammates to Lock onto it, make it appear on your teammates' radar, and will give you Spotting Assists.

Locking On an enemy does nothing for your teammates. It only allows you to fire LRMs that will auto-aim on the enemy (you can still dumb-fire LRMs without a lock), and it will allow you to fire Streak SRMs (which cannot be dumb-fired, and must have a lock).

You yourself do not have to be Locked On to an enemy to pass along his targeting data to your teammates. You only have to have the enemy Targeted. 'Mechs that don't have LRMs or SSRMs installed cannot even achieve a Lock On, but they can still Target, and they can still pass along that Targetting Info to their teammates.

Edited by DEMAX51, 20 December 2014 - 03:48 PM.

[warner2]

No, this isn't transformers