Alex, I have noticed that the
linked fire mode override by AI can be reproduced quite easily in simulation mode when sending a ship against other ones where at least one has fighter bays.
Even when just a single enemy fighter is in range and is within the weapon group's overlapping firing arc, it aims and fires linked non-PD guns individually instead of aiming and firing the entire group as intended. This causes the weapons to not only be out of loading sync when engaging ship targets (which generally are a priority), but also misaligned, which cascades into long lasting asynchrous firing during a continuous firing engagement, which ruins the intent/benefit of a burst loadout, dissolving the sole purpose of the linked fire mode setting.
At the very least, only PD weapons should ignore the linked firing mode when engaging fighters or missiles, even though I disagree with this because there is also a purpose of linking PD weapons with matching arcs against shielded fighters.
Since you already extend the number of firing groups, nasty convoluted side effects like this can be entirely avoided without any negative side effects by not overriding the player's intent. If I intent a group to be aimed and fired independently, then I should either disable linked fire or put them into separate groups.
Again, the impact of good player decisions should not be rendered void by the intent to circumvent inferior player decisions.Considering the comments of others, it seems as if the core argument about the autofire mode (same as the linked mode) is still not understood: There is clearly
no need for adding another loadout setting because a strict execution of the existing firing modes is all what is needed for resolving the side effects while generally enabling all intents.If I truly intent autofire and/or linked fire then my loadout setting should not be ignored. If I truly want the AI to decide then I disable autofire and/or linked fire. AI override renders those very loadout settings
entirely pointless for AI controlled ships and causes frustrating side effects for the piloted ship, just for the sake that someone could have made a mistake when enabling autofire and/or linked fire.
Just truly do as what the names of the loadout settings mean instead of doing something else. There are only upsides and no downsides to this.
Again, the upcoming additon of more weapon groups is the perfect moment to get this cleaned up.
This would be more likely to change should someone present an actually documented case (video following a particular ship around might be good), where the human player at refit time unambiguously knows better whether or not the weapon group should be autofired (always/never!), than the AI during the actual combat.
To put it simple:
Every single purpose for the very meaning of the firing modes is either deminished or even entirely ruined by the AI's overriding.The sole purpose of autofire is to enable a higher, practical firing priority over other weapon groups. For example, that the AI overrides the autofire of Heavy Blasters in an Aurora, and instead prioritizes low projectile damage weapons to consume the last drops of flux capacity so that my Heavy Blasters never fire near flux limit, ruins my intent to take down armour effectively and ruins the chance of overloading an enemy ship with my guns in most critical situations.
Additionally, those groups I intent to be prioritized cannot feasibly be triggered by me while I intent to manually trigger other weapons when piloting a ship. That the AI overrides the autofiring of a group I cannot fire manually, because I have selected the piloted ship when giving tactical commands to a fleet group, is a most inconceivable and frustrating side effect.
If I truly intent to let the AI decide whether a group should be fired over another (beyond preventing direct overloading), then I should just disable autofire.The sole purpose of linked fire is to enable burst damage. For example, that the AI overrides Linked Fire of Phase Lances in a Tempest just to take down a fighter ruins my intent to effectively overload enemy ships because the refire delay is out of sync and the guns are misaligned.
If I truly intent the AI to decide whether a group should be fired linked or alternating, then I should just disable linked firing.Just take away firing mode overriding by the AI to make things cleaner while truly enabling its purpose.