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[Cycerin]

Basically, when piloting a ship with more than one slow-firing missile weapon (or forward-facing AM blasters), I often wish I had the ability to simply press a button to fire it, rather than having to switch and then fire. This would come at the expense of being able to aim the weapon first, of course.

[Gothars]

Just a quick note: this was suggested before multiple times and well liked by the players (including me). Doesn't remember any dev comment though.

[CopperCoyote]

As a work around i use the auto-fire toggle to fire the group i want then toggle it back off. This unfortunately won't work with most missiles. It works for annihilators pilums and swarmers.

[Alex]

Any suggestions on nice default key bindings for this?

[Wyvern]

Hm.  Not sure there is a "nice" default; only thing that comes to mind is something like ctrl-number, and that's a bit awkward.  I'd almost rather have an option when setting up weapon groups to set a group as "push-to-fire" - with the result that that group would always track the mouse, show weapon arcs (maybe in a different color, or darker, or something?), but fires on hitting the matching number instead of on mouseclick.

The most likely alternative is a player just picking some group, say 3, keybinding push-to-fire to '3', and always using that group for push-to-fire weapons (or, for hulls with no push-to-fire weapons, maybe use that group for point defenses or something else you'd just put on autofire and ignore).
Which, honestly, works fine too - this is kindof an advanced feature, so it's probably ok if it's not really usable without some personalization of keybindings.

[Cycerin]

As default, maybe ctrl - 1-5 for each corresponding weapon group, with the ability to bind them to whatever you want? If someone cares about this function, they are very likely to rebind it anyway.. if you ask me.

Another little suggestion I just remembered, if you could bring up the keybinds screen from inside the combat layer that would be very practical. I realize you probably don't do that because of the gameplay options though.

[PCCL]

I agree with Wyvern's idea

maybe on the loadout screen, where you get a row of buttons to toggle auto-fire, there could be another row that toggles "quick fire".

say you put group 3 into quick fire

in battle, when you press 3, instead of switching into group 3, you just fire the currently selected weapon of this group. shift-3 still does autofire as usual.

the only problem is if there should be a way to switch between alternating weapons in this group, but I think the pros outweigh the cons in that regard.

[BillyRueben]

Does the middle mouse button do anything? I know not everyone has one, but it seems an ideal button for it.

[Thaago]

I would probably rebind from middle mouse to something else... my mouse is kinda crappy and I click it in while scrolling sometimes. Setting number keys to be 'fire on press' from the refit screen could be nice - or what about the function keys? Are they bound to anything atm?

[Gothars]

EDIT/ Nonsense, I forgot that double press is already taken. Read next post pls.

How about a double press?  You press the normal group key once and if you press it again within ~1 second the group fires and sets you back to the group you came from. That has the advantage that you can see the weapon arc before you fire without having to see it all the time. And you can still use the group normally. And you don't have to memorize another 5 keys. And no configuration is necessary.

The downside is that your normal weapon group's fire is interrupted for ~1second (if not on autofire). And a double press takes a quarter second longer to execute. Both not too bad, I think, it's no twitch game after all.


Middle mouse button is fine as long as you only have one group. Especially my strike ships often have more than one, EG AM-Blaster and Reapers fire consecutively.
 

[Gothars]

How about holding the button?  You press the normal group key for ~0.5 seconds, then the group fires and sets you back to the group you came from. That has the advantage that you can see the weapon arc before you fire without having to see it all the time. And you can still use the group normally. And you don't have to memorize another 5 keys. And no configuration is necessary.

If you keep pressing the button multiple weapons of an Alternating group could fire consecutively. That could even work with the already selected group.


The downside is that having to press it 0.5 seconds means a 0.5 second delay until execution. Not too bad, I think, it's no twitch game after all.
Well, and if the weapon arc/range turns out insufficient and you let go of the button, it's a short press and you have selected the group. Mh...

[Histidine]

Idea: Make it possible to select more than one weapon group at a time (Shift+#, RTS style).

[zakastra]

The problem with a .5 second delay for activation is that it would be faster to manually change groups, fire, and change back, whereas it is most useful for twitch situations like firing of a harpoon whilst an enemy frigate is doing a partial vent

A default binding may be unnecessary as its more of an advanced option, but I'd lean towards Ctrl + group number for defaults, though personally I'd be using one or two specific groups set to Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 but that is unhelpful for those with 2/3 button mice

[Gothars]

Yeah, the delay thing has too many disadvantages. Strg+# doesn't seem very fast to me either, though.

The numerous recent control threads gave me another idea (not yet thought through, hole poking pls): how about if weapon groups could be freely assigned to buttons on the fly.

For example pressing a number key could change the associated group for the default LMB, holding a number key and pressing another button changes the group to that button. That way you could be very flexible, for example put first your Swarmers on middle mouse button and if the fighters are dealt with you could instantly reassign MMB to your torpedoes. People with many mouse button could utilize them all.

An extension of that idea is that the shield is handled as a weapon group and can be assigned to auto"fire". You can leave it on the default right mouse button, assign it to a less prominent key (maybe on an Onslaught) or give it to AI control. That would also be a solution for the old "can't defend in different direction than my attacks go" problem.

[VedicIntent]

As someone coming from a Mechwarrior background, a push-to-fire option would be pretty great. It might not be the easiest from a programming perspective, but a mode toggle might be the best way to implement, since both grouping methods are viable in this game. Alternatively, just add "fire weapon group X" hotkeys in the bindings list (default unbound), and let players work out what's best for them? Autofire would be compatible with that.

Especially for cap ships, multiple "triggers" would be a huge help in managing selective fire without having to track which group is currently primary. As it is, I end up juggling things with autofire in suboptimal ways.