Auto Targeting Missiles Won't Fire

Hi there, I just lost an Avalanche equipped with faction auto-targeting missiles. All of my attackers were well within attack range of the missiles. Whenever I pressed on the missile launcher module to start attacking, it would keep saying no targets available. If I locked onto a target and pressed the module, same result, no targets available. I tried overloading the missile launchers to see if that would do anything and same result. I then tried to ungroup the 6 missile launchers and tried activating each one individually and it said no targets available. I had plenty of capacitor while I was attacked as well. The nearby sentry guns were attacking and doing damage but all I could do was sit there. Here’s the killmail if it helps at all

https://esi.evetech.net/v1/killmails/123979294/3d5150d09a65a0772fede1984a0a37857b905988/?datasource=tranquility

For additional context, I completely understand the risks of going into low sec with a freighter. I have a ton of carbon fiber reactions going that needed something big to transport in one go and I didn’t want to use a deep space transport and make multiple trips so I traded safety for convenience. I scouted the gates beforehand to see if there were any active gate camps to which there were none but figured once I started moving, these guys would have the intel and come get me anyways. I’m ok with that. What I didn’t expect was when the first cruiser came and locked me up, I couldn’t fire any of my missiles and when my attacker realized that I couldn’t fight back, that’s when more people started showing up. My auto-targeting missiles skill is to lvl 4, all of my attackers were well within missile range, and I was red-boxed and aggressed by all of them. I should have been able to shoot back. I tried target locking and activating the missiles, no luck. Tried ungrouping the missile launchers and activating them individually and no luck. It would be one thing if I just got overwhelmed but I spent the time and energy to buy an avalanche, fit it to the gills with stuff for this exact scenario. I should have been able to shoot. Everything that I read and saw, I should have been able to at least shoot. Maybe I should’ve tested these missiles beforehand, sure, but I thought they were just going to be any other kind of missile, like loading scourge missiles instead of inferno. I just didn’t expect to not be able to fight back and that’s what’s been the most frustrating thing of it all.

What do I need to do to use Auto Targeting Missiles?

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Let me put your mind at easy by saying you probably wouldn’t have survived that engagement anyway, and at best would have gotten one of your assailants two thirds into Armor at best before you popped.

Next time take yourself and an alt to a safe spot to test out new stuff.

Also, it is entirely possible to get through unsafe systems intact with a scout alt, it’s a matter of patience, and trying not to be a freighter on dscan :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s strange.

I can explain one thing:

When they lock you up you cannot retaliate yet, as they have not yet activated any offensive modules on you. Bumping your ship also isn’t considered an attack.

Only once they start shooting or use offensive modules to tackle you should you be able to fire back, if auto targeting missiles work as I would expect. (But I have no experience with auto targeting missiles, maybe I’m missing something.)

I do wonder if safety on green would stop you from shooting back in that case in low sec, but I would expect not, as they are in a limited engagement once they’ve shot you.

Were you able to shoot back later in the fight? Or not at all?

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I was not able to attack at any point in the fight. When the first cruiser came by, locked on, and started shooting at me, I saw the pop up that said that they had become a criminal and the nearby sentry guns started shooting at his ship. Same with all of the other ships that eventually joined the fight.

My safety was on yellow. I had not considered the possibility that this could be an issue but since they had attacked first and had criminal status, should the safety status even matter?

As I’ve tried to explain, surviving wasn’t the issue. It’s not being able to use something I’m supposed to be able to use. Missiles

Okay, I have no idea then why you weren’t allowed to use auto targeting missiles.

Do you want to get another ship with auto targeting missiles and do some tests ingame?

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Yeah, I would like that :slight_smile:

If you’ve got time, I’m online right now. Want to talk ingame or use Slack?

It turns out auto-targeting missiles are bugged.

Even after being scrammed, pointed and shot I could not activate my light missile launchers with auto-targeting missiles loaded as it gave the error message above.

Only once I had activated another offensive module (warp scrambler) on the ship that was attacking me, the Condor in the screenshot, was I able to activate auto-targeting missiles to fight back.

CCPlease fix this bug.

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Turns out you need a limited engagement timer with the hostile players to be able to activate the auto-targeting missiles.

Yet to get a limited engagement timer with the hostile player in LS and HS, you first need to attack them. Which you cannot do with auto-targeting missiles because of the limited engagement timer requirement.

Chicken egg bug.

Fit a scram on the Avalanche next time as a workaround until CCP fixes this bug.

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CCP Quality Coding™ :thinking:

:psyccp:

They should have written it so that as soon as you are attacked the missiles become active, but given that so few people are even using these missiles it’s probably been overlooked.

OP needs to get himself into RHMLs. They’re the business. Until you need to reload then it’s just survive for 30 seconds citizen lmao

I did have RHMLs equipped

Anything that you can use to attack them (target painter, etc.) should be sufficient to allow you to use auto-targeting missiles. Fairly glaring bug though if you ask me…

I messaged support about this and after some back and forth, including providing a video of the testing, this is the final response I got.

Greetings Capsuleer, I’m Senior GM Baldur.

The information GM Wren provided is correct, and the behavior of the auto-targeting missiles that you described is not the result of a game bug.

I still think it’s a bug. When used in high-sec in a mission (as an example), as soon as the NPCs aggress you can fire auto targeting missiles.

If it works this way for NPCs it should work this way for players, too.

I agree. It’s only a matter of time before someone else dies in this stupid way. I find their response extremely disappointing, like they didn’t even bother to try and test it.

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You could petition for a reimbursement, but I’m not optimistic that you’d get reimbursed (even though you should).

What sucks is that the Avalanche specifically receives an auto targeting bonus, and everyone is going to run RHMLs. The reason is so that you can immediately fire without having to wait to lock the target. So now you have to lock the target AND wait 35 seconds to load Faction or precision ammo - and that’s on top of the DPS hit.

No, this is a bug - and it’s broken. No one takes their Avalanche out ratting, so the weapons are purely defensive against players - and they’re clearly not working.

I fly around in many of the upwell ships with RLMLs for weapons - so I’ll keep looking for the chance to test this out myself.

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This is seriously disappointing.

It’s bad game design if auto-targeting missiles cannot fire back in LS or HS PvP unless you have already fired back with any offensive module.

What if auto-targeting missiles are your only offensive module?

Squalls and the entire Upwell hauler line is designed for ships to only carry auto-targeting missiles as offensive module. All of these ships cannot fight back in LS or HS against players, because their auto-targeting missiles refuse to activate.

It sounds like the GM has not tested the game behaviour, because I honestly cannot see why they call this behaviour “works as intended”.

If reports don’t work, maybe attention to this should be drawn another way. Short descriptive video on reddit or something, CSM.

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:wink: :psyccp: :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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