Targeting Bug - Anyone even notice?

This happened only as of the most recent Issue, Issue 17 but is driving me nuts and forcing me to adapt. Not that I'm not, but I just wanted to post it here in the hopes its a bug and will be fixed.

Normally when you hit tab to cycle targets it goes from nearest target to farthest target and back again. This is still true, except in the past it didn't factor in defeated critters as a legitimate target and therefore reset the cycle for targeting back to closest target first. If you defeated something and you didn't change targets before doing so then the defeated target would be "no target" and it would start at nearest and go out from there.

Now however it considers the defeated target an actual target and cycles next closest target based on that dead critters location which does not always give you the next closest target. If the enemy ran just before dying it could target the entirely next mob and if you are firing fast could aggro 2 groups on accident. This isn't good.

The other problem also lies in that if you want to always target closest target you need to assign "closest target" to TAB, but what happens if you want to switch targets rapidly after that like we used to be able to do? We need an entirely new key that's set to "next closest target". This isn't very practical given that we used to be able to do both with one key. There is no need for this change so I will hope it is a bug and can be fixed because I've been using 2 keys to cycle targets recently and it is getting rather frustrating.

Personally, I've always found the way Tab cycles to be odd. I've never seen any sort of consistency to it. Sometimes it'll start with the closest target, sometimes the farthest, and sometimes in the middle.

Not long after I starded playedig, I decided to leave Tab alone, and bind N to target_enemy_near. Pressing N will always target the [N]ext enemy closest to me, and Tab will continue to cycle in its odd way.

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Personally, I've never seen target_enemy_next act strangely. I use it every day and have not noticed any changes, neither before nor after i17's release.

It has always treated a dead target as your current targeted distance, and targets the next furthest enemy from that distance. Even if you have an ally targeted, pressing target_enemy_next will target the foe that is the next furthest distance away from your current target, regardless if there are enemies inbetween you and your current ally target. The only time killing a foe should reset to the closest foe is if the foe does not leave a dead body (ghosts or exploding robots) and leaves you with "no target" upon defeat.

The only recent change I have noticed is the announced "can not target something while it's rezzing", which will reset you to "no target" if you have it targeted when it decides to get back up.

Additionally, it will only consider foes that are visible on your screen. Even target_enemy_near wont target a closer foe behind you if you cannot see it.

However, I do not use the default keys for targeting either. I do have separate keys for both target_enemy_near and target_enemy_next, and use both frequently in different circumstances. I even have a 3rd key set up for custom name targets, and a 4th key set up to quickly re-bind the 3rd key to a different named target.

I have never changed the tab key. It is set to target_enemy_near in my keybinds file. If it wont target who I want I look at the foes feet and press tab again (if im next to it) or use the mouse. I haven't seen it target a dead foe.

Exactly as master blade stated. It takes nearest target from the target selected instead of nearest target from you. Nearest target is always supposed to be from you but was somehow changed to next nearest from current target in an outward way from your current location. And that can lead to mishaps. Going to work now, I'll check back tomorrow for more information and views.

Ah well that is how it is listed in my keybinds file I guess that doesn't mean anything.

My perception is that "No Target" after a body fade doesn't necessarily mean your distance has been reset. Many times I've gone from one spawn to another, pressed the tab key and gotten something WAY beyond the spawn I see in front of me, as if it is counting the distance from you to where you defeated your last target and getting the next enemy that far away or further. It is especially noticeable if you have gone a medium distance from the last fight to look down a long hall full of enemies. I first noticed it after issue 13. I'm not sure if it was because of the new release or because I was getting better at moving quickly through the missions in my 6th month.

I haven't noticed any differences with i17.

Other than that, Tab works as advertised for me although sometimes the definition of "enemy seen" is questionable.

At any rate, I've gotten into the habit of pressing the Escape key between spawns since that always resets the distance. I've also bound Target-Nearest to a simple key for regular use (I hate chords). I still use Tab but I mainly use my Target-Nearest bind for in-combat targeting. It is especially good for re-targeting after a team-mate knocks something away from me.

In reply to Master Blade, it says Target_Enemy_Next like I've always had it set.


OK Heres how it worked for me for 6 years and I've never altered my tab key. TAB = Target next enemy. Always has. The difference now: say you start a fight, just loaded into a map and you see a group in front of you. The next target is the nearest target to you and so you hit tab and you get the nearest target just like you would with "Target Nearest" and if you hit it again you get the next target closest to you after that target. Target dies from damage dealt and you hit TAB again, since no target is selected except a defeated villain, which is "no target" it resets like you never had anything targeted and goes to "Target Nearest" and would work again as intended and you could hit it again to cycle nearest to farthest without a problem.

Except now it factors the defeated critters as still a valid target. So if your ranged and you defeat that boss at the far end of the group because he was your first priority and hit tab after defeating him you will target the group behind him as though he were a target and the "Target next" said to target whats beyond him. Instead of realizing that that is a defeated target and the cycle needs to be reset.

Target Next has always started off as target nearest and go from there. Now its simply target next whether alive or dead it will target whats beyond your current target. I used to love having both keys use target next and never really need to manually select targets with the mouse. Now I need to because the next target is often the target furthest from me. I could set my TAB key to target nearest but then I'd lose the ability to cycle targets. This is how it used to work for me. I've played that way for 6 years. If there are other ways target next worked for other people then I'd like to see the option for target nearest restored as a selectable option but using 2 keys to target is really impractical. And I can't always count on my mouse curser to stand out or even be able to target when graphics may be blocking me from targeting what I want.

Reproducible steps. Enter a mission and press tab [target next] if there's something to target it will target the nearest target. Go to a different mob with enemies behind it. Target the furthest enemy in the group and defeat it. Next hit tab and it will target the next mobs closest enemy. It happens way to often nowadays. The difference is now it will consider a defeated mob as a valid target. And yet if you target the closest enemy to you and hit target next(TAB) you will never target a defeated enemy through cycling targets. So it should not consider it a valid target and thus it should reset to "no target" and start the "target next" cycle from where it would if you HAD nothing targeted, which would be the "next (closest) target".


Edit for clarity. And I don't mean no target as thats what my target window says. I mean no target in the sense that the defeated enemy in my target window is as far as the game should be informed "no valid target". The game registers "no target" correctly when there in fact is no target, it just needs to be reminded that a defeated enemy is also not a target. Unless it was changed for the 2 powers that will ever need a dead body for a target to work, and even still all it does is allow you to target next target from that target and not cycle targets to get a dead body as a target to use so all it does is change targeting, not selection. You already had it selected at that point. Both ways if you hit tab again you won't be able to have it selected again unless you select it manually.

BTW It also seems to work by distance as it should so a workaround would be to stand next to every dead body you defeat and hit tab as that would also give the nearest target in a cycle. However should you have the dead critter selected as the last thing you defeated and run into a different group and hit tab theres a chance that that now far away dead critter still counts as distance and therefore as you hit tab you cycle to something WAAY far in front of you past the group you just jumped into. Its all about distance from your character. If you're close to the defeated target as mentioned you will get more accurate next target results. If your far away and any enemy moves closer then defeated target then there's no way to know how far away the next nearest target could be. Fighting outdoors could yield funny results. Say you fight a sorc in a group of Tsoo. You land a DoT on him and he teleports and dies, you hit tab and find you've targeted one of many other mobs not right next to you somewhere on the open map. Hit tab again and maybe after his potentially 20 friends are targeted first as next next nearest targets it will show you the ones punching you in the face. Just saying. It used to start the cycle over when an enemy died, now it continues if from your position currently to the next closest targets position currently. And it matters if you move. Move further it will only get you the next closest target from how far you are then to the defeated enemy. Dead enemy is 100 yds you will not get a near enemy you will get enemy 100.000001 yds or further.


And again to Master Blade - sorry just keep rereading posts, but the powers targeting next nearest target when something is defeated is something that still works thankfully but it used to work with tab as well. At least for me. And you wouldn't believe how helpful it seems now that its gone.

I've never had good luck with trusting target_enemy_next.

I've had cases where I'm surrounded by enemies in an outdoor map and TEN selects an enemy up the street in a mob I haven't gotten to yet.



I've taken to binding my L key to target_enemy_near and using that instead.

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That's the problem I had, Hyperstrike. And I did the same thing, with the N key. I also have a seperate bind file for all of my characters.

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I realize about the dead targets being needed for the WS powers I was just saying how it worked before made no difference to WS powers as I was thinking that might have been the reason for the change. I see that it appears that I was the only one able to target this way for a while using tab. I just like the way it worked for me before and it seems I may have been the only one using this benefit. I mean a defeated target doesn't cycle if you target off them, so why should it set the next target as a distance away from said defeated target if under normal cycling conditions it would ignore a defeated target.

Well anyone know the developer I can talk to about this sort of thing, since its not a bug anymore I have a feeling some people would like to try the way I've been targeting all along. Its nice when you don't want to hit an attack to cycle the nearest target after a kill and have it potentially also start that attack even though you might want to use a different power. I mean imagine using tab to cycle targets and find the nearest target after a defeat. Doesn't that sound nice? I used to love it! 8>

I didn't think anyone was flaming or anything btw. So no worries there, mostly just shocked that nobody else had a TAB key as awesome as mine. Woop!

And yes that's actually how it worked for a long time. I don't know how but I never thought twice about it until it changed for me. Only applies when the foe is defeated and you hit tab but I mean really, how often does that happen? Every fight for me.