Turrets not shooting? - Explained.

[Seon]

So I recently decided to go to war with HOP because... Why not really.

I've gotten low enough rep with them for them to show up as hostile.

I'm flying around in a Cerberus Vanguard, with torps for my manual guns for taking out big things but my turrets won't attack any HOP ships.

I've come across so many transports just transporting things around. And they'll show up as red, but my turrets never attack no matter what config they're set to. I can be following one with my turrets set to fire at all hostiles, and they'll attack a Xenon ship when one gets close but the transport just still doesn't get attacked.

They'll only attack if I fire enough at things that triggers a normal turn hostile. No idea if I'm just missing something or things are bugged... Can't imagine trying to take out a transport/freighter in something that doesn't have main guns to get the ship to actually register as hostile...

It's the same thing with cap ships. They don't fire at me, and my turrets don't fire at them until a lunch a torp at them and destroy a few things. Then it's suddenly like 'Oh, enemy'

Is this a bug, or am I missing something?

[Alan Phipps]

See if these two posts here and here help at all.

[Seon]

No, like I said in my original post I've tried different turret modes.

I followed a HOP transport ship, which was red to me, for like 5 minutes before. I had it targeted, kept switching fire modes. Turrets never activated.

I opened fire on it with my main guns to the point where normally a blue ship would turn red and start defending itself or fighting back, and only then did the turrets register the ship as 'hostile' and open fire.

If I didn't have main guns, I feel like the only way I could destroy things like that is to stand up from the controls and tell the AI to attack (if that would even affect the turrets), or have some S sized ships docked and ordering them to attack.

This is why I'm not sure if I'm encountering a bug, or if it's just the way the game works.

[Berserk Knight]

I noticed you were targeting a "transport" ship.
I think your relation is not low enough.

Of the various relation levels defined, there are 2 noteworthy ones named "kill"(-25) and "killmilitary"(-20).
The "kill" relation is pretty self-explanatory. Anything from the opposing faction will be shot down with extreme prejudice.
On the other hand, the "killmilitary" relation (which you dip into first) means that any "military" ships are shoot on sight, but non-combat ones are free to roam about without being harassed.

[Seon]

So even though they're marked as an enemy, my turrets are set to shoot at enemies... They won't shoot because the rep isn't low enough.

That's... Kind of annoying, really. I would have thought if that was the case they'd be still marked as blue or something.

Thanks for clearing it up, Berserk Knight. I thought it might be something like that but a part of me felt it best to check since they were marked as Red.

I'll be sure to keep it in mind in the future that if I want to deny outside trade to my enemies more effectively, and keep those pesky red traders away, I'll need to get even lower rep than 20...

Oh how I miss the X3 days of just setting a faction to "Foe" and calling it good.

[Rastuasi]

So even though they're marked as an enemy, my turrets are set to shoot at enemies... They won't shoot because the rep isn't low enough.

That's... Kind of annoying, really. I would have thought if that was the case they'd be still marked as blue or something.

Thanks for clearing it up, Berserk Knight. I thought it might be something like that but a part of me felt it best to check since they were marked as Red.

I'll be sure to keep it in mind in the future that if I want to deny outside trade to my enemies more effectively, and keep those pesky red traders away, I'll need to get even lower rep than 20...

Oh how I miss the X3 days of just setting a faction to "Foe" and calling it good.

Actually in X3, it worked just like this as well. If above a certain neg status, transports were left alone, once below, then fair game. This has always been the case. Alternatives to this is to set turrets to attack my target, then shoot it, they'll turn and fire. If AI, tell them to attack that ship, they'll go to town.

Source: 8000+ hours in X3, 4000 hours in X rebirth and over 300 in X4.

[Seon]

Actually in X3, it worked just like this as well.

Really? It never seemed to do that for me. I remember my turrets always opening fire after I set someone to enemy no matter what the ship was. Odd.

[Rastuasi]

It may not have been consistent, depending on mods, but I just loaded up an unmodded save file to double check and they didn't shoot at the Terrans (which I was starting a war with)