How does the "Target Object" control work?

[clevider]

I spent a lot of time setting the controls for X3R and TC so I expected it would take a while to get Rebirth configured in a way that made sense to me, but the "Target Object" control has me baffled.

I'm in the first sector and am supposed to test my weapons on yonder asteroids. I positioned my reticle over one of the asteroids and pressed Ctrl-F (or the equivalent button on my joystick). My ship targets "Warden Destroyer Taranis." That ship isn't in my field of view. If I press the target button again, I target a dormant bear. Since targeting the bear disables the white targeting reticle, I assume that means nothing is targeted. I've tried pressing "Target Object" several more times and it just alternates between those two states (targeting the Taranis and nothing/a dormant bear)

Two questions then: 1) What does "Target Object" do? and 2) is the "Target Under Reticle" control missing from this game?

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

There are a couple of Target keys and from memory, they were added to help us target ships. In this case, it sounds like mouse left-clicking (or controller eqivalent) on the asteroid will do.

[clevider]

There are

• Target Object
  Target Nearest Enemy
  Next/Prev. Target
  Next/Prev. Surface Element

Clicking or otherwise selecting an object on the screen will not simply do -- it's exactly what I want. I don't play with a mouse, however. My question is how to do that with a joystick or keyboard.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Hmm, unfortunately I don't use a joystick so i am not sure.

I would imagine it would be the same button as whichever button is used for selecting icons in menus. If not, you could try looking up the name in control options that corresponds to a mouse left click and seeing what is mapped to that name in joystick controls.

[clevider]

That was a good idea, but it didn't help. The LMB can't be remapped and it doesn't show in any of the control settings.

Does the "gamepad mode" option have something to do with this? How do I find out what it does? It isn't in the manual and my searches didn't turn up anything in this forum.

[birdtable]

If it is of any assistance ...
1. Target Object does not work very well, I find the best method is to line up ship with the green box shape ( sorry for non technical term) and double click with LMB and get info from there ... otherwise you can highlight a ship in the distance or surface elements....next object does not work satisfactory either as you have found.

2 Target Closest Enemy also does not work properly as you can highlight a passing enemy in highway or ice cream seller out of favour with authorities .. best to use next enemy button quickly to find required target.

3 Keys for surface elements work well but overrides other info requirements.

All of the required control functions (Targeting) are available from joystick with limitations ... try to find a work around on these controls that suit your requirements with the above taken into consideration.... and yes it is frustrating especially the Target under Reticule.....I suppose there should be 2 targeting systems ..Objects and Elements.

[Vyrebird]

For Target Object, there are actually two in-game upgrades which make it dramatically more functional. The Mechanic sells them, under software iirc - the cheaper upgrade adds a few more targetables, but the second upgrade (costs ~500k I believe) lets you "Target Object" on a lot more - station parts & docking interfaces, for example. I haven't actually tried Asteroids again, but everything I *have* tried since getting that lvl 2 upgrade has worked. It's still not perfect, but with the upgrades it's at least more workable.

It seems odd that such functionality is tied to an in-game purchase, when you can just click it with the mouse for free ... but at least it's there in some form.

(thanks go to Nanook for pointing these upgrades out to me when I asked the same question )

[Frank Johnson]

For me I just point my retical over the object I want to blast click it and hold my right mouse button to fire selected weapon.


You can customize the key bindings also and I did that extensivly so my current key settings are not the default.

[clevider]

For Target Object, there are actually two in-game upgrades which make it dramatically more functional. The Mechanic sells them, under software iirc - the cheaper upgrade adds a few more targetables, but the second upgrade (costs ~500k I believe) lets you "Target Object" on a lot more - station parts & docking interfaces, for example. I haven't actually tried Asteroids again, but everything I *have* tried since getting that lvl 2 upgrade has worked. It's still not perfect, but with the upgrades it's at least more workable.

It seems odd that such functionality is tied to an in-game purchase, when you can just click it with the mouse for free ... but at least it's there in some form.

(thanks go to Nanook for pointing these upgrades out to me when I asked the same question )

This is very good information. Does this upgraded "Target Object" work like one would expect "Target Under Reticle" to work?

More importantly, is there a resource here (as there are for TC and X3R here) that explains the various software and equipment upgrades? I ran into some frustrations with the base trading system and had pretty much decided not to buy Rebirth since my Google searches weren't turning up answers for any of my questions. If there's a detailed resource that explains what the various upgrades do, I might be able to change my mind.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Here are some bits of info:

Guide document for 2.0 features:
http://www.egosoft.com/games/x_rebirth/ ... Manual.pdf

Guide videos for 3.0 features:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =347274078

Starfreeze Rebirth wiki (last update was Jan, 2015):
http://www.starfreeze.com/wiki/Main_Page

[GCU Grey Area]

I'm in the first sector and am supposed to test my weapons on yonder asteroids. I positioned my reticle over one of the asteroids and pressed Ctrl-F (or the equivalent button on my joystick).

Don't need to use Target Object for asteroids. If you've got the asteroid centred in the reticle it'll automatically be selected as your target, as long as you're close enough. If you have your radar screen set to info overlay mode it'll tell you the type & yield of that asteroid. Target Object is primarily for selecting ships as targets, I'd imagine asteroids aren't considered a viable option for Target Object because otherwise it'd be a nightmare trying to target an enemy ship if fighting amongst asteroids.

My ship targets "Warden Destroyer Taranis." That ship isn't in my field of view. If I press the target button again, I target a dormant bear.

If there isn't an appropriate target near the reticle Target Object tries to guess what you might want from nearby ships or stations & cycles between them (Dormant Bear is the station you recently docked at). Best to use Target Object when you have a ship centred in the reticle, then it knows what you want to target. I find it invaluable for selecting my primary target in a dogfight & is the method of targeting I use most often (I play with a joystick so selecting targets with the mouse is not particularly convenient in the middle of a fight). Target Closest Enemy is occasionally useful if facing several identical enemies, but mostly I want to select the most dangerous first & I find Target Object is much more useful for that.

Since targeting the bear disables the white targeting reticle, I assume that means nothing is targeted. I've tried pressing "Target Object" several more times and it just alternates between those two states (targeting the Taranis and nothing/a dormant bear)

For some reason (no idea why) you don't get the white targeting reticle if your current target is a station, though you do still get it's info on the radar screen overlay.

[sicnarfghost]

I'm trying the game inly with my XBOX controller. The only issue I have is that the left or right click of the mouse cannot be mapped to the controller, or some of the actions provided with the mouse cursor and click while flying a ship.

The tutorial to mine an astreroid require me to put down my controller and select the asteroid by moving the mouse and left clicking on the asteroid.

Doing so, the cursor of the mouse appear as soon as I click the mouse or move the mouse. Insted of required me to use a mouse or click with the mouse. How do I select anything just in front of me to inspect.

Also, while touching the mouse, the controller response of the right stick to steer the ship is in conflict with the mouse control. And some icon below the reticul change. Moving the controller eventually restore the stearing to the controller, but there is a delay of 1 or 2 seconds. Try using Joytokey to bind a left click to my controller, but I have the problem of delay while mapping mouse click, the mouse cursor appear temporarily and lost xbox controller controls.

Shift+Space don't change anything. And I try to bind the T key to target the thing just in front of me and not worked either.

Suggestion, add an option to click/target what I see in my reticule like clicking with the cursor of mouse in the middle of the screen. Map a different button click for mouse left or right click.

The gamepad, works perfectly with all the others menus, and I won't use mouse and keyboard on a couch. I already work 40+ hours in front of a cheap PC office setup.

Thanks