Hard Lock Vs. Soft Lock

[Call Sign: Raven]

Questions:

1) Is it better for advanced play to use soft lock, exclusively?

2) Are there times where one type of lock-on is clearly and undisputed as being better?

Thoughts:

1) It seems that certain strats are impossible when using one type of lock-on vs another.

2) I did some experimenting on the Ibis fight, using hard lock on and soft lock on. I intentionally used weak weapons to draw the fight out as long as possible for the purpose of learning.

3) Specifically with Ibis, it seems that hard lock creates a lot of "chance" to hit. Whereas, with soft-lock, I not only felt more free with my movement/aim, but was rewarded for being more aggressive, assuming my aim was true and I attacked at the correct time.

Response:

Please share your thoughts on this idea. I'll do more experiments. Initially, I've been switching between the two, but I'm feeling like gravitating towards just using Soft Lock.

[Oobaneko]

Hard Lock is good, if you need to vomit.

[Sabaithal]

Hard lock is what allows me to be aggressive with fights like Ibis, where the boss is jumping all over the damn place, especially in close.

And fights like Ayre are impossible without it.

Soft lock is better when fighting multiple weaker targets. Hard lock just restricts movement at that point and makes it more difficult to quickly switch targets.

[Blunette]

I tend to use Hard Lock against the highly mobile single-target enemies. Otherwise, it's soft lock. It's a little bit annoying that I don't have easy access to boost/jump while using the camera at the same times on a gamepad, but I can't exactly reroute the controls and break the muscle memory at this point without seriously throwing myself off.

[Call Sign: Raven]

Originally posted by Blunette:

I tend to use Hard Lock against the highly mobile single-target enemies. Otherwise, it's soft lock. It's a little bit annoying that I don't have easy access to boost/jump while using the camera at the same times on a gamepad, but I can't exactly reroute the controls and break the muscle memory at this point without seriously throwing myself off.

This is an interesting point, and one reason I switched to KB/M. I feel like I have access to more controls. Only disadvantage I've faced so far is moving while using shoulder weapons, gonna mess with remaps a bit to optimize the setup, though. Using precision mouse is really nice.

I was playing the way you described, using hard lock on mobile suits, then using soft lock elsewhere. I'm gravitating towards using soft lock in all encounters. Something about it feels right, at least for me. doing more experiments.

[Blunette]

Originally posted by Call Sign: Raven:

I was playing the way you described, using hard lock on mobile suits, then using soft lock elsewhere. I'm gravitating towards using soft lock in all encounters. Something about it feels right, at least for me. doing more experiments.

I've used Hard Lock less and less lately save for very specific bosses who all-but-teleport or fly vertically now, especially on S-rank playthroughs. It helps that your AC still somewhat 'remembers' where an enemy is even if they are not quite centered on the screen or about to move offscreen, as I've noticed that they still aim toward a previously targeted enemy who's on the border. You notice it a lot with the Laser Lance in particular. It could be some combination of Targeting/Melee Attack Thrust, not sure. Quite useful though.

[mosspit]

As mentioned, Soft Lock for fodder. Hard Lock for bosses. Hard Lock in particular for highly mobile targets who strafe a lot (tank legs) or jumpy bosses whose attack patterns position themselves behind you.

Also Hard Lock makes Boost Kick land reliably.

[Demonos3]

Not even sure what the difference is.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Demonos3:

Not even sure what the difference is.

Hard lock forces the camera to follow the enemy no matter what, as long as you don't move the camera stick/mouse.

[Liero]

since im using a lot of dual burst rifles (finished the game with it)

it is much better to go for soft lock if you're firing a lot of weapons because Soft lock enables you to be more accurate than hard lock.

if you havent notice yet, with soft lock the reticle doesnt stray too much from the target while hard lock you can see the reticle is trailing on the enemy.

However, with the right loadouts the hard lock can win against mobile enemy usually i'll do it when get in short range which gives a lot more accuracy and without worrying having to move around your camera so much or against huge target. Soft lock stills win in accuracy if you're planning to go for mid range combat then close in change to hard lock to do kicks combo or whatever.

FCS and your arm (the one that handles recoil and Firearm spec) will greatly affect how your soft/hard lock will work.

[Liero]

So yes, dont play with soft lock exclusively. hard lock exist for a reason

[Velmoria]

Hardlock is newbie friendly accessibility feature especially for controller players, pretty much just that. Also could be a joke from the dev to bait players calling the game "souls-like".

The only reason someone exclusively playing on soft-lock is mostly nostalgia, the authentic classic Armored Core experience.

For the gameplay performance it's like comparing between 2 sniper teams, one of them has range finder gadget and the other team had to manually math it. Manual team can be as good&quick as gadget team, but takes lot more practices.

[Sinicero]

currently you just have to swap between both to make full use of it's potential.

3v3: Better use it if you have any long lock-on time missile or just want to focus one person instead of your lock go insane in a brawl.

Close range combat: Just hard lock. THere are almost no downside and it's help your kicks and melee so they ACTUALLY hitting something.

Mid range: You MAYBE can use soft lock, but against high speed opponent or those that love to getting close, just hard lock.

Long range : Why are you even staying at this range if you are not using missile? Soft lock is ok but you might as well go closer.....Or manual aim.


PS: Keyboard and mouse probably won't use hardlock that much since it's extremely sensitive to mouse movement and would result in losing lock and stuff.

Controller doesn't have this problem but they also having hard time dealing with fast moving target unless they hardlock.

[ImHelping]

I would be using hard lock a lot less outside of melee attempts if enemies didn't start wild panic circle strafing at 9,000 miles an hour once their stagger meters get high. Which is even ignoring actual teleportation moves.

S ranking NG++ final boss with an MG and chainsaw their AI was freaking the ♥♥♥♥ out and perma boosting as an eternal camera seizure amount of spin.

I still use soft lock a lot at longer ranges (as a bazooka apologist, I need the insurance against missing even a stationary target by an inch with a snap shot). But I expect more people would prioritize it if shot leads and projectile speeds were not so horrible that a target with their back turned to you can dodge on accident. Which is ignoring cases of "There, they staggered. fire!" *bazooka shot or rifle shot sail uselessly through stationary target was as gravity sets in*

Some people end up treating line rifle charged shots as a discount shotgun against anything but designated stationary target MT because they are sick of a railgun missing a shot on a target not even quickboosting.

But hard lock mostly exists to coddle the enemies, not the player. They would have to reduce enemy speeds to slow overrated idiot nineball seraph speeds if they could not say "Excuse me, we gave you a hard lock, idiot!" to anyone annoyed enemies can strafe sideways faster than a laser blast travels forwards.

See also: "If hard or soft lock was so great how come my dumber heavy bipeds with a crippling 2.11 second quickboost cooldown time are strafe dodging line rifles in PVP anyways?"

[Belmont]

Have you ruled out the influence of Arm tracking and FCS influence? I would also like data involving shield activation & turning response. Hard lock maintains a bearing lock allowing for easy strafe maneuvers, which should make shields more consistent and rapid in its mitigation. Perhaps thee SI-29: SU-TT/C or VP-61PB may offer good data for this?

[Sand]

The game tell you hard lock reduces FCS performance and to use soft lockup to your ability level. Use whats comfortable.
Personal gripe though I would love to use soft lock on controller if I could but from believes a radar is unneeded and a compass apparently gives you all the information you need.