Hard Lock with mouse and keyboard

[drumaddict]

It took me some hundreds of hours of PvP gameplay to realize that Hard Lock doesn't work with mouse and keyboard - unless you keep your mouse completely still, good luck with that. I almost lost my sanity trying to understand why PvP gameplay videos show targets locked and tracked while my lock always breaks down. I am announcing to the AC 6 community that I DO HAVE A CONTROLLER and will now start practicing from scratch and get back to PvP to achieve rank S (now stuck in rank A) before the reset in May. To all those people who exploited me because I was dumb enough to not realize I was playing without Hard Lock, I promise that I will get revenge. You are all held accountable for my wrecked bedroom door which was the receiver of my rage and frustration. See you in the nest.

[k-ricks]

better use both Hard Lock can keep tracking enemy movement but when you want to too shoot better use soft lock its lockon speed is faster than Hard lock for non missiles

[Blackmage]

You can also just learn to play the game without hard-lock.
It's a handicap more than it is a tool.

[nubi]

i refuse to use hard lock, wish it wasnt in the game at all, such an awful mechanic for the game

[Dakota]

Good job managing to get to S last season without knowing how lockon works. Like really, it's kinda neat that you could do that.

[Chibbity]

You know that hard locking reduces ranged weapon accuracy right?

https://www.gamesradar.com/armored-core-6s-target-lock-makes-you-miss-more-shots-than-it-helps-you-hit/

[Dakota]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

You know that hard locking reduces ranged weapon accuracy right?

https://www.gamesradar.com/armored-core-6s-target-lock-makes-you-miss-more-shots-than-it-helps-you-hit/

It doesn't. That's just a game journalist article they pumped out because game was popular and they didn't bother to figure out the mechanics. What hardlock *actually* does is increase the time it takes to lock on, up to 300% compared to someone softlocking with the enemy perfectly centered on their screen. So you end up missing more only if you're firing before you see the crosshair has finalized its lock on the opponent.

[Blackmage]

Originally posted by Dakota:

Originally posted by Chibbity:

You know that hard locking reduces ranged weapon accuracy right?

https://www.gamesradar.com/armored-core-6s-target-lock-makes-you-miss-more-shots-than-it-helps-you-hit/

It doesn't. That's just a game journalist article they pumped out because game was popular and they didn't bother to figure out the mechanics. What hardlock *actually* does is increase the time it takes to lock on, up to 300% compared to someone softlocking with the enemy perfectly centered on their screen. So you end up missing more only if you're firing before you see the crosshair has finalized its lock on the opponent.

Unless it was a mistranslation, softlock does subject your shots to RNG in addition to the slower lock-on time. This was explicitly stated in an interview with key members from the dev team, during the weeks leading up to the release of AC6. I can't remember if it was vaati or someone else.
They explained this was necessary because the hard-lock feature + 4 guns enables players to essentially power-load. It was straight up because of this design choice that balancing the weapons was the hardest thing the dev team had to do for AC6. If the shots were not subject to some amount of miss-chance with hard-lock (ignoring projectile travel time), it would be incredibly bad for gameplay - something they wished to avoid.

There is an additional caveat where using weapons that work well with your FCS and staying within your optimal range will diminish the RNG to a point where the penalty is hardly noticeable.

[Dakota]

Originally posted by Blackmage:

Originally posted by Dakota:

It doesn't. That's just a game journalist article they pumped out because game was popular and they didn't bother to figure out the mechanics. What hardlock *actually* does is increase the time it takes to lock on, up to 300% compared to someone softlocking with the enemy perfectly centered on their screen. So you end up missing more only if you're firing before you see the crosshair has finalized its lock on the opponent.

Unless it was a mistranslation, softlock does subject your shots to RNG in addition to the slower lock-on time. This was explicitly stated in an interview with key members from the dev team, during the weeks leading up to the release of AC6. I can't remember if it was vaati or someone else.
They explained this was necessary because the hard-lock feature + 4 guns enables players to essentially power-load. It was straight up because of this design choice that balancing the weapons was the hardest thing the dev team had to do for AC6. If the shots were not subject to some amount of miss-chance with hard-lock (ignoring projectile travel time), it would be incredibly bad for gameplay - something they wished to avoid.

There is an additional caveat where using weapons that work well with your FCS and staying within your optimal range will diminish the RNG to a point where the penalty is hardly noticeable.

Nobody's seen any RNG in the projectiles outside of that caused by recoil so far even with people researching it, datamining, and playing competitively. Perhaps the RNG they speak of is the accuracy *before* it's locked on being inaccurate and that having a longer period of time than what softlock would have?

[Chibbity]

Originally posted by Dakota:

Originally posted by Chibbity:

You know that hard locking reduces ranged weapon accuracy right?

https://www.gamesradar.com/armored-core-6s-target-lock-makes-you-miss-more-shots-than-it-helps-you-hit/

It doesn't. That's just a game journalist article they pumped out because game was popular and they didn't bother to figure out the mechanics. What hardlock *actually* does is increase the time it takes to lock on, up to 300% compared to someone softlocking with the enemy perfectly centered on their screen. So you end up missing more only if you're firing before you see the crosshair has finalized its lock on the opponent.

It's just one article/post as an example, there are dozens on the same subject, you miss more during Hard Lock; specifics of why aside.
This guy does testing @4:30-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IMWQTryQLQ&t=271s

[Dakota]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

Originally posted by Dakota:

It doesn't. That's just a game journalist article they pumped out because game was popular and they didn't bother to figure out the mechanics. What hardlock *actually* does is increase the time it takes to lock on, up to 300% compared to someone softlocking with the enemy perfectly centered on their screen. So you end up missing more only if you're firing before you see the crosshair has finalized its lock on the opponent.

It's just one article/post as an example, there are dozens on the same subject, you miss more during Hard Lock; specifics of why aside.
This guy does testing @4:30-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IMWQTryQLQ&t=271s

That video was linked on the article, and I've seen this before. His testing is extremely bad and he isn't even really properly testing anything, he's just firing at a target jumping infront of him, but without considerations as to how it's affecting any of the lock times or what's actually causing the inaccuracy he finds, so then he just says hardlock causes the inaccuracy but that's not really specific and you can avoid inaccuracy on hardlock by understanding how it actually works.

Here's an *actual* research video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJODVgnOsbM Check the "FCS - tracking assist and arm target tracking" timestamp for the information on it.

Here's a spreadsheet I've created showing the lockon times.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1191954155053527040/1211749696796627016/FCS.png?ex=66143ed8&is=6601c9d8&hm=a5a93d1ea4e3075b670d22da8000a46c2221218f37113cc947e0fffcba0d0859&

[Chibbity]

That was a lot of stuff to just say, you generally end up missing more when using Hard Lock; for various under the hood reasons lol.

[V4.Skunk]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

You know that hard locking reduces ranged weapon accuracy right?

https://www.gamesradar.com/armored-core-6s-target-lock-makes-you-miss-more-shots-than-it-helps-you-hit/

Hard lock is best used for melee.

[Dakota]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

That was a lot of stuff to just say, you generally end up missing more when using Hard Lock; for various under the hood reasons lol.

but you don't *actually* end up missing more under hardlock generally assuming you just use it right. Like ocellus is the strongest FCS in the meta at the moment because it has a hardlock time that's shorter than abbot softlocking at close range for example.

[Dakota]

Originally posted by V4.Skunk:

Originally posted by Chibbity:

You know that hard locking reduces ranged weapon accuracy right?

https://www.gamesradar.com/armored-core-6s-target-lock-makes-you-miss-more-shots-than-it-helps-you-hit/

Hard lock is best used for melee.

melee's unaffected by FCS, though hardlock is best for kicks.

[hollow]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

That was a lot of stuff to just say, you generally end up missing more when using Hard Lock; for various under the hood reasons lol.

but that is not the case, the hardlock "penalty" becomes a non issue if you run the correct arms and fcs for your bulid. because the game is designed around hardlock.
basically, softlock only helps you in ranges your fcs isnt specialized in.