Solution to 'Target Reticle' for Target Management?

[Vangoich]

I've been configuring my HOTAS and the one thing that bothers me most is the inability to select the target I'm aiming at. If you use a mouse you can simply click on what you see and it will target it no matter the distance, however when using HOTAS there is no option. The 'Target Object' only selects the closest object, which is not useful in this case. It is clear that cycling all targets, which takes some time, doesn't highlight the specific target I'm looking at either. Which leads me to believe that the only way to target distant objects is with the mouse. From what I've been able to search for there are no solutions or answers, most people say use 'T' which is the same as 'Target Object', ineffective in this case. Perhaps I missed something so if there is a solution to targeting a distant object under the reticle please illuminate me, otherwise I can only hope that Egosoft will be able to add this option into the Target Management controls

[Inquisitor Zalinto]

I also just started playing yesterday and configuring my joystick (trying to set things up similar to how I have it in elite dangerous/star citizen) and yeah the target thing is horrible compared to the other two. A prime example was the combat tutorial, I had a large ship with a bunch of turrets in front of me, and getting point blank, and clicking to target object in front of me, 99% of the time selected an asteroid 12km away lol. My only option was to use "target nearest hostile" - hope the big ship was the nearest and not some fighter, then use "target next surface element" over and over until it selected the turret I was meaning to attack. Seems a bit...bad :P If there is a better way I'd love to know it lol

[Gwizzz]

if you are using a HOTAS, set up some keys to cycle through targets. So if you click to target whatever is under your reticle and it targets something else, you can cycle though targets until it highlights the ones you want. I'm using a Thrustmaster TWCS and have the forward/backward target cycle set to the two large flipper buttons.

[Vangoich]

@Gwizzz
If you carefully read through my post you'll find that this is not possible. For example I can see an Accelerator in front of me, I can also see it on my map. I can easily select it by clicking on it but it cannot be selected using any of the Target Management bindings, even if I were to manually select it with the mouse and then resort to cycling through targets it would be deselected and would be removed from the pool of viable targets. Surely that should be obvious to you if you are using HOTAS

@Inquisitor Zalinto
It is my understanding that there are some mods available, but I do not want to resort to having to use mods for such basic and expected functionality. regardless they aren't updated for 5.0/ToA anyway so it's of no help to us. The only thing I can hope for is that Egosoft does add 'Target Reticle' and I believe it may be quite possible since almost a year ago people were asking for a 'Deselect Target' bind, which is currently now in the game. I can only guess that they faced the same situation as us, but it seems strange that the feature we require was overlooked as it is equally as if not more important than deselection.

[Inquisitor Zalinto]

Originally posted by Vangoich:

@Gwizzz
If you carefully read through my post you'll find that this is not possible. For example I can see an Accelerator in front of me, I can also see it on my map. I can easily select it by clicking on it but it cannot be selected using any of the Target Management bindings, even if I were to manually select it with the mouse and then resort to cycling through targets it would be deselected and would be removed from the pool of viable targets. Surely that should be obvious to you if you are using HOTAS

@Inquisitor Zalinto
It is my understanding that there are some mods available, but I do not want to resort to having to use mods for such basic and expected functionality. regardless they aren't updated for 5.0/ToA anyway so it's of no help to us. The only thing I can hope for is that Egosoft does add 'Target Reticle' and I believe it may be quite possible since almost a year ago people were asking for a 'Deselect Target' bind, which is currently now in the game. I can only guess that they faced the same situation as us, but it seems strange that the feature we require was overlooked as it is equally as if not more important than deselection.

Yeah I've pretty much given up on it and just "dealing with it" - for now, since this game has been out for quite some time lol. Fortunately, it does not seem like combat so far will have me needing to make split second decisions or pull any crazy manuvers - so I'll presumably have the time to cycle through targets and things when needed. If I had to do this in star citizen or Elite, I'd probably be dead just from the hesitation lol

[Vangoich]

OK, so I've managed to get it working, but it was a bit of a nightmare. As ridiculous as the whole situation is, in order to get it so I can actually target what I'm aiming at I need to use a third party keylogger that works with a specific mod, and because that keylogger doesn't register HOTAS I had to download a shareware joystick mapper. After unbinding all of the existing 'Target Management' settings, I rebind them in the 'Extensions' area but of course it can't register HOTAS input even though those inputs work on every other category. I mapped a few strokes on the throttle and joystick into JoyToKey under normal keyboard inputs, such as T, E, Page Up, Page Down, Home and End. I had to unbind a few conflicts but nothing major. At first it wasn't registering, but a couple of alt tabs, focusing on the keylogger cmd line and tabbing back into the game seems to have fixed it. But the take away from this whole insane journey is that in order to add something as simple as what the left click on a mouse already does in game, I have to run two additional programs outside of X4. I can't believe I bothered but that's the extent of how essential this function is for me personally.

If anyone reading this wants to follow in my footsteps just search 'More Hotkeys - ADVANCED TARGETING' on the nexus. Scroll down to INSTALLATION / SETUP in the Description tab and consider using the same inputs I did for JoyToKey.

[Inquisitor Zalinto]

Originally posted by Vangoich:

OK, so I've managed to get it working, but it was a bit of a nightmare. As ridiculous as the whole situation is, in order to get it so I can actually target what I'm aiming at I need to use a third party keylogger that works with a specific mod, and because that keylogger doesn't register HOTAS I had to download a shareware joystick mapper. After unbinding all of the existing 'Target Management' settings, I rebind them in the 'Extensions' area but of course it can't register HOTAS input even though those inputs work on every other category. I mapped a few strokes on the throttle and joystick into JoyToKey under normal keyboard inputs, such as T, E, Page Up, Page Down, Home and End. I had to unbind a few conflicts but nothing major. At first it wasn't registering, but a couple of alt tabs, focusing on the keylogger cmd line and tabbing back into the game seems to have fixed it. But the take away from this whole insane journey is that in order to add something as simple as what the left click on a mouse already does in game, I have to run two additional programs outside of X4. I can't believe I bothered but that's the extent of how essential this function is for me personally.

If anyone reading this wants to follow in my footsteps just search 'More Hotkeys - ADVANCED TARGETING' on the nexus. Scroll down to INSTALLATION / SETUP in the Description tab and consider using the same inputs I did for JoyToKey.

Well thats something at least - Iol. I think you can mark your own reply as the "answer" and it will pin it to the top. I think.

[Vangoich]

I can't pin mine but I can pin your suggestion to pin mine

[Inquisitor Zalinto]

Originally posted by Vangoich:

I can't pin mine but I can pin your suggestion to pin mine :lunar2019laughingpig:

lol that works