auto attack while flying

[Condoriano]

is there a way to make my ship auto attack or at least attack a selected ship nearby, while all i do is controlling my ship?

[HuMaNgUtAn]

This will happen automatically if your weapons are set to "fire at will".

More usefully - if you select a group of weapons and order them to attack a specific enemy ship component like a reactor or control room then the weapons will remember that command when you give a subsequent move order - which you need to do as ordering weapons to attack will by default order your whole ship to move to attack position.

This can often be the best way to flank an enemy while attacking with a single ship, particularly when using ships that are not maneuverable enough to flank from their default attack position.

[icuurd12b42]

You weapons should auto attack the closest ship they can reach.

You can specify to attack components with ctrl+rclick, +shift if selecting multiple components, even across multiple ships.

That is useful for punching through a pack of ships without taking attack formation on all the targets.

I also multi target, shift+rclick on target ships do select multiple ships. That would form on every target and shot mostly at that target until it's destroyed. again, useful for handling weak ship packs

[Stellar Remnant]

I used fire at will for a while, but weapons will waste a lot of time shooting stuff that isn't important. Nowadays I use fire at target exclusively, since that makes them only attack the specific components I select. This is especially important for railguns.