Precision targeting and a big change to weapon gimbals: what can you tell us about this?

So precision targeting at its very core is very similar to what you would do in a first-person shooter. You take time to aim and it almost helps you be more accurate. So what you can expect in the ships is an immediate zoom. So I know we've got a system where you can scroll in and zoom, and it's maybe a little bit awkward to try and use. This is more a toggle-in, toggle-out zoom. So again, you're going to be closer anyway through master modes coming in. This is more a case of: you're closer already and now you're zooming in on your target. You can see much more of the ship. So if you're in a combat scenario where you're flying around and having to maneuver a lot and you're dealing with multiple targets, you might not necessarily want to use it too much. But if I'm in a situation where you're flying a Cutlass and I'm trying to take one of your engines off, I can toggle into precision targeting mode and go straight for your engines if I wanted to just take out your engines, get on board and deal with you that way. So it, again, leans more into that closer-feeling experience. It also helps you with aiming at a target rather than trying to pixel hunt a little bit with your screen. And obviously it makes it more accessible than having to scroll in and out with the mouse wheel. It's just one click to toggle in and out. And then with the gimbal change, the big change there is all ships are basically now going to have gimbals. All weapons are going to have gimbals. Weapon slots of ships are going to have gimbals. So that's not entirely true. I'm going to contradict myself already. There are a few exceptions. You look at the Idris. It's got a massive railgun on it. It's not going to be rotating around everywhere.

The nose gun on the Vanguard.

Yeah, so there are a few that are going to be stuck as they are. But what we had thought about for a while that we weren't too keen on is the swap down and swap out for the different weapons and exchanging the gimbal out for that, basically, because new players come in and it's not immediately understandable what's going on there, and we didn't really feel like it was adding as much value. And just to touch on the turrets as well, turrets are now going to have gimballed weapons too, which is really, really good, because previously you were limited to the rotation speed of the turret. It gives you a little bit more look-ahead and a little bit more of a unified, pleasant experience that you can expect from the ships that you can then expect from the turrets as well.

With the gimbals, the size restriction is also going away with them.

As in, you're no longer trading...

...[down] one size. Yeah, exactly. So some ships will get bigger weapons for this. And of course, there are the exceptions. If you look at a ship and there's clearly a very impossibly fixed weapon on it, think Inferno, think Vanguard with the nose, think Idris with the railgun, those will not be gimballed. So we're not going through and remaking the ships to do that. So there are a very small amount of exceptions. I think it's like four or five.

Yeah, it will be an exception rather than a common thing.