As it Currently stands. Secondary guns on ships can be toggled between being controlled by the player alongside their primary guns or controlled by the AI to fire at air and naval targets. This setting is currently located within the control menu and has to be switched on or off there, but there is no way of toggling it within the match without quickly popping into the settings which is deeply inconvenient within the middle of a pitched battle.
The setting in question
The proposal is simple. Change this setting from being an in-menu toggle. To a keybind that allows players to toggle mid battle, just as easily as they can switch between AI guns targeting air, naval or both.
A key example of why this is so critical/valuable is readily apparently with one of the new upcoming ships. HMS Vanguard. The secondary guns on Vanguard consists of 16x 5.25" guns (8 per side) and have a rather decent fire rate. Putting down a stream of smaller shells onto a target regardless of its size would be incredibly valuable, but at the same time, the guns can be loaded with HE-VT shells which are incredibly potent AA defence when in the hands of the AI. Having the ability to rapidly switch between control modes depending on what the situation demands would be an exceptional quality of life upgrade. Especially as AI controlled secondary guns vs naval targets would struggle to hit a barn door at point blank range.
(I have a seperate thread already discussing AI controlled accuracy vs Naval targets)
When you add in respawning in another ship, then the value sky rockets. In a ship like HMS Hood or HMS Vanguard, there is reasonable value to just leaving the AI in control of the guns, ready for an air attack with their HE-TF or HE-VT shells, but if I were to respawn in something like HMS Rodney or HMS Warspite, then the secondary cannot be used against air targets and will not hit a naval target. This means rapidly jumping into the setting to switch this setting between respawns. Which is just not fun, and then remembering to switch it back again afterwards.
This setting could also be given a default setting or be saved on a ship by ship basis rather than being inherited across ships, to further enhance the usefulness of this change, as can been seen above, there is a time and place for it to be on or off and it is not universal.
Would you like to see this setting changed to a keybind toggle rather than an in-menu toggle?
- Yes
- No