Short story:
Auto-targeting missiles are broken, they cannot be used to fight back against players in low sec space.
Long story:
Auto-targeting missiles have long been irrelevant and neglected in PvP, until last year. Equinox added new Upwell haulers which are the first haulers to have weapon bonuses (towards auto-targeting missiles) and a big rack of high slots to use these auto-targeting missiles to fight back against aggressors.
A while ago someone in my alliance lost an Avalanche in low sec. The loss of the ship is less relevant, what baffled them (and me) most is that they were unable to shoot back with auto-targeting missiles.
We spent some time later that evening with a couple of ships in low sec to figure out why the auto-targeting missiles did not work. After all, if someone is scramming your ship and shooting you, you should be able to turn on your missile launcher to fire back at the aggressor, right? Wrong!
During the tests, even though my Deluge was scrammed and fired upon by a ship right next to me, I was not allowed to activate my auto-targeting missiles, getting the message "Light Missile Launcher I has no suitable targets within range."
After a bunch of tests to trigger conditions where I couldn't and could fire, I suspect the problem is as follows:
- auto-targeting missiles only allow you to fire back upon a player with whom you have an active engagement timer (in low sec)
- to get an active engagement timer you need to use an offensive module against that player
I expect the smart reader may already see the problem here: if the auto-targeting missile is your only offensive module there is no way to get an active engagement timer, and thus no way to fire back at your aggressor with your auto-targeting missile.
In short: you cannot fight back with auto-targeting missiles.
After getting an active engagement timer with the aggressor through means of regular missiles or EWAR I was able to then activate auto-targeting missiles to fire back. This could be a workaround to make auto-targeting missiles work, but it means you need to be prepared and fit more offense than just missile launchers on your Upwell hauler.
As engagement timers aren't only relevant in low sec, but also in high sec I would not be surprised if similar shenanigans happen in high security space. I didn't want to lose a bunch of ships and security status to CONCORD to test that though, and thought this would be enough evidence to file a bug report for CCP. Space without engagement timers like null sec space has no issues at all, and I was able to fire back immediately after being fired upon in null sec - which reinforced my idea that this problem is engagement timer related.
But frankly, to have Upwell haulers that are specialised in auto-targeting missiles that cannot fire back when players shoot it is silly in any part of space. That's the whole purpose of these Upwell Ships!
We filed bug reports (of which I cannot see the status or bug number because the bug status page has been broken for a year already!), but earlier today I heard from my fellow bug-tester who contacted support that CCP thinks this behaviour is not a bug.
As CCP thinks this broken behaviour is 'not a bug' I suspect the issue will not be fixed any time soon, which is why I take this other approach to help the player base with this problem, which is to bring it to your attention:
Do not expect you can activate your auto-targeting missiles when hostile players shoot you in low sec, unless you bring other offensive modules as well.
Spread the word and fly safe!
Edit: and if anyone like a CSM member with better contact with CCP than bugged bug reports can bring this to CCP's attention to get it fixed, please do!
