3.23 Understanding The New Gunnery System, Gimbal System, Precision Targeting & Useful Keybinds

If you want to be more prepared for 3.23, you need to understand how the new gunnery system works, as well as the new gimbal system, precision targeting mode and some useful keybinds for them. In this video I am sharing what I have learned and tested to the best of my ability.
Add to this video anything I missed and that you think is important so we can all learn. Thank you and enjoy!
Patch notes about the new gunnery system:
robertsspaceindustries.com/sp...
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Star Citizen Alpha 3.23.0 EPTU.9151395
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00:00 Introduction
00:35 Basic gimbal system change: patch note
03:10 ship weapon test: fixed mode vs. gimbal mode
04:42 crazy desync in space combat
05:32 firing rate in fixed mode
05:50 firing rate slowed in gimbal mode
07:55 sub-targeting change -- no need for scan
09:04 F8 Lightening ship weapon loadout
10:44 PIPs combine vs. separate -- keybinds for them
12:27 Crosshair on or off & Precision line on or off
13:35 Crosshair magnification
14:04 keybinds for weapon convergence setting
15:04 How to use the Precision Targeting mode
17:10 Firing rate lowed in Precision mode
17:38 Sub-targeting in Precision mode
18:51 Aim assist & Aim assist suppression
20:45 summary

[@steppahouse]

Scanning, targeting, and a specialized threat awareness suite (MFD) would be a great job for all the useless copilot seats. Let the pilot concentrate on flying, evading, and killing the immediate threat while the copilot scans, picks the next target, locks targets for missile shots, etc.

[@Minecarftable]

100%

[@MaxPSVR]

As a connie owner. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. Here we come 4 x size 5 pilot weapons

[@DyonisX]

Corsair go brrr

[@Fluke2SS]

And here the light fighters go destroying those S5 weapons. All bark, no bite.

[@buzzfightbeer8023]

​@@Fluke2SS I'm from the future. And you were wrong. Sucks, huh?

[@daveroles3783]

We were always able to have S5 weaps......

[@circuitguy9750]

Excellent deep dive on the settings. Thanks🎉

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@willof127]

The Vanduul ships they are referring to are the Blade, Glaive, and Scythe. They may have the Esperia brand, but that is just because Esperia makes alien ships compatible with human biology. They are still all Vanduul.

[@rixxo]

iirc Talons are Tevarin ships

[@Dssfox]

and prowler

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Thanks for the info

[@stepankrafek4977]

@@rixxo isnt Talon "human ship in Vanduul style"?, but Blade and Glaive is Vanduul rework ship for human use? Talon have gimbals

[@GorBane]

@@stepankrafek4977 Talons are built by Esperia (Human company) based on Tevarin designs, not Vanduul. Esperia's ships are mostly replicas, or inspirations, of alien ships. I think the Scythe in the game is the only ship (So far) that's technically supposed to be an actual Vanduul ship that's been jerry-rigged to work with a human pilot, but my lore is pretty rusty. You'd think it'd be the Blade since it's the only one in ATM that has the new Vanduul style (Since it's the newest of the three available in-game ATM), but I think that's just because they're waiting for Sq42 before they apply the new style to the other Vanduul ships/replicas in the PU.

[@andrewkok3467]

Interesting and helpful. Please do this again when we get 3.23 live.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Will do

[@karmickatastrophe7864]

Very thorough! Thank you. I can see the button boxes in my cockpit getting way more use shortly, especially the wheels I didn't have assigned before. Kudos!

[@dhabu9017]

Solid info; thank you for this thorough testing and demonstration :)

[@raidellcorps]

The advantage of precision targeting mode is that it allows you to keep your crosshair in the specific subcomponent you wish to aim, the fire control system will use the gimbals to auto lead the guns compensating for the target's movements or your own movement. Kinda like what modern day main battle tanks fire control systems do. Nice video; good to see people getting to now the new systems.

[@Twidgyt]

Thank you for the deep dive on these new features. That's really good stuff

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Thank you!

[@kungfuhiker8793]

Great info!!

[@panik_14]

You put in a lot of work even with all the challenges SC gives us, nice job. And thank you

[@SatoriSoul]

Very well done.

[@MC-BigCara]

Thanks for the video, looks like I have to go back to the drawing board and relearn all my stuff. Looking forward to equipping larger weapons on most of my ships

[@Leptospirosi]

I think even an octopus would struggle with mastermode and settings will be mostly ignored as most of the tweaks possible in the current combat mode

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

lol, I think you are right

[@citzen64]

Good Job

[@oldman1111]

I love your videos. That is all.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Thank you!

[@Booozy3050]

Didn't even know we lost auto gimbals. Was wondering why shots just seemed to spray instead of focus.

[@SolarWindsRider]

All of that is so counter-intuitive and inconvenient. I wonder if the devs had a task from Chris to make new weapon handling as hard as possible for the players.

[@Narull]

Great info but I hate that they made everything a keybind instead of an option, like I always use lag pip, it was an option I could select, now I have to find another key to bind it too and remember to do it every time, kinda annoying for those of us on mouse and keyboard that are running out of keys!

[@greatdanexlks]

Thank you for the video Capt.

[@Godwinsname]

Thank you so much for this!

[@felian9562]

I hope in the future, a single partymember can scan a ship and unlock precision targeting mode for the whole party

[@arcadealchemist]

eye tracking is broken in 3.23 head tracking with tobii works but i don't know what they are doing with eye tracking if it's going to be tied to gimbles or not also all ships have gimble assist now and the MAX size weapon this means some ships got a big time buff espcially turrets. vandull ships blade/glave/scythe all being fixed however but i would like to know if that means their firepower is being buffed or not.

[@e56hdyhdfgh]

As someone just starting to put serious time into the game, I was REALLY excited for 3.23, but lately, all the changes I have been seeing are pretty concerning. I'll be reserving judgement, but it looks like such a mess still too. Live servers are likely going to get eviscerated. How are they going to get this out within a month? Lol. Meshing can't come soon enough, I'd trade any and all updates for it. If that is a bust, then so is the game. Best wishes from me though, definitely want it to succeed.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

I hope after meshing this game will be more stable and more playable

[@MacMuirTravis]

So how does manual gimble work for those of us with flight sticks and simulator pits? I fly HOSAS, and while I have no problem aiming in small ships. It seem I might be screwed in my bigger ships like the Connie where gimbles are extremely useful.

[@The_Fallen_1]

Simply put, it doesn't. It's a really dumb change that no one likes.

[@scienz0220]

I more or less understand what all the buttons do, but im still searching for use cases on some of them

[@Tekjive]

Why is there no shields backsplash when firing on a ship with shields?

[@DerpMcDerp101]

Vandouhce ships . Classic . Thats the name now forever.

[@saltygravy6928]

Thanks for the video. thank you for taking the time to go over all these changes. This saves me a lot of time by you being a one stop learning channel. Thank you so much.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Thank you!

[@mcvellrobinson9186]

The problem with SC....."To many cooks, spoil the soup"!

[@vamperic]

*yawn*

[@rudstar64]

Precision targeting mode is cool

[@antoniovinciguerra8982]

12:34 I need to know how you're getting so many buttons - is it some sort of virtual keyboard emulator deal? I would be so grateful for your response

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

I am using the new VKB throttle with added panel for buttons, and right hand using the Virpil AlphaPrime, so together they have a lot of buttons, but remembering them is a problem

[@antoniovinciguerra8982]

@@cpt_foxyloxy ah, super interesting insight! Thanks! And yes, totally, remembering SC keybinds, especially with changes going into a new patch demands strict Excel sheet work :D

[@wurrzag77]

Can you test if Freelancer MIS now gets 4 x 4 size weapons?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Just checked for you, negative, they are 4 gimbaled size 3 weapons now

[@mike_d_melb_music_fan5229]

So if the middle mouse button puts you into scan mode, how do you switch between guns and missiles ?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

You have to bind another button which is not the primary button and press the primary button to switch the primary mode, and then press a different button to switch sub-modes within the primary modes, and there are total 3 sub-modes within primary modes, so you can assign two buttons, one is to go the the next sub-mode and the other go to previous mode..........................I am out of breath typing these.

[@skullhqx]

Thanks again for testing and explaining. It's appreciated. The issue I have with the current state of MM is I feel it is getting a bit too complex for most players. This is approaching DCS World complexity! We are getting too many keybinds to remember and setup is getting very complex because of this. I mean I have a dual Gladiator NXT EVO HOSAS setup myself and I'm starting to run out of buttons. I'm not sure if this is appealing to the big public CIG eventually needs to entice into playing this game. I myself am a bit of a nerd, so I'll be fine with it, but I just worry for the other 90% of people that we will need to get/keep SC funded. Cheers o7

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

I absolutely agree, simplicity sells. But they are making this way too complicated, especially for new players.

[@MadMoses56]

can you do a video on getting the missiles to work please

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

That is on my list, but will wait for 3.23 go live, then I will be looking at missiles, torpedoes and bombs in detail

[@Phoenixstorm36]

I need an oldscool keybaord with F1-F24 Keys, for all those keybinds ...

[@duesenmukke9180]

use an elgato stream deck its fantastic

[@prestonpaterson8690]

How do I use sub targeting and target a specific area?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Just simply set a keybind for it, and target the ship, and press the subtargeting key, it will cycle different subtargets.

[@arrowfaster2068]

Ok so do you have to or not scan the ship before you can sub target? You said opposite on two different points in your video. Thanks.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

You can sub target the engines and guns of enemy ship without scanning, but if you want to sub target enemy's component, you have to do a full scan of the enemy ship, I know, it is a bit confusing to me when I first learn about this.

[@arrowfaster2068]

@@cpt_foxyloxy Thank you for the reply!

[@cicio7777]

How do we tell when we are in fixed gimbal mode vs manual gimbal mode?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

the default is fixed gimbal where the crosshair is fixed, if you press G it will be the manual gimbal where when you move your mouse, the crosshair moves with it,

[@tigerseye1202]

So what exactly does precision mode achieve? It just sounds like sub-targeting with extra steps. Is it just the lower firing rate? Because I can't imagine using that while the other ship is, you know, moving.

[@Nommicus]

Not on Super hornet the turret still can only mount dual s1 even though it's a 3 itself. But it is a dual gimbal

[@gaatjegeenrukaangek6]

I would love for co-pilots to do the subtargeting and such.

[@Brakerofwind]

very much so

[@dinuraivo48]

The new MM mechanics and everything is fine imo. But, since 3.23 none of my ships rockets/torpedos will lock on to a target. im not sure, if im missing out on something they changed. but missiles are not working for me anymore. Any Tips?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Missiles in this patch are hit a miss, but my work around is first engage the enemy, then disengage pull a few km away from the enemy, when they are chasing you, fire missiles. I have more hit rates that way

[@dinuraivo48]

@@cpt_foxyloxy well, i would love to do that. But its not even targeting the enemy ship. (No lock on)

[@karmabad6287]

Manual convergence is pretty cool. Good for blasting ground targets. question: Does precision fire mode extend the weapons range or only tighten the spread?

[@apollo0510]

first test have shown, that you actually need to upgrade your weapon sizes or you will face dramatic dps loss. with my old weapons load out I could not kill any npc ship anymore. Or in other words, weapons have been nerfed into the ground.

[@MarcWeavers]

i knew there would have to be some sort of penalty for using gimbals, thing is, the weapons have already been nerfed a level, an S3 gun in 3.23 is about the same as an S2 gun in 3.22.1

[@RicoZaid_]

07:55 sub-targeting change

[@Majitsu]

how does manual gimble mode work if you're using joysticks?

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Just bind it to a key on your stick, but it doesn't work very well, so I don't really use it

[@snowmind]

More please ;)

[@audiotek103]

That was a great intro to the gimbal changes. It has been VERY helpful.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SwedishYouthHumanist]

I think gimbled vs. fixed should only effect spread and not fire rates. Having lower spread is still a good enough reason for some pilots to choose fixed rather than gimbled and vice versa.

[@endsinvention1390]

Everyone: van-duel Foxy: Van-Doo

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

hahah, Ends. Van-Doo doooo sounds batter.

[@OkkaOtter]

Gimbals on a turret allow the guns to exceed the usual rotations of the turret!

[@slavenmatuhina2151]

I have a feeling that this manual gimbal will mostly benefit people who have tobi eye tracker and they will be able to aim with their eyes which is cool but it puts everyone else at a disadvantage.

[@kruos1616]

Actually I really like this feature, and don't think eye-tech (or whatever) users will have significant advantage. For example. The whole time prior to 3.23 I ran my pilot cutlass guns without gimbals for maximum size. However, It has been very annoying when my target zooms past me and i have to turn the center of my screen to them. Now, If I get this new feature correctly, i will be able to both move my ship and my gun's "crosshairs" simultaneously, which is just great. However, most of other features shown seem to be barely useful and extremely situational.

[@slavenmatuhina2151]

@@kruos1616 yes, you should be able to do exactly what you described however with eye tracker you will be able to do it with precision on both rotating your ship and aiming the gimbals at the same time. With any other setup being hosas or mouse and keyboard you can't do both at the same time with a high degree of precision. I'm hoping that one day I will play SC in VR and this won't be an issue for me but that is far in the future (if ever) and it's still superior to standard mkb or hotas/hosas. Most people (me included) won't care that much but for top tier pvp you will have to have eye tracking to be competitive.

[@MrSmith123123]

85X turret can be controlled by co pilot now

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

good to know thx

[@MrSmith123123]

Subtargetting only works on gold standard ships.. like gladius etc.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

I have tried, you can use subtarget on all ships, not only the gold standard ships

[@falcon758]

sooo many new hotkeys needed to assign to my sticks ... going to have to start putting non-combat flight controls on the keyboard now XD Very cool though, liking all the customisation stuff and different mechanics

[@Chase_The_Calm_Gaming]

Thanks for sticking with it, Eptu is the worst I've played since 3.12 when I started . It's so buggy I feel like they just started coding it a month ago. I went to CitizenCon last year and had such high hopes but I'm done Eptu completely.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

yeah, this ePTU is rough.

[@aaroncoombs587]

Why are they making it so gimbals don’t make you do one size down anymore? Won’t that be op?

[@Tribsu]

So baisicly they removed the gimbal mode from guns and left only manual aim mode or fixed mode to the guns.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

And they added the aim assist for the gimbaled guns....

[@Tribsu]

@@cpt_foxyloxy yeah true fixed has been long gone after ares got assit too. Even idris has no realfixed gun.

[@ChookyChuck]

Thank you for the Deep Dive into combat in SC. I don't do much combat in star citizen for 2 reasons (A) the flight model is not physics based so I don't enjoy flying much therefore i have never invested the time into learning combat. My feeling is I would just be invested time into learning an arcade sim. Also i have flight time in real military aircraft .. T-37, T-38 and advanced degrees in Engineering so the Unrealistic flight breaks my immersion all the time (B) the system is overly complex to learn and setup. It saddens me that the flight model has moved further away from a realistic flight model with master modes. Your speed in space doesn't care whether you are in Nav or Combat mode. Power only accelerates a ship in space it does not determine top speeds. In decoupled mode try rolling your ship ... take out the roll input and the roll incorrectly stops ..... Real physics would conserve the angular momentum and the roll would continue (an example of this is the docking scene in 2001 ... the ship had match the rotation rate of the space station to dock) "Nav mode" / "SCM mode" should be renamed to "More Realistic Mode minus shields" / "Arcade Game Mode" Again your video is well done. Someday if I try to learn combat i will study this and more of Avenger Ones stuff. For now I will put up this kludged up flight model and do industrial stuff. On the plus side of star citizen, the scenery is still wonderful in this game, some of the ships are awesome and being in space is just fun.

[@JNatofPA]

I think I'll just stay in New Babbage for a while

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Good place

[@spawnandbatman6975]

I mean some features are cool but there’s to much going on. Definitely a massive adjustment. I got destroyed on bounties cause I didnt know what the hell was going on

[@psychokevv]

the amount of bugs and desynch in this video alone make me worry for 3.23, they say they took out cargo elevators and all that because it would break the game, but here we are, with the most jank billion dollar project known to man.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Hopefully 3.23 in live servers run better, these are just PTU servers.

[@drophammer4164]

I prefer the requirement to scan before sub target. I hope they turn it back on before going live

[@01SHADOW]

Lmaoooooooo thats new dsync i never seen that before ever

[@speky5777]

Thing is gimbals and targeting computers are nearly useless against anyone who knows how to fly and evade.

[@_lepvs_]

so many weird changes for a game that's not trying to be a simulator

[@TheGreatScott]

Gimbals were fine as they were. Why are this lot faffing around trying to be fancy instead of just focusing on doing the basics well? We still have to fight with terrible map systems, setting routes, boring repetitive mission options, lack of decent co-op content, elevators that murder you, loss of real money paid gear, Vendors that dont work, landing markers that dont appear... ...etc. But hey, lets screw around with a firing system that was totally fine. Great video though, thanks for the great work as always!

[@dennisanderson3286]

🌕🌑☯️

[@SwedishYouthHumanist]

Wait... you can't damage ships outside of the weapon range? That's new... and bad!

[@Merihim89]

just the Blade is from Vanduul

[@Wolf103085]

and scythe and predator

[@Merihim89]

@@Wolf103085 predator doesnt exist and scythe is from esperia. an vanduul replic

[@ricardolu2380]

⁠@@Merihim89actually scythe is from vandal blade and Glaive from esperia

[@Power5]

When you give too many options you make things worse. Going to need a cheat sheet and a second keyboard soon.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

totally agree

[@sharkur]

5 years of progress down the drain. gimbal assist was introduced because everybody on spectrum complained about the mouse meta. bigger ships where always at a disadvantange against light fighters, now using sticks with a freelancer, corsair, constelation, 600i, even a spirit is a nerf to al stick players. even they were never performing well. i have to use now mouse for all my ships that are not medium or light fighters.....

[@madmechanic7976]

I don't like gimbal I hit way more shots on fixed.

[@BenitKolburn]

o7

[@kevinm3751]

That makes absolutely ZERO sense that your fire rate decreases at all in precision target mode. Great tutorial buddy, thanks a ton for all your efforts!

[@karmabad6287]

It's a balancing feature to give the target a chance to close the distance or return fire if they're being pecked to death at range.

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Thank you!

[@heru_ur6017]

What is not mentioned is that weapons have been downgraded 1 tier. S5 in 3.23 are like S4 in 3.22 Everybody thinking ships like the connie finally have 4xS5 guns , while in reality its still only 4xS4

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

Yes in terms of the damage and other specs, S5 is like S4

[@eavdmeer]

Auto gimbal is not what you think it is. Even fixed weapons that were mounted on your wings would slightly gimbal to focus them on a target within limited angles. That's what they removed

[@Crittek]

No, they removed auto gimbal that let you hit targets while barely even trying.

[@The_Fallen_1]

No, what you're describing is the fixed assist and it's still there, if not a bit stronger now.

[@spaceman2137]

The_Fallen_1 @The_Fallen_1 the white gimbal assist circle will not come out anymore? Just a reticle?

[@The_Fallen_1]

@@spaceman2137 Yep. All they do now is follow where your mouse is pointing which messes with your agility, and if you don't use a mouse, then tough luck, you're now at a disadvantage.

[@Power5]

Auto Gimbal mode was the giant white circle that weapons would auto track a target while inside. Gimbal mode was manual and able to aim the reticule anywhere you could aim at any point you can see and the weapon could articulate to. Fixed used gimbal aim assist where if you were very close to the aim point, the weapons would adjust slightly to adjust aim. Think of it as auto gimbal mode in a much smaller circle. In this patch they have removed the auto gimbal mode large circle. So you have manual gimbal mode, which does not make much sense in aerial combat, and gimbal aim assist. No more large circle Auto Gimbal mode. So light fighters get bigger weapons on gimbals when desired and fixed for rate and large ships get no auto gimbal mode to help aim and slower fire rate if they are trying to use the manual gimbal mode in combat. Seems light fighters are getting the edge again.

[@Rivenexta]

Oh this is painful. Worse than warthunder 😂, best to just go fixed and eyeball it

[@Cyco-Dude]

Good grief, how many keybinds does this game need? LOL!

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

10 million...lol

[@Biggerfoot]

So they fucked the game ether further now , what are they thinking …. This is ridiculous imma just stick to ramming in my c2

[@leehrvyoswld]

They just made everything worse with master modes. How would master modes even be logical in a realistic sense. It just makes ships more complicated and less efficient.

[@dtrapid1]

such a convoluted system... /facepalm

[@Tekjive]

They fucked up the whole gimbal system, recurring fire rate doesn’t even make sense and having to reduce 1 weapon size in order to gimbal as a good, sensible trade off …almost like they are just randomly doing weird shit

[@Jeremy_Walker]

No kidding. It was pretty much fine how it was.

[@Tekjive]

@@Jeremy_Walker seems the new weapon specs/ ange/fire rate is what’s needed to fix the current Live and the old is what would be good with MM …

[@trentjarrett8]

It's really not lol

[@AirSKWolf]

​​@@Tekjiveyes and no. It made balancing weapons way harder because you needed to balance between sizes too. This way they can have a bigger gap between size 5 and 6 than 1 and 2 (for example) and not run into very difficult to solve balancing issues.

[@joshntricedelince5943]

Why would they get rid of AUTO GIMBAL?! 🤦

[@cpt_foxyloxy]

they added the auto aim assist for all gimbaled weapons.

[@mattb8754]

Master modes looks so bad.