Manual targeting pain

[Kahuna]

Arf


I know it's possible to target x ship in a stack of ships by trying various zoom levels but it doesn't always work.
This combined with this can be agonizing.

[SNAFU]

I really wish this was a thing.

Just to be clear, should clicking issue an attack order to an instance of that target type or just change the 'preferred target' for your selected units? I'd especially love the latter, as it comes up often that I need a particular ship type dead right now e.g. 10k Missile frigates on my border world? Meh. Oh, is that 200 MkIV bombers with them?

I'd really prefer to not have to hunt and peck on my screen to find an example of the ship type I want my selection to target with prejudice.

[Kahuna]

Just to be clear, should clicking issue an attack order to an instance of that target type or just change the 'preferred target' for your selected units?

When you manually target a ship.. aka select ships/turrets and right click on an AI target.. both of those happen^^. An attack order is issued and the target becomes "preferred target".

I'd really prefer to not have to hunt and peck on my screen to find an example of the ship type I want my selection to target with prejudice.

At the moment you can just right click the target on that sidebar and then press Q to zoom in. Then issue the order.

[SNAFU]

I am aware that issuing an attack order also makes the target's ship type a 'preferred target' and that I can use the overview to center the main view on one of a ship type, but I might not want my selection to close with and destroy this particular target. I just want my selection to use the preferred target logic of 'hey if units of this type happen to be in firing range, please shoot them first instead of other things you'd normally want to shoot'.

Scenarios that spring to mind where I'd want that include dealing with kiting Raptors, telling a Fortress what units I want it to shoot without it trying to move, setting priority targets for Spire capital selections without them fluttering around and throwing off their beam fire,  priming my fleet ball-o'-death to shoot guard posts *before* sending them through a wormhole (via the F1 unit guide), seeing an approaching exo-wave and instructing my turrets to focus-fire a Dire Guardian as (or again, even before) it comes through the wormhole, and of course, the scenario you've illustrated where it can be very, VERY frustrating to select an instance of a ship type to kill because its stacked under a bunch of other units.

EDIT: I went ahead created a mantis ticket on this here: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=15986

I know this discussion has shown up before, but those were many versions ago, so I'd think its worth another review!