Okay, so they won't ever get rid of autolock for some reason, but what if it became a feature that you paid LP for? It would promote skill, or being slightly worse off for getting the help. Kind of how smart-pistols have less damage than regular ones. As it is, playing melee without autolock is viable, it just forces you to aim and be aware of your opponent(s). Playing with autolock however is such an easy mode that you're barely responsible for the free kill you get from it. Just lock, and spam RMB and you catch up to anyone, and hit anyone, no matter where they go or are. It's like letting an AI to play for you.
Tbh, if autolock wasn't there, it'd make melee almost not worth it. Trust me, I've tried to melee without autolock and I spent more of my time hitting the nearest wall or thin air than I did my opponent. Heck, I've also been against people who also didn't use autolock when fighting me. We just spent the whole time swiping at nothing. In all honesty, they either need to reduce the lunge distance when you melee swings or remove it all together, which would also solve the PF problem we have atm... although this may just result in people strafing around each other as they try to land a hit and not get hit at the same time.
I melee just fine without autolock, as that's how you melee with a rifle. Soooooo, I would say you're wrong.
Without autolock it would be quite difficult to dodge roll without getting out of melee range and thus giving your opponent an opening to shoot you in the face. It's fine as it is now, specially as everyone can use it just by switching weapon...
You can't really compete without using Lock now. Say for the 100th time that I know good players can make any tactic work but the tracking is just so accurate I doubt anyone is superior without it. Pre-Alpha you could fight without it easily. Lock was actually really bad at certain things like Power Attacks and Power Fist were comically laggy if you let the Lock do the aiming. I miss that time I don't think they should charge for it but I do think it should be nerfed somewhat.
I'm voting to remove it completely, on the stipulation that the melee system is adjusted to work without it. That'd basically mean replacing the R/P/S mechanic with something based on footwork and timing.
Autolock is fine. It's only a perceived problem. It's needed for melee to keep track of your target while you play the RPS game and roll around. Many fighting games have it even. It's not even always helpful either, such as when they're rolling around you and dodging, autolock isn't doing you any favors there when you could unlock and anticipate where they will be. Then you have the lock-on pistols... But they already do considerably less damage and can sometimes still miss. Edit: Someone mentioned reducing lunge distances. I can't really say that I agree with that anymore. There's a fine line that can be crossed which could make it way too easy to escape melee.
Then answer me this, how am I able to use my knife when I'm holding my bolter without autolock and still manage to hit my target. I can, and I do, all the freaking time. You see, this is why what you say holds no water. Autolock does one thing, it allows people to lock on and start spamming. They can go to town on a target ignoring everything around them. It dumbs down the melee to much. How many times have we all seen the assault lock on to you and start flailing his chainsword and all you hear is "Vrrrrrrrrrr! Vrrrrrrrrrr! Vrrrrrrrrrr! Vrrrrrrrrrr! Vrrrrrrrrrr! Vrrrrrrrrrr! Vrrrrrrrrrr! Vrrrrrrrrrr!" as he chases you around? That's because of autolock my friend. Meanwhile, people use their knives all the time in melee and it doesn't allow for autolock unless you switch. They land hits just fine even when rolling around, I do it my self very often especially as Eldar. Autolock promotes stupidity and spamming, not having it would force people to actually be competent in melee. Not having it is not going to hurt melee because people already don't use autolock when they don't have the option to begin with and they do just fine. You don't NEED autolock to do melee. THAT is the real perceived problem.
