Alright, this suggestion is directed to Three Rings, but is open to discussion as always!

*Hides in nuke-proof bunker* Here goes...

I have some thoughts on how Lockdown can be improved for everyone who plays.

I believe Lockdown is a huge part of the game, and in my opinion is the only thing preventing a significant portion of players from quitting. The majority of players are bored with the PvE content (AKA Vana, since few people do anything but Vana), and beating off 3 players in a 1v3 situation in lockdown and snagging the win with 5 seconds to go just makes you feel like a boss. Personally, I grinded Vana for a month to make my LD set, and didn't do any clockworks related stuff for 3 weeks after I finished.

In short, Lockdown is very enjoyable, and it's unique in that it takes effort to make a good LD set, and you feel more compelled to do better because you made what you fight with, instead of most games where you just join and everyone has the same stuff. The more effort you put into making your set, the more you want to win (winning could be winning the match pointwise, or doing the most damage, or whatever other definition people have personally) (imo)

This brings me to my main point. The people who play Lockdown do so because they most likely want to beat the other team. Winning means you did better than the other team. I think winning in Lockdown would mean more if there was a guarantee that each player did what they did to the best of their own personal ability. Yeah, you know whats up. AT.

Auto Target is a very handy feature in PvE. It gives you information on our enemies, and helps new players hit enemies that are challenging to hit if you are unfamiliar with their tactics.

However, when PvP was introduced back in September 2011, it dragged AT with it in the settings. This wasn't a big problem in the first few weeks, since people were still figuring out things such as invinciframes, stunlocking, defense, etc. But after players started to become more and more skilled based off of knowledge, AT slowly rose into consciousness.

People quickly came to realize that using AT with swords made other players easier to hit. Later on, people realized that you had to stand still with guns in order for AT to work. Then, the realization came that AT is basically the computer doing a decent bit of work for the player.

To put it differently: There are a 3 main aspects to fighting an enemy in lockdown.
1) Movement and Positioning - This is how you position yourself with respect to the enemy. Optimally, you would be in a position to hit the enemy, while they can't hit you. This is combined with timing.

2) Timing - Basically, when to attack. Optimally, this would be when the enemy has just attacked, or just prior to the attack (just prior can lead to stunlocking quite easily)

2) Aim - Where you aim your cursor with respect to the enemy. Varies depending on weapon. Optimally, your aim would be in a place that hits the enemy

The problem comes when people who use AT and people who don't battle. The player who uses AT Only has to do 2-2.5 of the 3 main aspects of fighting, while the non AT user always has to do all 3. In a broad view, this is not balanced. Here are some examples of what kind of benefit AT gives (These example are not 100% identical, but they just give an idea)

Hypothetical Examples:
-Tennis match, 1v1: Only one player can hit in the doubles lines, the other has to hit in the singles lines (The player who can hit in the doubles lines would have a larger margin of error with their hits)
-Soccer match, team vs team: One goal is smaller than the other (Players on one team have a larger margin of error than the other)
-War: One side of the war gets to use heat-seeking missiles, the other side doesn't (Side that uses heat seekers has larger margin of error)

Basically, Auto Target gives users an unfair advantage over a player that doesn't use auto target, because they can hit the player that doesn't use it more easily than they normally would. If both players use auto target, then the game heavily favors the player that uses swords, followed by guns. Gun hit registering is delayed longer than sword hit registering (tested in different servers), and bombs don't even benefit from AT. What this means is that AT on swords allows sword users to pretty much dominate any other player, assuming equal skill. Next would be AT guns, since lines such as the Antigua line or Valiance can be used with AT and hit almost all of the time, unless the target moves perpendicularly to the line of fire (as a striker only).

To sum it up, here are all of the reasons why AT is not good for a skill-based minigame:
1) AT reduces variety, since it works best with swords, followed by guns, and lastly doesnt work on bombs. It skews variety heavily towards sword users, which reduces the diversity of enemies in lockdown. Right now, finding a match with a gunner or bomber is quite rare. Seeing as guns and bombs are part of the game, it would benefit LD to have more bombers and gunners, since variety is more interesting than fighting the same thing over and over.

2) AT gives players an unfair advantage when fighting, since it lets a computer do the work that would normally have to be done by a player to reach the same point.

3) This was not mentioned above, but AT also negatively affects the mood of lockdown games. During a game, if someone accuses someone else of AT, everything goes downhill. There is no way to counter AT accusations, and everyone starts saying things like "AT noob" and otherwise insulting whoever uses AT. The thing here is, everyone always says something negative about AT. It is always negative, never positive. Lockdown has been reduced to a group of people who enjoy it so much that it keeps them tied to this game, but the main complaint they have is always about AT.

4) AT is free. Unlike a good, heated Ld set, UVs, Trinkets, or even a Polaris. All of those take effort to make, while AT is free from the start. Getting a benefit that big for free is quite unfair: If 2 players are fighting, and one has AT while the other has UVs, the AT players has an unfair advantage. The person who has UVs either spent a lot of time getting them, or paid money to get them. The AT user only had to log on, and click the box. To an extent, AT seems like a paid feature that is free, since it has such a huge impact on fights.

Because AT is hated by the vast majority of LD players, I think a lot of people would very much appreciate if it were changed in some way. Here are a few suggestions:
1) Remove AT from lockdown altogether. I feel like AT is not necessary for anyone who has a stable ping. (Regardless if you are from Australia or a 4bar US player, constant ping means you have to get used to where to aim based on your circumstances. The only place AT would benefit is if you have fluctuating ping, in which case it is near impossible to play consistently. But since this isn't even playable, AT has no need for anyone of any connection type)

2) Disable AT after X amount of hours accumulated in lockdown. This would allow new players only to use AT to get used to how lockdown works. Then after, say, 50 hours, the option would turn off and they can use their knowledge to fight competently instead of having to use a crutch constantly.

3) Provide a debuff for using AT -> Could be justified by lore: For example:
-AT takes energy from the armor in order to aim, thereby reducing (movement speed/ASI)
-AT uses energy from the weapon to aim, thereby reducing damage
-AT requires a full cycle of the weapon to be used (no shield canceling)

4) Allow players to pay money in order to be allowed to use AT (perhaps like a one time purchase of $10, or a recurring maintenance cost like trinket slots (say, 500 energy per month to be able to use AT) - this would give AT users justification to use AT

Just a few ideas, I'm sure other people at OOO HQ/players have better ones.

To conclude, I think making a serious change to AT in lockdown needs to happen. Too many times I have entered a game, and seen the chat ruin the fun of the game by people accusing others of AT. It is not just me, since in the Coliseum thread there are always posts/threads about AT. All of the tournaments there are no AT tournaments, since nobody respects anyone who uses AT.

To the OOO employees: Since it is hard to see exactly why AT is an annoyance to skilled players just based off of complaints, might I recommend trying out LD yourselves? Though seeing how AT makes fights unfair would take a while of playing, since it takes time to learn which players do and don't use AT. Or you could spectate some matches, and watch the rage unfold (doesn't happen every match, but it happens often enough)

Thank you for reading this. It would be awesome if a GM or Dev could respond with a counterargument (or hopefully agree!), but I'd be happy if it is at least considered at OOO HQ. Thanks again! I do realize you guys are still people too, and all the hate floating around on the forums can get to people. Hopefully everything is going good! Regardless of what you guys do with respect to the game, its awesome as it is, and I have had fun playing ever since June 2011. Peace out!