Hi, I never use the target lock manually, I prefer to let AI do the job for me and that works very well.

I just add a Railgun and enable AI Flight + AI Offessive in charge of the Railgun.
OR
Just use AI Defensive block.


__________

That said, the Target lock may need to be reported and reporting will give you a SE programmer testing the bug for you and reply the solution.

It's the best way to have the right answer :
-> Click "Submit Bug" on Support Portal to have a SE Programmer testing the Bug for you and reply :

https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers/pc
(create "Bug report" or "Request help"(Private) or "Feedback"(Petition) on the Portal)

I recommend to try AI Defensive block to do the Job for you, it detect enemy at 2.5Km and will give longer range to your turrets :
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3487199622
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3487199513

My questions were.
1. How to cycle targets.... Answer: you can't. It tries to acquire the target under your cross-hairs. There is no mechanic for cycling targets.
2. Can you turn on the targeting circle after it has vanished. Answer.... it vanishes due to a glitch in how it works. It's isn't suppose to target objects out of line of sight, but the devs allowed it... because it's obviously needed. Problem occurs when you try to lock on a target that isn't in LoS. Then the glitch occurs and you loose the targeting circle. I didn't realize I had no LoS to that POI the circle was targeting. Now it makes since what happened, though I'd consider this targeting mechanic half baked at best.

So the conclusion to avoid this problem is by not trying to lock on to targets that are not in LoS. At night time.... with no NV in this game.... you can't tell very easily if you do have line of sight. We can build space ships, but NV googles... are just to much? Having NV would solve that issue.

Or do as Dan does, and ignore the issues by using the AI to do it.

Also just realized when attempting to utilize the cockpit to target, as suggested in a YT video, for the systems, defenses..etc. by pulling it into the hotbar and selecting what it should target.... There is no option to do so for this cockpit. Only the option in the CP to turn on/off "target locking". Seems like there should be more options in the CP for this. Not even zooming in with the camera trying to get the circle to target a turret.... doesn't work. It targets only one thing and nothing else..... as far as I know.

So far the wiki and other SE web sights leave out a lot of critical info, or suggest things that are incorrect. Supposedly according to the Wiki I could zoom in and have the circle target what is under the cross-hairs... But that is not the case. I'm in line of sight and well within the range of the rail gun, but the circle does not change from the first object it has targeted. The Pirate Stronghold was my first POI experience along with using the target locking mechanic, and I just fired at what ever the thing was targeting.... not leaving much behind worth salvaging. As soon as that target was lost it switched to the next, I locked the target and used the leader to hit the target. This time I figured I'd try to not destroy the POI that way and be more precise. But the game doesn't appear to allow you to do that. Unless you just fire blindly and guess when the object you are aiming at becomes non-functional instead of destroyed. With no ability to manually select a target... the mechanic seems kinda useless.

I did find the means to identify the target using the appropriate selection for one of the cockpits LCDs.

Now I understand why Dan says just use the AI. That appears to be the only option.

LIke I said, I don't use the Target lock manually but I know how to cycle targets, I just have to aim at the grid one at a time and lock/unlock the one I want by holding the mouse click till countdown completed.

If that is not working today = Report on the Portal

I just aim at the Grid and hold mouse click till the second circle is completed
/ countdown completed :
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2755565823
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2755605422
Locked on Enemy grid :
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3100917752

I will add :

I use that trick to find grid on "Search contract" at Trade station

-> I just have to aim and a circle will popup that tells me where the grid is.

Oh! You may double check with the how to use the target lock from the Official Guide and report if not the same so they can fix or change the Guide :

Combat Guide :
https://www.spaceengineersgame.com/new-players/warfare2-combat-guide/

I'm learning.... Lots of common sense stuff doesn't work within the game. It's game engine sense or SE sense.

Example of that would be the pistons only being stackable from one direction. To increase the depth of your drill rig, you must remove the drills to attach another piston at the bottom, instead of being able to add another at the top.

Originally posted by 2ugly:

...
To increase the depth of your drill rig, you must remove the drills to attach another piston at the bottom,
...

That is complicate indeed, a thing I like is to add a rotor on the piston head, that trick helped me fix some not working setups I found and could be used on your idea with merge blocks.

Need more work to merge/unmerge for sure and all can explode if I don't do it correctly, pratice needed in creative mode first ;)

mmm I think adding one more piston would work better outside Voxel if large blocks because a sub grid can get stuck as a station when unmerging underground.

Should be OK to detach the drill head placed on a rotor and use merge blocks to hold it, move the mining Rig, add one more piston with rotor and reattach the Drill head.

Testing needed to know if I would use a station or a Ship/Rover to hold the Drill head, as to know if all will explode when I reattach the drill head.

EDIT
I find more setups to test the more I think about, there is surely more than one way to do this and one of them is safer.
-> Like using rotor only to hold the Drill head / No Merge blocks.

I just made a new station moving arm.

I did not tested but something like that may work OK to Detach/Attach back the Drill head :
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3538368187

I decided to test it and I can confirm that setup is safe, nothing exploded.

I have used station moving arm to hold the Drill head, attached the Drill part on station and grinded the conveyor on the last piston to detach it from trailer :
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3538406109
Works fine, new red piston with rotor added :
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3538408595
Attached/Detached without problems :
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3538415656
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3538407729

Originally posted by 2ugly:

I'm learning.... Lots of common sense stuff doesn't work within the game. It's game engine sense or SE sense.

Example of that would be the pistons only being stackable from one direction. To increase the depth of your drill rig, you must remove the drills to attach another piston at the bottom, instead of being able to add another at the top.

You can add them anywhere, top, middle, bottom... but if you have to be very careful how you do it, and it usually involves merge-blocks.

As to the targeting, it serves two purposes:

If you're manually aiming (static weapons or controlling a turret), it draws a second circle that leads the target the right amount to compensate for both your movement and the targets. This is based purely on aiming at the grid (likely the center of mass), not at a particular component. I'm pretty sure you figured that out by one of your comments.

The other function is for AI aimed turrets. The AI has better control over the turrets than a human could have, so it has the ability to target specific components of the grid. Normally it has a sequence it goes through ("Default" targeting in the setting) which is based on a value assigned to various components. These are based on whether it's a weapon, power system, propulsion, etc. and also other unknown factors (maybe the cost of the block?). This can be seen if you're using the Build Info workshop mod, as it will tell you both the category and the targeting value (I forgot the exact term used, but it's obvious when you see it).

This is why the option only exists in turret configurations and not in cockpits.