Should units be able to track a target outside of intel range?

An example of this is when an int locks in an attack order on a bomber that later goes out of intel (vision/radar/omni) range, and the int seems able to track/chase it anyway.

Logically, when there is no up-to-date information on the whereabouts of a unit, real-time tracking like this is unrealistic.

A voided order, or an order to the last known location, or an order to the anticipated location based on the last known information would make more sense.

Should the ability to track a unit that is not within range of any relevant form of intel (ie: vision/radar/sonar/omni) be considered a bug to fix, or a desired feature, or something else?

For this particular issue it is important how you intend to fix it .

Not sure if 'realistic' is a good argument as you could explain that phenomenon with all types of weird scifi tech. Like, quantum entanglement or something.

And its not like the rest of the game, when taken literally, makes a lot of sense either..

I would argue though that it's certainly unintuitive from a player perspective, so its probably worth taking a look at.

That being said, is it even (reasonably) possible to change that target locking behavior without screwing up everything else?

I consider this a core mechanic and I would be very much opposed to changing it. The implications of such change would be massive.

You would bring qol down I think too

Think about how annoying it is to kill an early cybran stealth strat. If locking is removed then all it has to do is move out of vision. It would never die if microed corrected (with good asf support)

Just imagine trying to deal with T1 bombers around the map on a 20x20 if your inties would constantly lose orders. Good luck with that.

No, please learn how to protect your first transport better and this is not a problem.

I think removing this would be a massive buff to strats in particular.

Most of you seemingly go directly to the "remove the target lock once a unit left intel range" option, but as Jip already alluded to, there are other possible changes too.

For example, you could make it such that a locked unit always shows it's accompanied radar signature. That'd remove the unintuitive part, where only some units magically know where their target is, while keeping the balance of being able to kill bombers/drops reliably, intact.

Tbf, this change would bring other (balance) problems with it, so implementing it exactly like I just suggested it is not a good idea.

The discussion of "intel consistency" in the game is an interesting one though, with at least some possibility for making the game better