Remove Turrets

[JimmyAgnt007]

Instead making them explode, which makes them into a landmine, make them drain X power off your network when they are destroyed -that should help balance against spamming them.

that doesnt make much sense technically.  maybe a high risk of feedback power surge?  So the raid can kill a dozen of them and each one blows out some power line in your base.  THAT would stop turret spam quick.

[Arcaist]

Im in the "keep the turrets" camp but also agree that they need to change.  This is my list of changes I would make.

Research them.
Make them manned.
Make them larger (4square)
Research upgrades to make them stronger, faster, tougher, longer (range).
More advanced means more power use.
Use ammo boxes that can be made like artillery shells.
Upgrade with an AI core for improved targeting. (Crappy autofire without a colonist manning it)

Also make them so they can be moved like other furniture.

So on one hand they become much more devastating weapons but much more resource intensive.  Still puts colonists at risk.  So we no longer have massive numbers of expendable turrets for killboxes.

What he says!

[akiceabear]

Jimmy - that was my intention, thanks for clarifying.

[Songleaves]

I remember some mods of Starseige Tribes had a minimum distance that turrets had to be placed away from one another due to "interference"; in worked well in that game for preventing killboxes, maybe it would work okay in RimWorld?

[Jamini]

Actually, I'm coming to honestly believe that the best killboxes shouldn't include turrets at all.

Grenades are a cheap, effective means to wipe out large waves with indirect fire, including mechanoids. Consider the following setup:

0000000000000
XDXXXXX00XXDX
X0XX0SS0SDD0X
X0XX0XXXXXX0X
X0DD0SS00XXDX
XDXXXXX00XX0X
XDXX0SS0SDD0X
XDXX0XXXXXXXX
XDXX0XXXXXXXX
0000000000000

0 = Empty space
S = Sandbag
D = Door
X = Wall (Natural or Artificial)

Using grenades, two colonists using this setup could blindfire grenades at the ends of the serpentine, falling back behind doors when an enemy starts lining up a shot. Interior doors are kept open, only closed when the grenadiers fall back. With proper management, the raiders won't even get a shot off. Since the inside of the serpentine has a direct path to the base itself, the raiders rarely get distracted by doors. If they do, they have to break through at least two doors to reach the grenadiers (and forget about the colony itself)

With stone blocks and a small amount of steel, this setup is nearly infinitely expandable and far more cost-effective than a turret defense. Up to four colonists can sit at each pillbox. For later raids (mechanoids and shields) it's recommended that one of the grenadiers on each side have EMP grenades.

Granted, this doesn't help one whit with drop pods.

[Toggle]

Im in the "keep the turrets" camp but also agree that they need to change.  This is my list of changes I would make.

Research them.
Make them manned.
Make them larger (4square)
Research upgrades to make them stronger, faster, tougher, longer (range).
More advanced means more power use.
Use ammo boxes that can be made like artillery shells.
Upgrade with an AI core for improved targeting. (Crappy autofire without a colonist manning it)

Also make them so they can be moved like other furniture.

So on one hand they become much more devastating weapons but much more resource intensive.  Still puts colonists at risk.  So we no longer have massive numbers of expendable turrets for killboxes.

See though... that might be good for a artillery gun. You're suggesting making them twice as big as mortars and manned, meaning one hit would probably kill anything it hits, probably kill a centipede in a few, and require ammo like the mortar for the bullets. It stops being useful when it becomes manned and you can't really make a turret any bigger then the 1x1. As for being manned, it would have to be better then any gun you can get for it's price in contents, since it uses a pawn to fire, and then it's just pointless to not use a normal gun as it would require a shit ton of resources and research.

[FMJ Penguin]

I remember some mods of Starseige Tribes had a minimum distance that turrets had to be placed away from one another due to "interference"; in worked well in that game for preventing killboxes, maybe it would work okay in RimWorld?

Kinda interesting. May work with auto-turrets in some way.

Tons a good ideas in here though. Hope the thread doesn't vanish before devs get a chance to skim it over at least

[b0rsuk]

Minimum turret distance is already in the game: turret explosions.

If Tynan says he'd like to remove turrets, they're probably going out. I should get used to playing without them.

[FMJ Penguin]

Assuming he meant a much larger minimum distance than the explosion radius. Besides, a 1-tile wall between them negates that explosion risk entirely as far as turret-turret chain reactions. Unless that has changed.

[b0rsuk]

I have to admit that defending a colony with turrets is boring. Because turrets are identical, always the same. Colonists are not identical.

[JimmyAgnt007]

See though... that might be good for a artillery gun. You're suggesting making them twice as big as mortars and manned, meaning one hit would probably kill anything it hits, probably kill a centipede in a few, and require ammo like the mortar for the bullets. It stops being useful when it becomes manned and you can't really make a turret any bigger then the 1x1. As for being manned, it would have to be better then any gun you can get for it's price in contents, since it uses a pawn to fire, and then it's just pointless to not use a normal gun as it would require a shit ton of resources and research.

Twice as big?  It would be the same size.  I just checked mortars and they are 2x2.  Maybe I should have said that instead of 4.  Though id be happy with a 1x1 turret the colonist sits in like the ball turrets of a WW2 bomber.  I would like a direct fire artty gun that fires shells but thats a slightly different topic.  The benefit of this kind of manned turret over just giving a pawn a gun would be that the return fire would hit the turret instead of causing injury to the pawn.  So it wouldnt be 'useless'.   Also bullets would be a lot cheaper to produce but depending on the ROF of the turret, may burn through them a lot faster. 

[Oga88]

no

Agree

No

[Toggle]

Might as well as make it a mounted machine gun then.

[CB elite]

I tend to play without turrets, but don't think they need to be removed. I would look at it as a game going backwards if they were removed, actually. Turrets really just need to be a late game item. For example, the research tree needs serious expansion, and automated defenses should be towards the very end of it...

[akiceabear]

The combat realism approach works well - make them craftable after research only, with pricy improvements only via trade.