Turret options

[BattleFate]

Hi everyone,

I mentioned this idea in a previous thread, along with other ideas. However no one addressed this idea as being either good or bad. I am anxious to have a discussion about it, and rather than dig up an old thread, thought I might make a new one dedicated to this idea, instead of mixing it in with others.

My idea was to adjust turrets. Nerfing them to start, but adding additional research options that would bring them to on par with what they are now, but with various options to help customize them to your individual playstyle.

I am on the fence as to whether the first iteration of a turret would need to be researched or not. I am leaning towards not, because without any research, a turret would be nothing more than an immobile gun emplacement (something which might be able to be built with only metal parts.

Essentially it would be gun emplacement into which any smg/assault rifle/sniper rifle can be installed, and which needs to be manually controlled by a colonist. It would then assume the 'shooting' skill of the colonist maning it. Perhaps it would require power (servo controlled turning perhaps?), at which point maybe it adds or subtracts a point or two from the colonists skill. Then with further research (faster servos), the turret would either match, or even exceed the colonist's shooting skill. A colonist manning a turret would gain cover equivalent to a sandbag while inside of it.

Researched upgrades could be applied to the turrets. We would limit a turret to having a maximum upgrade capacity of 2 (or maybe only one, with a second upgrade slot unlocked through research), so that players would need to pick which upgrade combinations work best for them. This would be done on a turret by turret basis, so you could have a different setup for your forward turrets than you do for the ones closer to the back of your defenses. Upgrades would include:

Turret Cooling: Faster rate of fire of attached weapons.
Turret Armour: Increased HP for the turret, also increased cover for any colonists manning the turret.
Turret Capacitors: Decreased power requirements? (maybe have this be universal instead of a turret specific upgrade?)
Automation: No longer needs to be manned, but is assumed to have a default shooting skill of 5. (this means that it may perform worse or better than if it were manned, depending on which colonists you were comparing to).
Extended barrels: Increased turret range.
Auto-repair droid?: Slowly repair damage to the turret
Anti-radiation shielding: Allowing the turret to remain operational during a solar flare (again this might be a turret specific upgrade, or a universal upgrade applied to all turrets and not taking an upgrade slow. Not sure which is the better option).
Battery backup: Allowing the turret to remain operational while power is out (until the battery runs out).
Dual barrel: Allows a second weapon to be attached to the turret. Must be identical to the first one. Each shot would include two projectiles then (same hit or miss chance, not calculated independently).

I'm also thinking that the basic turret, without upgrades would only explode in a 1 square radius, therefore only killing the colonist manning it. However with each applied upgrade the explosion radius might increase by 1, to the current explosion radius which it has now of 3 if it has 2 upgrades applied to it.

Any other upgrades anyone can think of? Is this a good idea?

[Galileus]

You know, digging up an old thread and replying in it - after reading it - would increase your chances to get a discussion. If you have anything that wasn't discussed to death already, that is.

[BattleFate]

Well the old thread only touched on this idea. I thought it would be most likely to spark a discussion if I took the time to explain the idea in more detail.

[Galileus]

There was a lot of talk about manned turret, gun emplacements and upgrades, power for turrets... Anyone from the old team who was around when there was a big turret talk either will skim over and note everything as "read that before" or simply ignore the topic as he's not interested.

Of course it would help if list of suggested features was updated, Semmy!

[BattleFate]

Of course it would help if list of suggested features was updated, Semmy!

Was thinking that myself.