turret autopilot idea

My son plays a game called metal arms. Its like a halo game with robots. There are these recruitment grenades that you can throw at enemy robots and they will fight for you. I found out yesterday that you can throw them at turrets too.

How neat would it be to have a way to take control of nearby unmanned turrets like a targeting computer.

An engineer can spawn two mini turrets. As the base starts to be overrun, the engineer can activate a targeting sphere and the turrets will come to life defending the base. A player can still jump into a turret and take control back.

There would be a serious balance issue if the engineer received xp as if they were manning the turrets, so the engineer would only receive a fraction of xp if any, and no adrenaline for kills. The system would be more for defense than offense. It would be like a CIWS system. (4,500 rounds/min

)

Giving engineers another use for adrenaline will help get away from engineers using beserk all the time.

Interesting idea.
It shouldn't be too difficult to have minigun turrets that can be manned, but can auto-fire when unmanned.

I am not sure exactly how you want the targetting system to work. I think you are saying the turrets usually sit idle. When the engineer runs a targetting sphere, the minigun acts like a sentinel and targets anything enemy in the sphere. Is that correct?

And are you thinking all unmanned turrets will target the enemy, or just those owned by the engineer running the sphere? What if there are two spheres?

It should be possible. However, I am not sure about the sphere approach. Spheres usually have a significant visible impact - but this could be a more transparent sphere. At the moment, spheres are centered on the spot where the player spawns them. In this case an engineer could trans into a busy spot, kick off the targetting sphere, then trans out - leaving the turrets in offensive rather than defensive mode. And although I like the idea of Engineers having something else to spend adrenaline on, I am not sure how well it will work.

An alternative would be player directed aiming. I did it for the extreme monster master to direct pet fire, but it isn't live yet on DC. Let the engineer look at an enemy, press the appropriate key, and the turret targets that enemy until one of them dies. (or until the engineer changes the target).

On a separate note, I am not sure that engineers will spawn 2 minigun turrets to leave them unmanned. Most prefer an energy turret, and tend to occupy it until it is destroyed.

Since the engineers get xp from sentinels, I don't see why they shouldn't get xp from targetting turrets. But then we will get engineers resenting others occupying their minigun turrets and getting xp when they wanted them to be used for targetting.

So, an alternative suggestion would be having dedicated targetting turrets - small guns like a quarter size ball turret - floor/ceiling/wall fixings - that can't be manned and have no automatic targetting system. Cost say 2 points each. The engineer spawns 6 of them, and manually directs what they are firing at.
I would suggest these points come off the turret rather than the sentinel points. So for completeness, perhaps ought to extend it to include unmanned turrets spawned by the engineer, of all types.

How abot making targeting available only for turrets, that you own (maker's turrets) and turrents, that no one owns (turrets made on map by designer)?
I don't think that creating loads of doll-turrets is a good idea, because managing all of them may become a bit difficult.

to solve the problem that szlat mentioned, (defensive mini that can be useed as offensive, player activate it, player trans. etc) why not put a limit, i mean if the engi leave the sphere the turret turn off..

If we go down the sphere route, would we make it so only turrets in the sphere do the targetting?

Maybe I don't fully understand the main idea and maybe I'll tell the same.
So how about making the walking sphere? So when engi walks, the spehere walks with him, so engi is always in the center of the sphere. And I don't really understand how will the adrenaline be used?

MrAndrew wrote:

So how about making the walking sphere? So when engi walks, the spehere walks with him, so engi is always in the center of the sphere. And I don't really understand how will the adrenaline be used?

The other spheres in the RPG (Damage, Invulnerability and Healing) use adrenaline, and are fixed in the place spawned.

This one does not have to behave the same, but consistency is often good.

How about if instead of a sphere, it would be like the weapon maxing. An engineer shoots a red beam at an unmanned turret then the turret becomes active. This solves the radius problem, the 2 spheres problem, and allows more control. Setting a limit to how many turrets can be shot with this can be limited, and a radius of LOS can be set for the turrets i.e. a transparent green sphere around the turret. Any enemy that passes through is targeted by the turret if visible and the turret doesn't currently have a target. More engineers must use teamwork to activate many turrets because of the limit. While the turret is automated, it sucks adrenaline perhaps at a rate of 2 adrenaline a second depending on whether or not the turret has a target.

An additional artifact called "Auto-Turret Shutdown" can be used to shut down the turrets and stop the adrenaline draining. This provides remote control of the turrets and the player can maintain them in an easy way.

change the red beam to yellow... after all the engineers have yellow link guns, red looks to offensive

I occasionally will spawn two turrets for others to use while I use a vehicle or maintain the base. Many times the turrets don't get used.

And are you thinking all unmanned turrets will target the enemy, or just those owned by the engineer running the sphere? What if there are two spheres?

all unmanned turrets.
The issue of more than one sphere would only be an issue if xp is given...in which case, the xp can be divided. Can the kill points be divided up also?

An alternative would be player directed aiming. I did it for the extreme monster master to direct pet fire, but it isn't live yet on DC. Let the engineer look at an enemy, press the appropriate key, and the turret targets that enemy until one of them dies. (or until the engineer changes the target).

I was thinking of something to use when the base is being swarmed. Like a red alert: target anything that moves button.
An engineer typically doesn't put many points into adrenaline. The sphere could consume something like 100 points in 20 secs.

So, an alternative suggestion would be having dedicated targetting turrets - small guns like a quarter size ball turret

Sounds neat. Any way that they can be mini gun type turrets? It could be that I just like sound of a bunch of mini guns firing.

Elite wrote:

change the red beam to yellow... after all the engineers have yellow link guns, red looks to offensive

Good idea, I really didn't think the effects through, just the basic concept and idea is what I thought about.

I like the idea of small turrets that the engineer controls with his gun.. Maybe he fires them all with his weapon. But does no damage with that weapon when it is in his hand. This would make the engineer very tough in his little hole and still mobile enough that he isn't bait sitting in a turret. To make it fair maybe make it so only three turrets can fire on the same target at one time.

I am still not keen on the idea of using unmanned turrets due to the arguments that will occur with the engineer wanting to use them unmanned but others getting in them.

I was toying with the idea of small turrets , that couldn't be manned, that the engineer could direct. The method I was thinking of was for the engineer to look at an enemy, press a key and the turrets would then target the enemy until it died. Unfortunately, that was a bit too slow and unresponsive.

An alternative has just occurred to me. Once every half or quarter second the auto-turrets would check what the engineer was looking at - if it was an enemy and in range, they would target it - until it was dead or out of range. No keys to press, and would get away from what happens with sentinels where the eng spawns the sentinel in a busy place, then goes elsewhere to kill.

This would make the targetting much much faster

Perhaps a new ability would allow this?

Something like:

Constructions: AI Targeting

With this ability, any unmanned turrets you have deployed will automatically target and attempt to kill any enemies in range that have not already died. At level one of this ability your turrets will respond more slowly than level two. At level two your turrets will respond much faster and have a more skilled AI. Any players may enter any unmanned turrets at any time. You must be an Engineer to purchase this skill and have at least 80 Damage Bonus to purchase this skill. Cost (per level): 10, 15