- Joined
- Sep 18, 2013
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TL;DR: Let us control groups of turrets as the pilot through a hotbar slot / mode.
To be honest, I hate AI turrets. Yes, turrets are important, correct and realistic, but I do not think that the current AI implementation can deal with factors such as target priority, burst fire, timing and, most prominently, fun.
There's no tactical thinking involved in letting the AI handle combat (warning: generalisation).
The way I see it, there are two solutions to let players control turrets from inside the mothership as the pilot.
Option 1 - Direct / Twitch-based Controls
To implement this, all I can personally think of is a dedicated turret / hardpoint control mode parallel to flight mode (which optionally disables ship controls) and activates a free-look perspective with an aiming reticle.
All turrets will thus follow the crosshair on the GUI.
This turret control mode will be available similar to how weapons computers work already; either drag one into the hotbar to access it as the pilot, or enter it directly to be in charge of only this system.
To complement this and make micromanaging batteries of turrets less of a pain, let us assign groups to sections of turrets. Link the rails they're docked to to the control computer like you would with any other system.
Remember: This entire suggestion revolves around better, more efficient and badass turret control. Thus, you should be able to choose with which guns to fire at what target whenever you wish, instead of with all at once in uncertainty.
Optional: Each of these turret computers can only ever control a fixed amount of turrets, possibly extensible with enhancers.
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Option 2 - Improved AI / Lock-on Automated Guidance
Using the same turret computer and modular grouping mechanics, a more or less automatic system can be put in place. Instead of live input guidance (i.e., using mouse) the process might work as follows:
First step: Build your turrets and group them with this new computer.
Second step: Assign the group's computer to a hotbar slot, like any other system. Assign as many groups as necessary, fill hotbar accordingly. Same as before up to now.
As a pilot: Using left-click, activate full-auto mode. The turrets will engage anything within their parameters (and hopefully only cone-of-sight). You can leave this group alone and it will do its thing, say, point-defence.
Using right-click, activate semi-auto mode. The turrets will engage what you have locked on and require a constant feed of new targets. You can leave them alone while they are active, but once the target is destroyed, the turrets revert to standby.
Complementary to this option will be new AI parameters. AI will only ever engage targets within their target spectrum as dictated by these parameters. These may include ship mass, ship dimensions, distance, relative speed, armament, shield status or simple return fire commands.
This will keep AI as viable as it is, but better, yet allows full control over your weapons systems.
---
Both of these solutions would ask for a number of more considerate design decisions:
All this doesn't necessarily make poor Bobby obsolete, though. AI can be utilised with diminishing returns; all turret AIs will have to be linked to the turret computer, but the more you add and the closer you come to the limit, the worse their aim and reaction time will become.
I'm sure there's more to say here, so feel free to discuss and brainstorm this.
Cheers
Skull
Thanks for the brainstorming so far.
Edit: Changed the format and excluded rambling. Added some elaboration, which included rambling.
Edit 2: Felt obliged to clean this up a tiny bit after a recent bump. Didn't add anything, leaving it to the active people to elaborate on this.
To be honest, I hate AI turrets. Yes, turrets are important, correct and realistic, but I do not think that the current AI implementation can deal with factors such as target priority, burst fire, timing and, most prominently, fun.
There's no tactical thinking involved in letting the AI handle combat (warning: generalisation).
The way I see it, there are two solutions to let players control turrets from inside the mothership as the pilot.
Option 1 - Direct / Twitch-based Controls
To implement this, all I can personally think of is a dedicated turret / hardpoint control mode parallel to flight mode (which optionally disables ship controls) and activates a free-look perspective with an aiming reticle.
All turrets will thus follow the crosshair on the GUI.
This turret control mode will be available similar to how weapons computers work already; either drag one into the hotbar to access it as the pilot, or enter it directly to be in charge of only this system.
To complement this and make micromanaging batteries of turrets less of a pain, let us assign groups to sections of turrets. Link the rails they're docked to to the control computer like you would with any other system.
Remember: This entire suggestion revolves around better, more efficient and badass turret control. Thus, you should be able to choose with which guns to fire at what target whenever you wish, instead of with all at once in uncertainty.
Optional: Each of these turret computers can only ever control a fixed amount of turrets, possibly extensible with enhancers.
---
Option 2 - Improved AI / Lock-on Automated Guidance
Using the same turret computer and modular grouping mechanics, a more or less automatic system can be put in place. Instead of live input guidance (i.e., using mouse) the process might work as follows:
First step: Build your turrets and group them with this new computer.
Second step: Assign the group's computer to a hotbar slot, like any other system. Assign as many groups as necessary, fill hotbar accordingly. Same as before up to now.
As a pilot: Using left-click, activate full-auto mode. The turrets will engage anything within their parameters (and hopefully only cone-of-sight). You can leave this group alone and it will do its thing, say, point-defence.
Using right-click, activate semi-auto mode. The turrets will engage what you have locked on and require a constant feed of new targets. You can leave them alone while they are active, but once the target is destroyed, the turrets revert to standby.
Complementary to this option will be new AI parameters. AI will only ever engage targets within their target spectrum as dictated by these parameters. These may include ship mass, ship dimensions, distance, relative speed, armament, shield status or simple return fire commands.
This will keep AI as viable as it is, but better, yet allows full control over your weapons systems.
---
Both of these solutions would ask for a number of more considerate design decisions:
- proper view port placement to reduce blind spots (disregarding that you can zoom out from anywhere)
- crew; will you sacrifice mobility to assume turret control as a pilot or trust gun control to someone else, but retain manoeuvrability?
- turret coverage or armour?
- linking / grouping of turret batteries to function as units (to get maximum benefit of the (optional) limited computer capacity)
- in-combat decision making to pick the right battery for a certain threat
- proper f'n broadsides
I'm sure there's more to say here, so feel free to discuss and brainstorm this.
Cheers
Skull
Thanks for the brainstorming so far.
Edit: Changed the format and excluded rambling. Added some elaboration, which included rambling.
Edit 2: Felt obliged to clean this up a tiny bit after a recent bump. Didn't add anything, leaving it to the active people to elaborate on this.
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