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Where did I go wrong? This turret 'should' work, but in practice it is virtually useless.
I wanted to build a 'large' turret, meant to serve as a primary offensive weapon on a 50K-100K mass ship (two, maybe four depending). I decided to go for a ball turret with a ball 41 blocks in diameter figuring this would be enough space for at least it's base to approach the power bonus cap. The interior size of such a ball is also large enough to fit some serious weapons (in addition to it's own optimized power generation of course).
I started with the base, as the weapon systems in the ball would largely depend on how much power the base could provide. I created a sphere 41 blocks wide, cut out the middle 25 blocks, then extended the remaining sides down ~28 blocks. I rebuilt a circular base for it and made sure the rotating sphere above it would have adequate clearance (later tested for certainty). Then I built an optimized power system into it, filling the space between lines with shields and rechargers, then filled much of the remaining space with batteries. When I was done I had a system generating 974K power with 9M power storage, 100K shields, 10K regen. It also got just over 1400 mass enhancers.
That done I built the ball, starting with a sphere 41 blocks in diameter, cut off eight blocks from either side, placed the turret axis, glued it to the base and tested it's ability to turn unobstructed. Then I used what space it had, to give it it's optimum power generation (around a dozen overlapping but not touching XYZ lines). That gave the ball just over 500K power. I made sure it also had around 500K power storage (which may have in hindsight been my biggest error).
For weapons I wanted both a pair of cannon/cannon where each bullet (ten times a second) could break an advanced armor block even with full HP. That meant each shot needed to do at least 2000 damage. But I also wanted it to have a bit more punch, both to get a bit of system behind it and also in case of pierce hardened armor, to be able to break the block with two hits, which would require 5000 damage, so I did my calculations to get 2500 block damage. I upped that by 20% so as to give it a 20% ion boost above that to help the cannons crack shields. The final calculations came out to a double barrel system with each barrel having 5600 cannon blocks (2800 & 2800) and 560 ion blocks. I gave them each their own firing computer, as I originally wanted to make one of them full explosive but realized belatedly I did not have enough explosive effect modules.
The cannon systems would use 616K power per second, well within the over 1400K power the ball and base generate. The completed turret ball and base ultimately wound up with well over ten and a half million power storage, which even accounting for combat shield drain could easily be refilled with the remaining power. To use that power storage, I wanted the turret to be able to engage at maximum range, lest I find myself up against a sniper who maintains his range so as to snipe outside of my own weapon's range. I gave the turret 4000 blocks of missile/beam sniper missiles (with a healthy dose of ion thrown in).
My calculations indicated that the turret would need 9M power to fire off all the sniper missiles, well within the power storage. I set them up as 6 missiles, each with their own computer systems so there would be no additional energy costs for them. I also added 20 single block missile/beam missiles to a single computer so the turret would fire 20 'decoys' at the same time as the six actual heavy hitters.
With all that done, the systems complete and all weapons on the hot bar, The turret attached to a makeshift platform (which also had it's own power, shields and 2K mass enhancers) so it would behave like a turret, I turned on the bobby AI. I did not have long to wait as I build in a fairly active section of space (deliberately, as I don't like dead space). A handful of pirates showed up, despite me building right beside a trade shop. I gleefully anticipated watching my turret in action.
And then the crest fell. Sigh... Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with this turret. It swivels and points, sometimes. It doesn't exactly track. Mostly it just sits there, even when there is an enemy 500 meters away. It fires off missiles occasionally, usually just one at a time, though a few times it might fire a few one after another. The missiles never hit anything, they just fly around the targets, clearly missing them. I saw the cannons fire once or twice, but only single shots.
When I sit in the turret ball and fire manually, I am able to fire off the sniper missiles easily enough, but there is short lag between firings, as it appears as if the turret ball does not simply share the power storage of the system, rather it draws from it at what appears to be a relatively low rate. I can fire one about every half second. If I hold down the fire button on just one of the cannon (without firing any missiles) I will every few seconds get an out of power reading, despite no break in it's fire and the power draw of a single cannon being will within both the turret ball's internal generation and power storage.
When sitting inside the base while the turret ball is bobby controlled and engaged, I get a very important bit of clue as to what may be going wrong. Despite having nearly a million power generation and ten million power storage, the tank remains completely empty, despite the turret ball not actually firing! Even without firing, because it 'wants' to fire (or so I assume), it is drawing ALL the power from the base, even though it is not using it!
Does anyone have a clue as to what I did wrong? How can I configure this turret system to do what I want it to do? I want for it to fire off a salvo of all it's missiles at once, not piecemeal it. I want for it to engage with cannon fire continuously as long as there are targets in range, while the sniper missiles recycle.
The fact that the turret ball somehow wound up sitting upside down in it's base is almost a non issue given everything else. I'll obviously have to rebuild the ball from scratch at this point so I'll just fiddle with the empty ball till I know what it's resting orientation will be, before building barrels and such. (Good thing I didn't waste time trying to pretty this thing up.)
A bit of editing later, without having done any precise calculations or truly understanding what I actually need, I added 2000 power capacitors to the turret ball (externally to test it). When pirates showed up I was in build mode and had to hop out of the turret to turn the AI back on. By the time I could get out of the turret, things had happened too fast for me to even notice if it had fired missiles. It was making very short work of the last of four pirates with cannon fire.
Clearly I need to have all battery storage actually inside the turret ball. Storage in the turret base is useless, or so it would seem. What I need now is a video tutorial on how to use advanced build to replace all those capacitors with shield blocks with one click. And then to build a new ball.
I wanted to build a 'large' turret, meant to serve as a primary offensive weapon on a 50K-100K mass ship (two, maybe four depending). I decided to go for a ball turret with a ball 41 blocks in diameter figuring this would be enough space for at least it's base to approach the power bonus cap. The interior size of such a ball is also large enough to fit some serious weapons (in addition to it's own optimized power generation of course).
I started with the base, as the weapon systems in the ball would largely depend on how much power the base could provide. I created a sphere 41 blocks wide, cut out the middle 25 blocks, then extended the remaining sides down ~28 blocks. I rebuilt a circular base for it and made sure the rotating sphere above it would have adequate clearance (later tested for certainty). Then I built an optimized power system into it, filling the space between lines with shields and rechargers, then filled much of the remaining space with batteries. When I was done I had a system generating 974K power with 9M power storage, 100K shields, 10K regen. It also got just over 1400 mass enhancers.
That done I built the ball, starting with a sphere 41 blocks in diameter, cut off eight blocks from either side, placed the turret axis, glued it to the base and tested it's ability to turn unobstructed. Then I used what space it had, to give it it's optimum power generation (around a dozen overlapping but not touching XYZ lines). That gave the ball just over 500K power. I made sure it also had around 500K power storage (which may have in hindsight been my biggest error).
For weapons I wanted both a pair of cannon/cannon where each bullet (ten times a second) could break an advanced armor block even with full HP. That meant each shot needed to do at least 2000 damage. But I also wanted it to have a bit more punch, both to get a bit of system behind it and also in case of pierce hardened armor, to be able to break the block with two hits, which would require 5000 damage, so I did my calculations to get 2500 block damage. I upped that by 20% so as to give it a 20% ion boost above that to help the cannons crack shields. The final calculations came out to a double barrel system with each barrel having 5600 cannon blocks (2800 & 2800) and 560 ion blocks. I gave them each their own firing computer, as I originally wanted to make one of them full explosive but realized belatedly I did not have enough explosive effect modules.
The cannon systems would use 616K power per second, well within the over 1400K power the ball and base generate. The completed turret ball and base ultimately wound up with well over ten and a half million power storage, which even accounting for combat shield drain could easily be refilled with the remaining power. To use that power storage, I wanted the turret to be able to engage at maximum range, lest I find myself up against a sniper who maintains his range so as to snipe outside of my own weapon's range. I gave the turret 4000 blocks of missile/beam sniper missiles (with a healthy dose of ion thrown in).
My calculations indicated that the turret would need 9M power to fire off all the sniper missiles, well within the power storage. I set them up as 6 missiles, each with their own computer systems so there would be no additional energy costs for them. I also added 20 single block missile/beam missiles to a single computer so the turret would fire 20 'decoys' at the same time as the six actual heavy hitters.
With all that done, the systems complete and all weapons on the hot bar, The turret attached to a makeshift platform (which also had it's own power, shields and 2K mass enhancers) so it would behave like a turret, I turned on the bobby AI. I did not have long to wait as I build in a fairly active section of space (deliberately, as I don't like dead space). A handful of pirates showed up, despite me building right beside a trade shop. I gleefully anticipated watching my turret in action.
And then the crest fell. Sigh... Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with this turret. It swivels and points, sometimes. It doesn't exactly track. Mostly it just sits there, even when there is an enemy 500 meters away. It fires off missiles occasionally, usually just one at a time, though a few times it might fire a few one after another. The missiles never hit anything, they just fly around the targets, clearly missing them. I saw the cannons fire once or twice, but only single shots.
When I sit in the turret ball and fire manually, I am able to fire off the sniper missiles easily enough, but there is short lag between firings, as it appears as if the turret ball does not simply share the power storage of the system, rather it draws from it at what appears to be a relatively low rate. I can fire one about every half second. If I hold down the fire button on just one of the cannon (without firing any missiles) I will every few seconds get an out of power reading, despite no break in it's fire and the power draw of a single cannon being will within both the turret ball's internal generation and power storage.
When sitting inside the base while the turret ball is bobby controlled and engaged, I get a very important bit of clue as to what may be going wrong. Despite having nearly a million power generation and ten million power storage, the tank remains completely empty, despite the turret ball not actually firing! Even without firing, because it 'wants' to fire (or so I assume), it is drawing ALL the power from the base, even though it is not using it!
Does anyone have a clue as to what I did wrong? How can I configure this turret system to do what I want it to do? I want for it to fire off a salvo of all it's missiles at once, not piecemeal it. I want for it to engage with cannon fire continuously as long as there are targets in range, while the sniper missiles recycle.
The fact that the turret ball somehow wound up sitting upside down in it's base is almost a non issue given everything else. I'll obviously have to rebuild the ball from scratch at this point so I'll just fiddle with the empty ball till I know what it's resting orientation will be, before building barrels and such. (Good thing I didn't waste time trying to pretty this thing up.)
A bit of editing later, without having done any precise calculations or truly understanding what I actually need, I added 2000 power capacitors to the turret ball (externally to test it). When pirates showed up I was in build mode and had to hop out of the turret to turn the AI back on. By the time I could get out of the turret, things had happened too fast for me to even notice if it had fired missiles. It was making very short work of the last of four pirates with cannon fire.
Clearly I need to have all battery storage actually inside the turret ball. Storage in the turret base is useless, or so it would seem. What I need now is a video tutorial on how to use advanced build to replace all those capacitors with shield blocks with one click. And then to build a new ball.
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