Thoughts on partially self powering turrets

[AtraUnam]

As many of us are aware there is presently a dilema with turrets, they can either be wholly self powering or rely wholly on the main ship for power. Any attempts to make a partially self powering turret result in the turret locking itself into power outage and drawing entierly from the main ship anyway.

What occured to me is that a tiny docked reactor on the turret could solve this problem by keeping it topped up just enough to avoid the power outage penalty, thoughts?

 

[Edymnion]

Sounds like a lag nightmare with two axis spinning a third docked entity around all inside the bounding box of a fourth entity.

 

[Keptick]

As many of us are aware there is presently a dilema with turrets, they can either be wholly self powering or rely wholly on the main ship for power. Any attempts to make a partially self powering turret result in the turret locking itself into power outage and drawing entierly from the main ship anyway.

What occured to me is that a tiny docked reactor on the turret could solve this problem by keeping it topped up just enough to avoid the power outage penalty, thoughts?

Idk if that'd work, afaik power outage time is static even if power is injected into the entity, so the turret would still run itself dry (needs testing).

Tbh, I just wish that the damn bugs causing the issue would be fixed -_-. Making docked entities draw power when they reach 1 power instead of 0 would fix the issue, and my guess is that it'd take 5 minutes or less to code.

 

[Megacrafter127]

Idk if that'd work, afaik power outage time is static even if power is injected into the entity, so the turret would still run itself dry (needs testing).

Tbh, I just wish that the damn bugs causing the issue would be fixed -_-. Making docked entities draw power when they reach 1 power instead of 0 would fix the issue, and my guess is that it'd take 5 minutes or less to code.

Or only allow the poweroutage modifier on docked entities if the parent-entity has it too.

 

[Keptick]

Or only allow the poweroutage modifier on docked entities if the parent-entity has it too.

Good point! Either way, it probably wouldn't take much time to do. It's just one of those quick fixes that schema procrastinates on, lol.

 

[Shaker]

If you cant fit all its required power then you may aswell save on room by not having reactor blocks and also save on mass. Another bonus is a smaller turret profile if no support systems.

As edymnion said, the poor turret/s would be crazy lag monsters and those players who jump in to attack you will be fighting a half loaded lag beast that fires free energy all over the place because your turrets didnt load in properly!

 

[Edymnion]

As edymnion said, the poor turret/s would be crazy lag monsters and those players who jump in to attack you will be fighting a half loaded lag beast that fires free energy all over the place because your turrets didnt load in properly!

 

[Master_Artificer]

Dock them to a battery that makes 2 mill E/s, and isnt an actual reactor (because it doesn't use beams, all 100% of its power is drawn upon by turrets).

It would be interesting to see if turrets stop drawing from an entity when said entitys power goes below, I dunno, 30%, across the entire entity chain down to the base ship.
So the barrel would have a bit of power regen, the turret base would have a lot more, and any extra needed would be skimmed from the host ship itself.
Aka modify the 30% rule from not just the main ship but to all docked entity. An entity will not give power if asked by an AI system if power has dropped below 30% for that entity, and the AI requesting the power will check one further down the chain, until it reaches the host ship.
Actually I like the sound of this, dunno how easy it would be to add though... :/

 

[Drakkart]

Stuff like this makes me hate on schine every time they screw something up which already worked...

 

[faiyde]

Dock them to a battery that makes 2 mill E/s, and isnt an actual reactor (because it doesn't use beams, all 100% of its power is drawn upon by turrets).:/

Like this?

It works nicely.

 

[Malacodor]

Good point! Either way, it probably wouldn't take much time to do. It's just one of those quick fixes that schema procrastinates on, lol.

That bug even had "trivial" priority in the first place, I'm glad Lancake increased it to "normal".

I wonder where the "don't complain about bugs, it's alpha" people are.

 

[Lecic]

I don't understand why you would want to overcomplicate things like that.

All my turrets are self-powered.

 

[Keptick]

I don't understand why you would want to overcomplicate things like that.

All my turrets are self-powered.

Since often the turret design means that it's not large enoug to house the totality of the power systems. However, usually there's still enough place for some power system in turrets, even if you don't want to make it completely self-powered.

For example, let's say that you have a hybrid turret with cannons and lock-on missiles. The lock-ons take a lot of power storage blocks in order to have the capacity to fire, and there might not be enough space inside the turrets for the power caps. However, there's enough space for power to sustain the cannons. You'd want the main ship's capacity to fire the missiles, right? Well you can't, because the turret will enter in a power-depleted loop as soon as the missiles fire, even if it has enough power to sustain the cannons.

 

[Lecic]

Since often the turret design means that it's not large enoug to house the totality of the power systems. However, usually there's still enough place for some power system in turrets, even if you don't want to make it completely self-powered.

For example, let's say that you have a hybrid turret with cannons and lock-on missiles. The lock-ons take a lot of power storage blocks in order to have the capacity to fire, and there might not be enough space inside the turrets for the power caps. However, there's enough space for power to sustain the cannons. You'd want the main ship's capacity to fire the missiles, right? Well you can't, because the turret will enter in a power-depleted loop as soon as the missiles fire, even if it has enough power to sustain the cannons.

That sounds like a problem with your turret designs. You do realize that a turret needs enough power capacity to fire its weapons, right?

 

[Master_Artificer]

That sounds like a problem with your turret designs. You do realize that a turret needs enough power capacity to fire its weapons, right?

Actually no it doesn't

All my turret barrels have 50,000 power capacity and usually crap regen because I squeeze every little last weapon module in it.

I know for a fact that the Tribarreled turret has enough power in the base to supply both sections with energy for shield regen (more important than capacity on turrets) and defensive effects, and those are not disabled or go down when the turret is firing. (I think both sections lack the power to supply just one cannon+beam shot, and it fires 3 at a time.)

 

[Lecic]

Actually no it doesn't

Correction- it needs enough power capacity to fire and not get locked into a no power state.

 

[Keptick]

That sounds like a problem with your turret designs. You do realize that a turret needs enough power capacity to fire its weapons, right?

It has enough capacity for the cannons but not for the missiles, which is fine since the ship can provide the power for the missiles. But right now because of [insert cursing] bugs the turret goes into a depleted loop after the missiles are fired, even though the power should go back up since the turret has more than enough regen AND capacity for the cannons. The power should go back up while the missiles reload, but it doesn't.

 

[Lecic]

It has enough capacity for the cannons but not for the missiles, which is fine since the ships can provide the power for the missiles. But right now because of the @*&#($?@#($? bugs the turret goes into a depleted loop after the missiles are fired, even though the power should go back up since the turret has more than enough regen AND capacity for the cannons. (so the power should go back up while the missiles reload, but it doesn't).

I mean, the solution to this problem is pretty easy- just put enough capacity on the turret so that it can fire the missile properly.
(also, putting two weapon types on one turret is a bad idea, since turrets are very bad at leading targets with multiple weapon types with various velocities, ranges, etc)

 

[Crashmaster]

I would prefer the power outage condition and associated recharge initialization delay to remain for now at least (AI could learn to back off them hammers when there's no power left I guess). Without this restriction it's too simple to chain-dock a machine-gun waffle turret of limitless size on a stack of reactors.

 

[Keptick]

I mean, the solution to this problem is pretty easy- just put enough capacity on the turret so that it can fire the missile properly.
(also, putting two weapon types on one turret is a bad idea, since turrets are very bad at leading targets with multiple weapon types with various velocities, ranges, etc)

The lock-ons take a lot of power storage blocks in order to have the capacity to fire, and there might not be enough space inside the turrets for the power caps.

Before you say "just reduce the weapon count". Why would I reduce the weapon count when my ship is perfectly capable of feeding the power for the missiles? It's a lot more advantageous to have part of the weapons powered by the ship in this case, since that means that the turrets can be smaller and still pack as much punch. Also, turrets with cannons + lock-on missiles (missile/beam) can aim both weapons perfectly fine. I don't know about other weapon combinations but that's not the point here.

I really don't get why you're arguing over this... The problem with hybrid turrets not working is caused by bugs, it would work FINE if it weren't for stupid BUGS. There are situations where hybrid turrets fit the design of a ship better (also reduces the amount of entities on a ship since you have a single turret do the job of two). For example, Charon's medium turrets are hybrid cannons + lock-ons, and I could make the missiles a hell of a lot more powerful if they could just use the ship's power.