Question about Remote Turrets

TungstenWall said:

I working on a new turret design, one that I intended to use as my ships primary weapon, and control remotely.
However, I have run into several issues while trying to figure it all out, and I am worried that that will have been a waste of time in the end.

The reason I want remote turrets (opposed to spine/hull weapons) is so that I can keep my armor tank angled to a target, while engaging with my primary weapons. This would require that I would be able to aim my the weapons separately of my heading. As far as I can tell, there does not exists any way to practically do this.

I gave R [Shift] some attempts, but it inverted my controls, and made piloting near impossible. Is there any sort of gimbal-like mode, or ability to use a stick to control my guns?

Thanks

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Setting a remote turret that attacks your current target is a key part of the config for the Bobby AI module. It's also a common PVP technique.

To create a basic remote operated weapon, try the following steps.

1) Place an Inner-Ship Remote and a Wireless Logic block on your ship.

2) Slave the Wireless to the Remote by selecting the Remote with the "C" key and pressing the "V" key on your Wireless. Your remote will now activate your wireless when you turn it on.

3) Build your turret and place a Bobby AI and wireless on the "barrel" (weapon) component of the turret.

4) Activate your Bobby AI configuration with the "R" key set the Type to "Turret". Make sure the Remote Control box is checked and set "Aim at" to "Selected Target". Your turret will now allow remote control and fire at your selected target.

5) Slave the Bobby AI to the Wireless by selecting the Wireless with the "C" key and pressing the "V" key on your Bobby AI. This will allow your wireless (and soon to be your Inner Ship Remote) to activate the Bobby AI and arm the turret.

6) While in astronaut mode, go to the Wireless on your main ship and select it by pressing the "C" key. Then go back to your turret's Wireless and press the "V" key. A message will briefly appear in the upper right corner Saying "wireless blocks are connected".

7) Get in your main ship and go to your weapons menu. Put the Inner Ship Remote in your hotbar; it will now be usable like a regular weapon or support tool. It is wise to name your Remote in case you have multiple remote weapons/tools. You can do this by pressing the "R" key while looking at the remote in build mode.

Now, when you activate the Remote, your turret will attack your selected target.


Be careful; as these do not discriminate between friend, foe or neutral. Many an accidental war declaration has been made when a player forgets to turn off his/her turrets.

Other things to consider;
- Some turrets will inexplicably stop firing and you may not be able to resume your attack. This affected my main forward facing cannon but not the beam units. This is probably a bug.
- You can no longer build a "safety" mechanism (Doors, force fields, etc.) to block your turrets' weapon outputs. The weapons pass right through.
- Turret weapons now seem to pass right through your own ship. This may also be a bug.

I hope this helps you.

(Edit) Also, AI turrets are kinda dumb. They will not actively target the enemy's reactor but instead shoot at random parts of the ship. They can sometimes become fixated on an irrelevant part of the ship; wasting time and energy, while giving your opponent a better chance to counter-attack. I have not tested a recon-chamber-equipped turret... That's an experiment for another day.

(Edit 2) That's a negative on the recon chamber equipped turrets. All reactor related systems on docked entities shut down while docked.

Dr. Whammy said:

So I did some digging and found an error on my part...

You must have "remote control" turned off in order to use wireless activated turrets. I guess the "remote control" option is another method of activating turrets directly via their docking axis. That method didn't work for me but I could be doing something wrong.

The funny thing is, having remote control on worked for me up until this last update. Weird...

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Gasboy said:

Yeah, I have always had issues with remotes and wireless modules. Sometimes, it works as expected. Other times, you have to turn one of them off, counter-intuitively. Very weird. But hey, it wouldn't be Starmade without it. xD

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Dr. Whammy said:

Yeah, they really ought to provide some kind of instructions.

BTW, I found out how the remote control works. In your weapons menu, (provided you have turrets docked) you will see a rail turret axis. If you put that in your hot bar, and click on it, your turrets will fire where you aim. It's an interesting setup but seems somewhat limited, in that you still have to be facing the target. The wireless method allows you to take advantage of your turrets rotation so you can fire at targets in any direction.

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