Turret Behavior: Damage Pulse

[wizardoftrash]

If I created a damage pulse turret, would it only fire when an enemy target is within range? or would it be trying to spam the damage pulse in the direction of any valid enemy?

I'm asking this because I've got a concept for a long turret with a stop beam and a Damage Pulse with the output at the tip (an explosive lance basically). It would be entirely ineffective if it were firing constantly (as when you pass close to their ship, it might be in the middle of its cooldown still) but it might be worth experimenting with if we knew for sure that it wouldn't fire until it was within range.

 

[jorgekorke]

If your turret is set to "Any", then yeah, it will aim any enemy in sight. You can use "Selected" so it will aim the entity you are selecting with F. Just remember that it will shoot friendlies selected, too.

I don't remember if it keeps trying to shoot or only shoot when in range, because I mostly use beam passives, which are long range anyway.

 

[Brokengauge]

If the Bobby acts the same when set to "turret" as it does when set to "ship" then it will fire each weapon as It's target comes into range. Are you planning on a simple proof of concept first?

 

[wizardoftrash]

I do plan to test this on my creative single player world!

 

[Star-Boy]

Have the AI fire a stop or pull beam and have the pulse triggered by logic. Make a sphere of area triggers in the same spot that the pulse explosion goes off in and have them trigger the pulse. This way the pulse only goes off once you've caught an enemy. If you put the triggers a little closer to the tip of the turret you can ensure the pulse will go off nice and deep into the enemy instead of a more glancing blow.

 

[Scypio]

Bobby is wonky. But hey ! Knowing that you can work with it.

First, the way you describe your weapon, you should probably look at something that is logic manned. If you really want to movible part you talk about you can use a turret with a small weapon output and dock this logic activated weapon to it. You can also activate/desactivate the AI with logic signals.
Second, pulses weapons are useless but not because of their short range. The pulse explosion doesn't move with you, so for example if you shoot a pulse weapon and move at max server speed you'll see the explosion growing behind you as you continue to fly. Same happen with the opponent so in fact you'll have so little damages dealt by the weapon, the original impact that you'll do at the tip of the weapon.... And then you'll start to lag because you need to litterally bump anyone with your weapon to actually deal damages.
Third, bobby... Sigh... I mean, the AI is really really really really really derpy. The AI will aim at anything from the center of mass of your ship (aka barrel), so forget about any stick weapons used by the AI. It's fun and depressing to watch a AI controlled ship turn around his target trying to come in range but cannot because a stick of something is keeping it to come closer or trying to shoot at something with it's output too far from it. So keep that in mind, especially with a weapon with a so small range like pulse.
Fourth, bobby is still derpy. When a target will come in it's range (see point above) it'll aim at it until it is destroyed. Even if you're out of range and a target come in it's range it will never shoot at it. You can use logic to reset AI now or simply do it from the structure menu.