Planned Turrets: Target Wireless

[Edymnion]

So, messing around more with drones (finally) and started wishing that I could power/shield them without having to take up so many blocks on the drone itself.

Then it hit me, we have power and shield supply beams, and we have turrets. AI isn't at a place yet where we could stick a Shield Supply beam on a turret and have it automatically search for friendly targets with low shields to pump them back up, but what about the wireless blocks?

Wireless block on the turret, linked wireless on a drone, give the AI a "Target: Wireless" option, and have it simply aim and fire at the linked wireless block on the drone whenever its within sight/range?

Could then build massive shield/power regen into the mother ship, and use turrets to transfer it to drones (or smaller piloted ships).

Create a bit of a more interesting gameplay dynamic, do you attack the drones with the unusually big guns that are tearing you apart but are shielded and powered remotely, or ignore the nuke launcher and go after the battery ship behind them and hope you live longer than it does with the ignored incoming fire?

 

[nightrune]

I totally agree with what you are trying to accomplish here. I don't really want it to be block based though. Since if that one block gets destroy the turret stops firing at it.

I kinda wish they'd give us an idea of what the later UI and control capabilities are gonna look like. I'd rather select the turret and tell it a group of fighters to help.

 

[Edymnion]

Yeah, I'm just trying to think along the lines of "What kind of implimentation would require the least amount of work to get up and running?"

Base idea of "Use turrets to automatically back up the shield and power of your fleet" is clearly the goal, just trying to find a way to accomplishing that which doesn't require a complete overhaul of the AI from the ground up.

Which we need, actually, but I don't see that as being a top priority until much later down the road.

 

[nightrune]

Yeah, I'm just trying to think along the lines of "What kind of implimentation would require the least amount of work to get up and running?"

Base idea of "Use turrets to automatically back up the shield and power of your fleet" is clearly the goal, just trying to find a way to accomplishing that which doesn't require a complete overhaul of the AI from the ground up.

Which we need, actually, but I don't see that as being a top priority until much later down the road.

I'm really really tired of "how quick can we add a feature." I want a feature to mean something. If that means UI overhaul first so be it. The concept is awesome though.

 

[Madman198237]

I agree with the OP. Also adds neat openings for, say, logic activation of a push or pull effect for a tractor beam setup.

 

[Gamel]

I like the UI controllable turret
But I NEED the block controllable turret.

Think about it, when chain fleet arrive,
we can't control the carries while we are in other ships
enjoying the fun of fighting in a Nimble ship

 

[Criss]

Well it's a good idea but I think we should just wait till the AI is improved. Having the AI utilize the support weapons and target friendly targets are not hard things. Combining them wouldn't be much effort. With the introduction of fleets this is more viable and I imagine we waited till now to implement this. Consider it confirmed for beta, but not in the way you suggested.