Allow stations to target specific units

posted on March 29th, 2011, 8:25 pm

Hey.... whenever I build a borg Dode turret... I found that it can't even kill a single unit because enemies will move their units away when their shield is low and when the turrent automatically selects a different unit to attack, the injured unit then comes back to finish the turret. Would it be possible for turrets and stations to manually target ships rather than automatically by computer in next patch? thanks.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 8:29 pm

I wouldn't mind manned stations being controllable manually, but the un-manned turrets should stay automatic since an AI is controlling them rather than a bridge crew.

Give the Dode a crew and I could support it.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 8:31 pm

Try doing the same thing with just about every other armed station.  For some stupid reason, (almost) none of the stations allow you to manually control their weapons.

PS:  Even unmanned stations should have some sort of remote control system.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 8:34 pm

The Dode Relay starts out with a crew, that's why I only mentioned that one.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 8:37 pm

Turrets don't let you target for them for balance reasons

posted on March 29th, 2011, 8:40 pm

Yup it's a balance thing.  Come up with all the logical "reasons" you want, it's not likely to change .

posted on March 29th, 2011, 8:50 pm

Balance, balance, balance.  Always balance.  I guess that's also the reason behind the Defiant having 2 pulse cannons instead of 4 and only firing 1 shot from each cannon instead of 5 or 6.  As well as a few other things like the intrepid not being able to fire a volley of photon torpedoes or fire from both phaser strips at once.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 8:52 pm

Those are more likely just visual things, not balance. Quantums fire in volleys and Intrepid hasn't got them, 4 pulses looked stupid when each is seperate.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 9:01 pm

firstly, this is fleet ops not turret ops, the fact that the enemy moves their ships out of range of your turrets reflects that. also it is actually realistic, starships are naturally mobile and space is big, and space battles shouldnt be trench warfare or turtling in nature. most turrets cant 1 shot ships, as they have the ability to take hits before being dead.

Balance, balance, balance.  Always balance. 

you may be saying this negatively, but its absolutely true, balance is hugely important. games that are unbalanced are no fun to play. so if u developed fleetops, im sure there would be 9000% more explosions and lazor spam and pew pew PEW and the feds would be as op as in the show, but the game would be unbalanced, and nobody would play it. people dont play fleetops only to look at visuals, they play it cos it gives them enjoyment, and if the game was unbalanced, they would enjoy it less.

sometimes the game engine limits as well.

also imagine every fed ship firing 6 torps (we saw an intrep spam that many easily) every battle would be so crazy you wouldnt be able to see your ships.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 9:15 pm

I don't see how manual targeting for all stations would affect balance. Turrets are expensive and I'm not a friend of building them since they are immobile. But when they really get the chance to defend something against ships that come into their range, they should be able to do so. Right now you can kill starbases with no losses due to the auto targeting. Taq'rojas base is "bugged", that's why it's the only useful one. The weapons upgrades are quite useless as well due to that.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 9:18 pm

Actually, I'd make it more realistic.  Which is partially the reason behind my rebalancing stock A2.  I'd make the vessels act more like they do in star trek, then balance them through other methods, such as build times, build costs, and techtree level.  In which case, that's why the HSA is so overpowered.  You have a ship that can one-shot an entire fleet every 60 seconds that only costs an average of 200 resources (300 dil, 100 tri).  That fleet-cap has a minimal effect.  Just fire, wait 60 seconds, and fire again.  And you're almost unstoppable.

All you have to do is micro your fleet a little in the turrets and a severely damaged ship can remain in battle without taking any more damage from turrets.  I've used that tactic before.  That's probably the primary reason the turrets are so underpowered and only make a good early-game defense that quickly becomes useless.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 9:21 pm

The turrets are not underpowered because the act like this, they are exactly how they should be; they only deter enemies, they aren't supposed a proper defense.

Good luck retreating damaged Klingon ships from multiple manual-fire Turrets.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 9:23 pm

Turrets are not supposed to be able to wipe the floor with raiding fleets.  They are deterrents to prevent attackers from killing miners with impunity.


If you want a turret that can actually destroy large groups of ships - make a Perimeter .


The turrets themselves are not a substitution for using your fleets effectively and efficiently.


  That's very unlikely to change.  However if you don't like that, TCR, you seem to have a very vivid imagination and I'm sure you can make your own mod however you please.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 9:29 pm

as has already been said, turrets arent supposed to kick much bottom, they are there to deter not destroy. a fleet is what you should make to kill the enemy, they have engines, turrets do not.

when you analyse the idea of a turret you realise that it makes sense. in fleetops turrets are built in vulnerable spots to protect them, the question you need to ask is "why do i build a turret" the answer isnt to kill the enemy ships, its to protect your miners, and to do that you dont need to destroy the enemy ships, you need to get them to run away, damaging them until they need to repair does just that. if you built turrets that could destroy enemy ships, then the enemy would use their engines to go somewhere else, and your turret was a waste of money.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 9:31 pm

Well, as soon as you have a ship with a decent defence you can easily tank all but the most expensive turrets(Fed torp, Kli, Perimetre) and take out everything it should defend(mostly miners). Whenever I see someone building turrets I think I have an advantage. It may be not always come true;), but turrets are rarely the problem.
But I must say for me it's more a problem with the Starbases. They should be massive fortresses in space, which represent the power of an empire in the respective sector. In the game they are your last line of defense. If the enemy tries to take down your sb, you're usually already dead. Nevertheless the SB should be able to give them a good fight and take out some of their ships(at least if you pay 1200dil for that task).

Edit: both posts that have been written while I wrote this mention that turrets would defend miners. I don't think they do, or at least they do only at the very beginning of the game, where ships with a defense of 20+ are rare.