Noob Turrets Question

[Xummun]

I just started AI War and I think I'm fundamentally misunderstanding a part of the game.

When I was playing the campaign tutorial, there would be constant unannounced mini-raids through wormholes, giving me a reason to use turrets.

But in the normal campaign, those mini-waves don't seem to happen at all.  All I have are the announced "200 bombers to .... in x minutes" waves. 

So I'm not sure why I'd even use turrets.  Surely it's just more efficient then to use ships to defend against waves?  The announced waves aren't frequent, and it seems far easier to repel them with ships as opposed to building turret defenses on every frontline planet.

[Dominus Arbitrationis]

When your fleet is purely defensive and you're on a low difficulty, sure a lot of turrets can be optional. But, when you send your fleet to attack an AI planet, who is defending your planet from a counter-attack or just a threat assault? Plus, turrets are, at least in my experience, way better than a fleet is for defense.

[Aklyon]

You can't have your ships everywhere at once! The regular waves are mostly there afaik, to keep pressure on you. If they exist at all.

But there is also threat & threatfleet who can and will showup if they think they can beat up your planet (turrets attack, thus turrets make you a tougher target for them), CPAs (which will sync with other nasties on higher difficulties to overwhelm your crap), and depending on minor factions and other options, exowaves (several kinds), extra attack spawns (vengeful AI for example), AI champion frigate waves (if you have champions on), random attacks (marauders, hybrids hives, unfriendly roaming enclaves, purple dyson gatlings, dark spire revengeances, astro trains, etc) and that with decent turret setup you don't need to divert from what your fleet is doing just to shoo the wave off your lawn if the turrets and forts can do it for you.

[Xummun]

Oh, ok, I get it now.  I guess my game still has a ways to go before it really heats up :0.

Thanks for the quick replys!

[sincrofashad]

Since this is another noob turret question, I thought I would ask it here, rather then make a new thread.

I understand that anything covered by a forcefield does less damage, but what I don't know is if turrets can shoot *through* a forcefield.  I ask because I normally have my command station as close to the edge of the system as possible, with my sniper and spider turrets forming a wing on either side, so they are not shooting through the command station's covering forcefield.  But, I have read that placing them like this can distract units from the main defense line.  Can I place my sniper/spider turrets behind (not inside) the command station forcefield and have them shoot through it, doing normal damage?  Or will they do reduced damage, or will they not be able to shoot through it at all?

I suppose I could place them directly in front of the command station's forcefield, if that is actually the most optimal place for them.

-Sinc

[Aklyon]

Not everything is reduced. Some turrets (lightning & flak, as mentioned in their tooltip) only do slightly less damage, and Military command stations do full damage since you generally cover them in FFs anyways. But everything can fire out of them, yes. If you're worried your snipers/spiders are going to distract things, then put them behind the line instead of fanning out from it.

Also, non-standard forcefields that aren't the Hardened line (AI ones, modular starship ones, Fallen Spire ones, champ ones, and so on) do not affect damage.

[sincrofashad]

I understand all that, but can sniper turrets and spider turrets fire *through* a forcefield if neither the target nor the turret is within a force field, but the force field is between them and the target?

-Sinc

[Aklyon]

All friendly forcefields are not barriers, except for AI ships which will headbutt them to try to reach things sometimes while shooting.

[Bognor]

You can always shoot over the top of a forcefield.  I don't think the game ever cares about the region a projectile traverses - only whether the target itself is covered by a forcefield or anti-sniper coverage or some other protection.