Grav Turrets - opinions?

[Ozymandiaz]

In my recent game, I decided to give these a go, in combination with the new flak turrets. Seemd like a good idea against the AIs cutlasses.

And it was, really.

But I got schizo AI on, and a mad bomber, so I get huge mixed waves a lot. The flaks (nice addition btw!) deal with the melee ships that are slowed down, and the grav turrets generally help a bit with the rest of the wave as well. Well, the ones that ar not tractored at least, and very speedy units.

Since I would need far too many tractors for this AI, that was part o me going for the gravs.

When I had low AIP all was fine, but now I am progressing and I get bigger AIP (also more knowledge).

And I find myself contemplating if the cost of the higher tier gravs are woth it. I really want to try, but unlocking tractor Mk III and just more turrets/ships might actually be better. They got a very steep knowledge cost. (Its been a strange game, a 120 planet map, but I have not come across any adv research yet , but I got ~10 planets defended in a cluster with only 1 single system as entry point, so makes CPA defence a breeze for now, and I have been able to concentrate my defence a lot in one place, and building a black hole machine there as well for good measure . )



So, have any of you used them, and what do you think of them? I have never really needed them before this game (and they became more useful with the addition of flaks as well, imo)

The Mk IIIs 2 speed max is pretty nice, but is it worth the cost to you?

[Fleet]

The knowledge cost is too steep for me. If the knowledge (and ship cap, depending on what it is) was tweaked, might be an interesting alternative to the tractor turret (which for me, unless i'm defending against a lot of tractor-immune ships, wins hands down). Might be nice to have both turrets competing against eachother, instead of having a strong niche unit like the grav.

[rubikscube]

op when dealing with super fast ships (great for player but  ) my idea is reduce the speed BY an amount not TO an amount, so raptors may still travel at a speed of 15 or 24

[Buttons840]

op when dealing with super fast ships (great for player but  ) my idea is reduce the speed BY an amount not TO an amount, so raptors may still travel at a speed of 15 or 24

So nerf the rarely used unit?

[quickstix]

The idea of grav turrets is to slow down superfast ships that evade regular defenses. They're meant to be powerful and a direct counter, hence the largish knowledge cost. I don't know how I'd stop raid starships if I didn't use these in combo with emp mines.

They don't need a nerf, they're meant to be really effective against ships that evade tractors. Consider the fact that every time you spend knowledge on turrets, you have less knowledge to put towards fleet ships. The only time I'll ever unlock these is if I have a serious problem with ships immune to tractors. Otherwise I have better things to spend my knowledge on.

They're essentially one of those 'Specialty Techs' that you'll only unlock for a specific problem, but they're fairly powerful as well, leading to some interesting decisions. Personally, I'd get pretty bored if I was unlocking the same techs every game.

[rubikscube]

op when dealing with super fast ships (great for player but  ) my idea is reduce the speed BY an amount not TO an amount, so raptors may still travel at a speed of 15 or 24

So nerf the rarely used unit?

Actually, nerf the unit that is a must need. Stop whining if you don't use it

[RCIX]

That actually isn't a nerf: if you do that then you can dump all your grav turrets there and strand anything that enters the area...

[Buttons840]

I'm kind of lost after the last two posts?

Let me just be clear.  I don't like rubics idea that a fast ships like a raptor can still maintain most of it's speed in a gravity turret.  I think they gravity turrets are rarely use and such a nerf is thus unneeded.

[quickstix]

In that scenario if each turret reduces speed by a certain amount, you can put more than one there to stack the effect all the way to speed = 0. Say three turrets reduce by 10. You then put three together and get a net reduction of 30. This strands multiple units (like frigates) and makes the grav turret no different to an expensive tractor beam.

Grav turrets are fine. There is a reason for the high knowledge cost and low unit cap. They're an effective counter to units who bypass regular defenses. Saying grav turrets are overpowered to the units they counter is like saying rock is overpowered to scissors. If they were overpowered, there would be a lot more noise about them and everybody would be using them. As far as I can see, this isn't the case.

Ozymandiaz, the only time you'd unlock higher mark grav turrets over tractor beams is if you've got problems with high numbers of enemy units that bypass tractors coming in. Considering the high knowledge cost, only unlock the gravs if it's really worth it. If it looks like more ships or tractor beams will be more useful, chances are they will be. The only time I'd ever unlock more tiers of grav turrets is if I need more due to playing against an AI who constantly uses a lot of ships that bypass regular defenses. They're a very specialised tech you'll only unlock as you need, like Decloakers or Tachyon Beam Emitters.

[Ozymandiaz]

Indeed, they do counter the units I unlocked them for, and helps against AI melee ships (mixed waves have em all the time) and the current bomber starships that comes with the waves

Maybe I will see a need for the higher tier ones at some point, but even if the knowledge cost was lowerd, they would not be an auto get imo. Not saying it needs to be lowerd, but I think lowering it would not make them OP . Tractors is by far my most favorite defence structure, and will remain so still, but would be kinda nice to be able to make the choise of grav turrets in more situations then currently (they might be OP later when the micro expansion with the small fast neinzul ships comes along...?). This is the first game, ever, I have used grav turrets in

My main strategy in most games is to max my fleet, and let the leftover knowledge dribble down on my defences (except a few nice stuff like tractor Mk II, some basic Mk I turrets etc).

In the current game i got Mk III of all the base units, and even spire starships (used the starships to boost my fleet and add firepower since I did not have any ADR yet). So I am not going overboard with defence

Anyways nice to see som opinions on a unit I seldom use myself

[rubikscube]

what about a limit of 9 at least so assume a ship with 80 speed, you need 8 mk1 gravity that makes it drop down 10 each, but can't go under 9, mk 3 gravity can reduce it to like 5 . so great tactic against wormholes is mk3 for the lowest speed, and mk1s for reducing it

[rubikscube]

gravity turrets is a must have against any anti tractorbeam ships