So, about 'dem turrets

[TechSY730]

I actually posted a mantis about how it seems strange that the Zentih, Spire, and human fleet starships all get radar dampening. Yea, it made sense when they are all one ship line, but now they are not. In particular, it doesn't seem right with the Spire starship, given that it is supposed to be "squishy" capwise by starship standards.
9052: Radar dampening on the new Zenith and Spire Starship lines

[chemical_art]

I wouldn't mind the spire losing radar dampening.

I can understand the zenith one having it, for if it is meant to be a brawler it wants to keep engagement areas small, and the human one is done because its aim is support so survival is key, but for the spire I can't see any reason why they should.

[Diazo]

Well, I'd be okay with the Spire keeping radar dampening, but maybe triple it's radius?

It is a ship cap of 1 after all, it does not feel right having stuff on the other side of the system pounding it into scrap.

Maybe boost the Zenith's dampening range by 50%? It is a brawler and so warrants the smaller dampening radius.

D.

edit: I suppose the Flagship has dampening also, make it match the Spire's dampening radius I guess?

[KDR_11k]

Radar dampening has definitely become too common, it was supposed to be the rare gimmick of the SSB, now it's everywhere and the snipers that it was originally supposed to stop now have immunity against it.

Turrets got a 3-to-1 compression some time ago in order to fix the problem that you always need to place them in fives to get anything done but at the same time AI waves got so much bigger that you still needed dozens of the new turrets to do anything.

It's nice that they're better than fleet ships but the lack of mobility means that a fleetship gets to use way more of its cap DPS in an engagement while most of the turret's cap is on another planet.

I do recognize that buffing turrets for sparse setups makes them overpowered in concentrated (e.g. single choke point) setups but since I usually go sparse I'd of course like to see a buff anyway.

Lightning turrets were way more dangerous in the hands of the AI because your fleetball had to survive many more engagements than an AI wave so even the fairly low damage did add up. For humans they aren't very good deals, their high DPS on paper does not translate to anything useful because the damage to each individual target is significantly less than one shot from a regular attack so the TTK is not altered. The three fighters before every wave are specifically intended to trigger lightnings AFAIK.

[Chthon]

Flak turrets feel like utter crap even against their bonuses =/ Which is too bad, because they have some valuable bonuses (mainly close combat). Who even uses the 75% instead of 25% under forcefields bonus? Lightning turrets are great in theory but in practice you only want them around wormholes but they go off too easily. Basic turrets have always been unimpressive to me. Not sure why.

I just noticed all turrets reload speeds save laser are really high. I'd like to see this change on a few at least in a non-DPS affecting way (Basic and Flak, perhaps?)

Sniper turrets feel okay but almost like the arachnid functions should be rolled into the base and its cap doubled.

I for one do use them for the 75% under shield bonus.  However only in specific instances.  For example I usually pair turret balls with Mk3 battle command stations and fortresses, but sometimes a wormhole is too far for them to reach it.  This becomes a weak point in my defense, so I place a shielded set of tractors over that wormhole and a number of flak and lightning turrets.  This helps delay attacks long enough for the cavalry to arrive, with the added benefit of softening them up a bit.

However, they are quite weak.  Softening them up is about all I can expect really.  No matter how many I put there they will never handle even a few ships well.  Or at least that's how I feel.

[Fluffiest]

Turrets got a 3-to-1 compression some time ago in order to fix the problem that you always need to place them in fives to get anything done but at the same time AI waves got so much bigger that you still needed dozens of the new turrets to do anything.

It's nice that they're better than fleet ships but the lack of mobility means that a fleetship gets to use way more of its cap DPS in an engagement while most of the turret's cap is on another planet.

I do recognize that buffing turrets for sparse setups makes them overpowered in concentrated (e.g. single choke point) setups but since I usually go sparse I'd of course like to see a buff anyway.

I get the impression turrets are kind of meant to suck for multiple chokepoints. If you have a dispersed defence, you should be defending primarily with your mobile fleet, military command stations, and mini-forts.

I can only think of one way to make turrets better for multi-choke without making them overpowered for single-choke, and that's to give mini-forts a potent attack boosting power that affects a fairly large but limited number of turrets. Since you can only have two mini-forts per planet, if you only have one choke, you'll be able to boost half as many turrets as you would if you had two chokepoints (and hence four mini-forts supporting turret farms).

The problem with that plan is that turrets are limited to +100% attack boosting and military command stations already give turrets a substantial attack boost.

[Hearteater]

There was a similar proposal last time we talked about that topic, calling the buffing unit Fire Control I believe.