Developer Thread: Auto-Turrets

I haven't been on PTS to check these, so let's start from the top.

1. Is there a dev 'vision' of what these are supposed to do/be used for?
2. Are you willing to tell us what that is, or are we going to have to discover the 'meta' behind them?
3. Other than HA/Deci, should infantry expect to be able to 1v1 these?
4. Are there plans for alternate damage types, similar to the infantry & vehicle MANA types (i.e. Anti-MAX specialized)?

For anybody who knows:

• Are these "hitscan" or can you out-strafe the turret rotation at certain ranges?
• Will the turret despawn if you get too far away from it?
• Do you have any notification of its HP status, as with vehicles?

For 3, any infantryman with half a brain can solo them, they turn slowly and only have 2000hp (a fifth of a MAX's hp and twice the infantry HP bar). You can knife them to death in most instances.

For the second option, I believe the projectiles are hitscan but have a COF. I have not checked despawning, but it seems to follow the same despawning rules as mines. There is an HP bar and it does smoke/burn when damaged.

I'm curious, what was the reasoning behind deciding the turrets should be moderate damage and burst fire rather than low damage and automatic?

Burst fire will have more volatility in TTK as it will spike damage, possibly killing, and then pause firing so DPS drops. Was this intended to make it more powerful at ambushing?

Automatic fire would make the initial salvo less powerful and leave players with more time to react. Plus, I would think the extra bullets would make it even more obvious where a turret is (more tracers and sounds).

Both can probably be balanced, I just picture turrets as automatic (it would still pause eventually).

I'm also worried about that. Given previous experience SOE could improve on this.

I get wanting to test no exclusion zones just to make certain but if testing is done with a high expectation on the result needing a change can we make sure there is a planned hot fix first? Else, go with the safe option and test later.

questions from reddit:

What is the reaction time and approximate TTK/damage of the turret?

(my answer, but you may want to add some details):
from PTS testing: 100dmg per bullet (resist type 2), 4 bullets over 2 seconds per burst, about 0.5-1s between bursts - so about 7 seconds TTK. if standing still, close to it
reaction time: about 1s to the acquired sound, then it has to turn towards you, which takes 0-2s, depending on where it was facing at the time (it keeps rotating about 180 degrees when idle)

Can we expect any other engineer deployables such as walls/shields/tanktraps?

most of that work is already done, see details, IDs and stuff at http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/...turret_being_used_as_deployable_cover/cmca3ko

In other words they will be especially effective against light assaults discharging their function. The primary ability of light assaults is mobility, if you slow them down you might as well use a heavy assault. Jetpacking LAs should be exempt from being tracked.

Given the fact that every other element of the game is player driven, what was the thought process behind a neeed to add ai auto turrets? What game element was percieved as missing/lacking that required these? Shouldnt further work be done to encourage players to cover areas themselves rather than relying on AI turrets?

3000+ hours of playtime wasted, thanks Higby! How do I uninstall?

Zero. You just have to deploy an unlimited amount of them.

Just for the record, I think this is a terrible idea. They were a bad idea in Planetside 1 also. If these are going to be active, at least have them only deployable outdoors and have the same no deploy zone as sunderers if not bigger.

Mines are no more player driven than placing them once. Shield regens and motion detectors are also place and forget.

Hard to do. PS2 doesn't have the same kind of specific interior and exterior regions as PS1. There was special zoning code that not only controlled interior and exterior transitions but also allowed for multiple levels of interior (that's how the map updated to show your current base interior level properly).
While it's your opinion that "they were a bad idea in Planetside 1 also," if you desire to make it anything more significant then you'll need to provide additional details. Moreover, the number of turrets you can place are very limited right now and, based on how other deployables have panned-out, it doesn't seem like we'll ever place more than a few.

Is the current model these turrets have on PTS final?

I am asking because a). seeing what looks like a burster used an anti-infantry weapon is a bit weird and b). AV MANA (and, arguably, AI MANA too) still looks like a slapdashed temporary model with no word on an update - so chances are the Spitfires are gonna retain the look they get on the day they get to live until the end of days.

1) Can the turrets see through smoke? Do they appear through smoke?
2) Do the turrets need to reload? If so, how large is their magazine? How many rounds do they have in reserve?
2a) Do the turrets work on an overheating system? If so, how will the reduce turret heat AMP station bonus affect them?
3) Would you consider an auto-camera that sticks to things and auto spots a certain number of enemies in its sights? (Infiltrator tool?)
4) Would you consider a deployable repair station that repairs one friendly MAX/vehicle in its reach at a time?
5) Would you consider a branching tech tree for the auto turret? Ex: You can choose +15% more health, +20% fire rate, etc.

A lot of the questions I'm seeing here are covered in excellent detail in LCTR gaming's video here:

Is it possible for an infil using a decoy nade to redirect the turret to get an assist if it TKs someone, or does the code not support that? Also, will decoy nades cause grief points for the turret owner if it TKs on live?

Am I the only one who doesn't get why AI turrets are being added?

I hope launcher kills count AI turret kills. That's gonna be a great help for the heavy directive.

Im looking forward to this, sounds cool for us infantry-type engineers

Actually I want to know how available it is?
Is it auto-granted by default? Do I have to unlock it first with certs or maybe SC?
If so, will it also be available for my other NC alt? Just wonder about this kind of stuff..

Thanks

I would like to ask please,

1) Do the turrets need to reload / ammo or heat mechanism?
2) Will auto Turrets Shoot Auto Turrets? - {Can we place bets on which will win? ;-)}
3) Sorry if this has been asked, how far is the proximity to place one from another players, inc enemies?
4) If there is a proximity, is it 3 dimensional they can be to close even if higher up, or just on flat ground?

Thank you.

How are the turrets handled? Clientside or serverside? Because both can result in great problems.
I remember the reason doors weren't added. It was said that it was an extra actor, that the server had to check every tick to check it's status. This would be troublesome in large fights. Im guessing mines and such are serverside. A small actor that can determine if someone is in close proximity to detonate, and the resulting hit detection is based from the client that is hit.
So now we don't have a mine or a door, we have an actor that has to register 50m to every side, including a lot up and some down, decide on a target, aim, fire, bullets flying and then hit detection. It can be that some are processed on the server and some on the client, but it still makes a complicated actor compared to doors or mines. If a team dropped in and put down 20 of them, you suddenly have 20 extra actors that are complicated, possibly resulting in hitching.
clientside you have problems with rendering distance and such, if you move away from your turret.

Even besides the fact that everything up to now was for the most part player driven, how do you explain this fully automated turret? Won't it be a bit too much during defence, as you can increase the flanking abilities of a small group with every turret? I mean will the attackers go for the infantry or for some flimsy turrets that can be replaced. They do significant damage if coupled with an engi. The whole idea seems crazy to me. I'm guessing it will be toned down or removed after a few months, but time will tell.