Base Turrets - A useless defense.

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by SgtSnug, Jan 26, 2013.

  1. axiom537

    I have been suggesting a serious improvement to base turrets for months now. They are fixed positions, which are very easy to target for destruction or avoid entirely and as such they should dish out a serious amount of fire power and be vital asset for the defenders in the defense of a base.
  2. Draxo

    Turrets need a small wall around them to make them less large targets. They could also use this wall to extend a bit behidn the turret so repairing one while defending a base isn't a death sentence by sniper. These are supposed to be military installations, there is no excuse for everything to be so open for attackers.
  3. Rozonus

    I want the turrets to fire Chuck Norris clones doing constant roundhouse kicks!
    • Up x 1
  4. dumbo

    I think the problem is actually that destroyed turrets do not always render. So you can crouch behind the turret to repair it, and a sniper may just shoot you - as they can't see the turret you are crouching behind? I could be wrong, but that's what seems to happen.

    In terms of the turrets themselves:
    - there are far too many turrets at amp-stations.
    - walls get bypassed, making the turrets pointless.
    - 'deploy' lets you drop onto the wall behind the turret and kill it with impunity.
    - there's great xp for blowing them up, so everyone does it whilst waiting for a cap.
    - there's good xp for repairing, but players eventually get bored.
    - turrets are rarely used by defenders, but more commonly hacked and used against the defenders, making it unclear why you bothered repairing it in the first place :(.
    [it's like the 'force-fields' which protect your techplant from your own troops - why would you repair that force-field generator for any reason other than xp farming?]

    I'd suggest:
    - fewer, more powerful turrets, especially at amp stations.
    - slow/medium auto-repair.
    - auto-unhack after not being used for 30 seconds or whatever.
  5. MrDroneSlayer

    Ive actually also racked up a bunch of kills. But now , as you said , flyboys just jump out so I get only assists.
    Now IMHO :

    A quick fix , which wont help the problem entirely , would to swap the places where the aa turrets are on the towers , around a plant or station. (those AA on top not the other 2) so they are "inside" of the walls and not on the outside.
    On singel towers why not put the AA turret above a landing pad making it harder to kill with tanks.(rotate the pads)

    Secondly why not make the the AT and AI turrets merge , like have the AT canon on the left and AI gun on the right , although this will make you lose your zoom ability. Unless like infantry you swap between what you want to fire and still have zoom. This however only fix those "wrongly placed" turrets where you needed the other one.

    Dont know how much work that would require , but I see it as doable and quickly , and not make them overpowered.
    Might want to put up more though , some towers have only 1 turret , when there was room for 6 on each floor.


    If someone sees a obvious flaw with my design please let me know in a civilised fashion ;)
  6. UnknownSolder

    I have had no problem owning planes, tanks, sundys, atvs, and infantry with base turrets. You just have to have you know the skill of a rock to aim with them right.
  7. Nyldar

    In PS1 there were engineering certs for upgrading turrets.
    Along with other things people keep asking for better ways of setting up defenses just as they were able to do in the predecessor.

    Give those to the engineer. Let them spend some resources for tools that improve turrets. They would get xp for upgraded turrets when other people or they gain xp using the turret.
    Obviously there would have to be a limit as to how many upgraded turrets per engineer can exist at the same time.

    Unfortunately those turrets are pretty big and stationary so simple upgrades can only improve the turret situation so far. It would be nice if more fighting happend outside the bases and on the walls. In PS1 it often took a while until the attackers managed to make it past the walls. Turrets were only a small part of the defense and got lots of assistance and repairs during the fights.
  8. Slifar

    The Grenade Turrets make for WONDERFUL anti infantry defenses, and do decent damage to ground vehicles.

    Unfortunately said ground vehicles generally chew through them as if they were made of wet paper.

    Anti-Air turrets are a joke. Their flak rounds are far more finicky than a MAX burster (And therefor are harder to hit with) and even when they DO hit they do laughable damage compared to everything else. In fact, their damage is so low that a Liberator can literally hover above them while being shot, fire at them while still being shot, blow them up, and fly away with over half of its health.

    Nade turrets need more health. AA turrets need to be more relevant overall, even if this makes it more difficult for the much squishier ESF's to operate in the airspace. After all, you're supposed to have to take out the AA before the air units can move in, particularly given how stupidly effective they are (literally winning or losing fights based on which empire has the superior air presence many times)
  9. GImofoJoe

    Shotgun AI turret instant gib....Mana turret should get this too.
  10. Eleo

    I suggest you read the thread once again cause you missed the entire point.
  11. UnknownSolder


    Nope don't think I did. There is nothing wrong with them. I do just fine with them as they are. No need to make them OP with a buff.
  12. xxJackallxx

    Sad thing is WW2 technology it seems was far more superior both in anti-ground and anti-air to what we have in a game taking place in the future,

    Just look at the fear the German 88mm caused to allied soldiers and tankers in WW2...that thing was deadly.

    These turrets in game only put fear into the person who has to actually get in and use it worrying as to how long will I get to live before being blown to bits in it.
  13. Cpu46

    The only problem with turrets is that nobody uses them. I hopped into a AV turret when the tower outpost I was in was being assaulted and took out at least 15 infantry units and 3 magriders within 5 minutes. The only reason I didn't take out more was because the assault started avoiding my cone of fire.
  14. Maulkin

    I am seeing alot of great suggestions in this thread!

    I think the tricky part about turrets is, how can you make them useful without making a base impossible to attack. I think the biggest and possibly the most annoying thing about turrets is that they can be back-hacked (an infiltrator can go far behind enemy lines and hack every turret rendering them useless when the defending faction is pushed back to that point) or a Liberator team can go around and blow up all the turrets also rendering them useless when the defending faction is pushed back to that point. In my mind this is not very good gameplay, even though it is a really great strategy from the attackers perspective (and I will admit to doing both myself).

    I think what is important is that the turrets, as a resource, are available when you need them, and are made tactically important to the attacking team when the base is being defended, and not before. I have two suggestions that might solve this:

    1) A turret can only be hacked by a faction if that region touches on at least one or more regions owned by your faction. This makes sense from the 'storyline' sense in that the wireless technology that is required to hack a turret is not in range until you have a region nearby (ok, ok suspension of disbelief please), and also makes sense from a gameplay sense in that a region that is touching an enemy region is very likely the front line of defense and will have defenders actively using turrets.

    2) Stationary turrets are shielded when passive and are either invulnerable or have high resists when the turret is not active. This would have been visually better if the turret actually emerged from some kind of hole in the floor or wall, or even some kind of shell recedes from around it, rather than just rising up a bit, but you get the idea. This means that the turret is most likely available to be used by the defender when they need to use it rather than have a few tanks do a circuit around the base destroying all of the turrets, manned or otherwise.
  15. Buntfunk

    I'd be most interested in seeing a breakdown. Kills made by hacked turrets vs kills made by unhacked turrets. Like you I expect the number of kills for hacked turrets to be quite high.
  16. Eleo

    And thats why you miss the point! Its not about fire power, its about effectiveness!! A turret that is taken down even before someone can jump in it is as good as a toy. And the fact that they are generaly poorly layed out make it peanuts to take them down while remaining safe.

    Turrets doesnt lack fire power, they're just completly uneffective!!
    • Up x 2
  17. VSMars

    I don't think people trying to do that is a problem at all. If your faction is employing a proper defence-in-depth strategy, you'll have people on guard in those facilities long before the front lines arrive at them anyway. They can kill all those "annoying" infiltrators and Libs and repair/rehack whatever got broken in time for when the base needs a proper defence.
    • Up x 1
  18. vilehydra

    The problem is, no ones going to do that. There is no benefit to defense in this game, especially when its behind friendly lines

    Also the AT turrets are arguably the best anti-sunderer weapons (barring mines and c4) when used solo.
    • Up x 3
  19. UnknownSolder

    The problem isn't the turret. They are laid out to defend entryways into a base. Amp stations put them at the gates and sometimes on the walls. Tech plants guard the landing pad and spawn room. Bio labs have them to defend the outer sub-bases. Smaller bases have them to protect towers.

    There is nothing wrong with them at all. If nobody is defending the base like how it always goes when the zerg shows up then yes they will get blown up before people get to them. If people were inside them and engies repaired them as needed like is intended they wouldn't go down so fast. If you have a ESF firing on one you can kill that ESF as fast as he can kill you if not faster in some cases.

    Why does everyone expect that a base should defend itself? If there is nobody there to defend before the zerg rolls in then it is the empires fault not the turrets or base layouts fault.

    They are fine as is, more players simply have to be ready to defend before an attack happens not half way through cap run to defend it. SOE has given you AA planes, AG planes, AA maxes, AG maxes, AA tanks, AG tanks, Guided missiles, mines, turrets, and shields to defend with. How much more should they give you to work with? If bases were easy to defend it would take way to long to make it anywhere on the map. You would fight and fight and fight to win something. Its bad enough now most battles go on for hours. It shouldn't take days to cap one base when there are 20 more that have to be capped.

    It comes down to how well you can acquire new bases and defend ones you have captured from the enemy. Not expect SOE to make it impenetrable for you.
  20. UnknownSolder

    This. This this this.

    LISTEN TO THIS ^^^ THIS IS THE PROBLEM NOT THE TURRETS OR BASE LAYOUT!

    ---------------------------------

    Also my post backs this up:

    The problem isn't the turret. They are laid out to defend entryways into a base. Amp stations put them at the gates and sometimes on the walls. Tech plants guard the landing pad and spawn room. Bio labs have them to defend the outer sub-bases. Smaller bases have them to protect towers.

    There is nothing wrong with them at all. If nobody is defending the base like how it always goes when the zerg shows up then yes they will get blown up before people get to them. If people were inside them and engies repaired them as needed like is intended they wouldn't go down so fast. If you have a ESF firing on one you can kill that ESF as fast as he can kill you if not faster in some cases.

    Why does everyone expect that a base should defend itself? If there is nobody there to defend before the zerg rolls in then it is the empires fault not the turrets or base layouts fault.

    They are fine as is, more players simply have to be ready to defend before an attack happens not half way through cap run to defend it. SOE has given you AA planes, AG planes, AA maxes, AG maxes, AA tanks, AG tanks, Guided missiles, mines, turrets, and shields to defend with. How much more should they give you to work with? If bases were easy to defend it would take way to long to make it anywhere on the map. You would fight and fight and fight to win something. Its bad enough now most battles go on for hours. It shouldn't take days to cap one base when there are 20 more that have to be capped.

    It comes down to how well you can acquire new bases and defend ones you have captured from the enemy. Not expect SOE to make it impenetrable for you.