Friday Facts #410 - Rocket turret & Target priorities

[Just_Peachy]

With the ability to launch friendly fire atomic ammo I would love to see a slider to configure the minimum/maximum allowable range for a turret (within the default limits) to make sure that I don't end up atomising my own walls!! Even better if we could control this with circuits!

[aka13]

Oooh turning off arty is going to be great! Wall construction will be so much easier. Is there a way to turn off artillery trains as well, by chance?
Is there finally nuclear artillery!?!
So many questions, so little answers.

[MeduSalem]

So, from the footage in the FFF, looks like they have 360 arcs. So, basically there will be NO WAY to avoid blowing up your own defences if you dare to use any ammo with splash damage.
Just look at the clip with the biter waves. Notice how at the first biter wave, few turrets at the very bottom target the biters that managed to reach the wall. Now imagine the rockets are explosive - boom, no more wall. With how much damage bonuses you can get, one rocket is enough to tear nice hole for biters to get through.

Yea, I agree the Splash Damage might be an issue with Explosive Rockets. To take it further I don't think that it is easily fixable either.
Even if they would increase the minimum engagement range or if they would limit the rocket turret's attack angle (similar to Flame Thrower Turrets)...
... the biggest issue is the rockets are homing; so when Biters change direction when approaching the walls the explosive rockets might fly in an arc following the enemy and then hit walls with Splash Damage regardless. You can even see that in the clip as well.

Even if it would be nice to use Explosive Rockets for the Splash damage, I doubt I will be using them for defense lines. It is too suicidal.
Not even talking about nukes, which are totally overkill anyway. ^^


I think the only solution would require substantial rework. We would need higher minimum engagement range; adjustable attack angles.
But not only that, they would have to be programmed such to prevent rockets from doing a 180° turnaround so that they can never fly back and hit the walls. ^^

[Faredander]

I dont like the design. First, it looks like spidertron, the spidertron should feel unique. And its kinda cute, compared to militaristic design of machinegun turrets and laser turrets, which are essentialy just a weapon placed onto a turret. I understand that rocket tracking requires some kind of a brainwork, so maybe place a distinctly visible antenna on the weapon instead of the cute glowing eyes, or a radar dish.

I agree. Not very appropriate turret design with a Spidertron head

[Phauxstus]

For turret target priority, I hope you didn't forget to put players as one of the available targets
Maybe even let us write down specific names to target?

So, from the footage in the FFF, looks like they have 360 arcs. So, basically there will be NO WAY to avoid blowing up your own defences if you dare to use any ammo with splash damage.

I'd like to introduce you to https://mods.factorio.com/mod/turrets-arc-limiter which is pretty good for this exact purpose. I like using it with the chemical rockets mod and a rocket turret mod.

I wish along with these changes we got even more control over turrets. Limiting the firing arc is one thing, but also setting min/max ranges (separate auto and manual for arty pls), a "read when active" circuit signal, and x/y targeting for arty would all be great.

[ichVII]

Oh come ooooon! Give us a manual artillery control via circuit network! X, Y and FIRE!

That is already possible with mods. It is just not possible to order a specfic turret to shoot a specific target, but getting the next best artillery to shoot at position X, Y via circuit signal is possible.

Sadly, the mod I used for that hasnt been updated for 1.0 or 1.1.
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/conman
Its a great mod and the artillery remote is more of a side feature then the goal of that mod.

[RocketManChronicles]

>To save ammo I sometimes try really hard to keep the worms alive. I would love a toggle to only shoot spawners.

Um, artillery only target spawners and worms. They do not target biters or spitters.

[vedrit]

Shutup and take my money! The expansion and 2.0 update are going to be AWESOME. Practically new game!

[Snek]

Every FFF looks amazing, however!

I have one small gripe with this one.

In space, under low gravity with little atmosphere, the gases wouldn't expand like that. The rockets' smoke and whatnot doesn't look right.

With hundreds of hours in this game, and selling it to friends as the most polished and refined and optimized game in the market, this might be something that would bother me to the end of time.

[Brambor]

>To save ammo I sometimes try really hard to keep the worms alive. I would love a toggle to only shoot spawners.

Um, artillery only target spawners and worms. They do not target biters or spitters.

Exactly, worms and spawners. I want to target only spawners in most situations. Targeting both takes about twice the ammo.

[gGeorg]

one day, this game will get its rts mode :praying:

A little hint : why they renamed Spidertron tool to RTS tool ?

[The_Mell]

Some thoughts without having red what others wrote (too early):

• Cheaper missile recipe but still guided - why not introduce dumb fire missile below expensive guided missile? Turrets could use worm logic for targets which should work on asteroids quite well. Those irrational bugs might have a chance to be missed which would be an incentive to use expensive guided missile.
• Accelerations of missiles is so cool (Is that even new?) - looks like 2 stage missiles with a push out charge. I'm missing a back blast - that's something that differs guns&canons from missile launcher and is kinda iconic for me. Should fit the look of rocket turret but not sure about spidertron head.
• Target logic is a great thing. In 'They Are Billions' the target logic is just 2 buttons: closest target or strongest enemy. I wonder if this would be a simpler concept and your white list approach should be an additional option.

[Qatavin]

The rocket turret can load nuclear weapons, but only has 15 minimum range? That's living dangerously. And it's not an unfamiliar issue in weaponry mods. It would be really nice for ammo to be able to modify the minimum range of a turret or gun in the same way the maximum range can be modified. A min_range_modifier to go with the normal range_modifier.

[Ext3h]

One step we are missing in this regard is actually a detection device which would enable/disable turrets based on the presence of enemies in range. This would be absolutely awesome to handle idle turret power consumption!

I'm pretty certain that Radar buildings will actually provide that as a read-out, including two special signals for allied and enemy players.

I'm just curious if "allied players" is a valid signal for the target list of a turret, and if it is, just how many players are going to suicide by accidentally directly connecting a radar to a turret...

[Svip]

To those talking about radars outputting signals based on what is in its immediate area, they don't; and FFF 402 means they won't.

[Qon]

Oh come ooooon! Give us a manual artillery control via circuit network! X, Y and FIRE!

That is already possible with mods. It is just not possible to order a specfic turret to shoot a specific target, but getting the next best artillery to shoot at position X, Y via circuit signal is possible.

Sadly, the mod I used for that hasnt been updated for 1.0 or 1.1.
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/conman
Its a great mod and the artillery remote is more of a side feature then the goal of that mod.

Artillery Combinator by Qon

[Rodir]

I have a suggestion/request: faster roket speed, as a research or as a rocket upgrade

For example, adding rocket fuel to explosive rockets to make them "supersonic"

[Pi-C]

>To save ammo I sometimes try really hard to keep the worms alive. I would love a toggle to only shoot spawners.

Um, artillery only target spawners and worms. They do not target biters or spitters.

Artillery turrets also target military structures, which has caused huge problems for one of my mods. Unfortunately, it seems the new changes won't solve this issue.

[MeduSalem]

To those talking about radars outputting signals based on what is in its immediate area, they don't; and FFF 402 means they won't.

That they will also work for circuit network wireless transmission doesn't necessarily mean that they can't add an option into the radar's menu to turn it into a proximity sensor.


However I am on the fence whether a proximity sensor (if there even will be such functionality) should be its own entity. That is for other people to make a case of.

The only points I would raise if it would be its own entity I think it should be smaller, have less detection range and therefore take less power. A huge detection range like that of the radar actually is detrimental to the usefulness, because it would activate and send signals even if biters are in a flanking position and never get into the range of the turrets connected to it because it outranges the turrets so much.
In the end you only really care about what is like within a 2 chunks' range in front of the defense line because no turret (with exception of artillery which can't target biters anyway) can target any further. ^^

[LatinyFroggy]

could we maybe get a remake of the link in https://factorio.com/blog/post/merry-xmas-2013?