laser turret upgrade research prerequisite

[Tekky]

TL;DR

Change the laser turret damage research prerequisite from "Laser" to "Laser turrets".

What ?

Currently, the research for laser turret speed upgrades have the research "Laser turrets" as a prerequisite, whereas laser turret damage upgrades have the reserach "Laser" as a prerequisite. I am suggesting that both should have the research "Laser turrets" as a prerequisite.

Why ?

It is confusing for laser turret damage upgrades and laser turret speed upgrades to have different prerequisites.

Also, it does not make sense that it is possible to research laser turret damage upgrades without laser turrets being invented at all.

One could argue that the research for laser turret damage upgrades also applies to combat robot laser robots, whereas the research for for laser turret speed upgrades does not. However, I do not consider this to be a sufficient argument, because this is only true from upgrade level 4 onwards.

[Koub]

Fun fact, the wiki says that both upgrades have laser turrets as prerequisites.
I think the idea behind this is that if there were energy based weapons besides turrets, it would make sense not to have the turrets as prerequisite, but the energy technology itself.

For example : Personal Laser Defense is not a turret, but it can benefit from laser damage upgrades.
[Edit] It seems that PLD is considered by all means as a laser turret, as it benefits from both speed and damage upgrade from laser. So on the opposite of what @OP suggfest, I'd move laser speed and damage upgrades to only have laser as prerequisite (instead of laser turret).

[Tekky]

Fun fact, the wiki says that both upgrades have laser turrets as prerequisites.

I guess it may have changed from 0.16 to 0.17.

I think the idea behind this is that if there were energy based weapons besides turrets, it would make sense not to have the turrets as prerequisite, but the energy technology itself.

For example : Personal Laser Defense is not a turret, but it can benefit from laser damage upgrades.
[Edit] It seems that PLD is considered by all means as a laser turret, as it benefits from both speed and damage upgrade from laser. So on the opposite of what @OP suggfest, I'd move laser speed and damage upgrades to only have laser as prerequisite (instead of laser turret).

Maybe it would be best to get rid of the "Laser Turrets" research altogether and make everything a prerequisite of "Laser" research (including the laser turret entity). This would avoid all the confusion.

Of course, the "Laser" research would have to be made more expensive, to compensate for the "Laser Turret" research no longer existing.

[Koub]

Maybe it would be best to get rid of the "Laser Turrets" research altogether and make everything a prerequisite of "Laser" research (including the laser turret entity). This would avoid all the confusion.

I would keep the laser turret research - to be able to build actual turrets, but I would move all the laser upgrade researches from under laser turrets to under laser technology. That way, even if I don't care laser turrets, I still can research PLD and both laser upgrades.

[Zavian]

don't care laser turrets, I still can research PLD and both laser upgrades.

Researching PLD requires you to have already researched laser turrets. Building PLD also require laser turrets, so I don't see any advantage to the player to moving the requirement to research laser turret damage/shooting speed earlier in the tech tree. (Indeed moving it earlier would allow players to research something they can't use yet, something the devs seem to be trying to eliminate).

Currently, the research for laser turret speed upgrades have the research "Laser turrets" as a prerequisite, whereas laser turret damage upgrades have the reserach "Laser" as a prerequisite. I am suggesting that both should have the research "Laser turrets" as a prerequisite.

I agree. The wiki says that both laser turret shooting speed and energy weapon damage depend on laser turrets, but in game (in 0.17.17) you can research energy weapon damage once you have unlocked lasers, which seems like a bug.

[BlueTemplar]

It seems that distractors need neither laser nor laser turret research ?
So the pre-requisite should be probably just military science ?

[Koub]

If I'm not mistaken, combat robots only get upgrades from the combat robot damage upgrades, not from the laser/bullets damage/speed upgrades.

[BlueTemplar]

I thought it depended on the kind of weapon they use ? Would be weird for bullet upgrades to improve the damage of laser-shooting robots...

[Koub]

If I'm not mistaken, all the "per weapon type" upgrares (flamethrower, bullets, shotgun ammo, laser, ...) only apply to :
- The handled weapons
- The vehicle mounted weapons
- The turrets

And the combat robots have their own "damage bonus" research, that applies to all type of combat robots.

[BlueTemplar]

No, I guess, like me, you might have been confused by the still partially outdated wiki?
Distractor/Destroyer damage upgrade research has, in 0.17, been merged into Energy Weapons damage research :
Lvl 1-3 : turrets
Lvl 4 : turrets and Distractors
Lvl 5+ : turrets, Distractors and Destroyers

(The 0.16 wiki also states that Defenders were already boosted by bullet shooting speed & damage researches, which surprises me, I guess that I believed that they didn't have any research boosting them because of their very low base damage ?)