Defence design help

[leadraven]

Hello.
I played mostly in peaceful mode, and now I am trying to design modern turret defense line.
Could you please advice how to use flamethrower turrets most efficiently? Are they better to be placed in a solid row or separated, in front or back of laser turrets?
Are turrets better to be placed next to each other to maximize damage density, or with gaps to avoid splash damage? And the same question about walls.

[BaggyK]

No advice on usage of flamethrower turrets.

Have a gap between walls and turrets, I generally leave 3 or 4 squares space between them just to be safe. For laser turrets use sub-stations for power if possible and have them placed further back then the turrets so they will not be damaged by any splash damage. If using sub-stations is not possible have second power line running behind so that if the main power line is cut only the items that are directly powered by the destroyed item are unpowered.

Solid row or separated depends on the relationship between the evolution and your damage research, if you can reliably kill the swarms with spaced turrets that is better due to covering more space using less resources and power but there may come a point that you need multiple solid rows to handle the enemies.

[Serenity]

It's fine if the flame turrets just touch slightly. You don't need that many of them

For laser turrets space them so you can add more as needed. In places under heavy attack you may want solid lines of turrets, but you don't need that everywhere. You can start with single turrets and then place another between them for example.

[xfir01]

Wall pattern we just used in our last Vanilla game looked like this:

ZigZag pattern of wall, followed by a solid block of wall 3 thick.

5 tiles of blank buffer


For for flame turrets space them out by putting a run of underground between them, with 2 lasers in front of them. Flame turret rang should hit just outside the Z pattern in front of them. Big poles behind the Flamers, with radars and roboports spaced out as needed. Roboports hang out so that the end of their construction zone is just outside the walls.

(Sorry, no screenshots, I'm stuck at work)

Code: Select all

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Las Las                  Las Las
 Flame   underground      Flame
 Big Pole                Big Pole
Radar



Roboport

[leadraven]

I'm thinking of something like this, but I'm not sure (1) should I make 1 tile gap between turrets? (2) should I make entire separate row of flamethrower turrets?

[GrumpyJoe]

have some normal (bullets = physical dmg) turrets in front of lasers
from what ive read, damage types matter alot more in 0.17 (on our map, we dont have behemoths yet so im not sure)
also, laser turrets have more range than normal ones. if the first line of normal ones gets destroyed, its alot cheaper to replace than laser turrets

I´d move the flamers back abit, they have the most range and afaik the last HP, even if 2 tiles behind lasers, they should outreach them
Will post a pic tonight, if i remember


You could also BP landmines now, but that gets tricky with bots crossing the wall to replace them, i´d place the chest with landmines far away, so the attack is over when bots arrive

[leadraven]

have some normal (bullets = physical dmg) turrets

from what ive read, damage types matter alot more in 0.17

Yeah, I will add a row of bullet turrets later to deal with toughest enemies. Bullet turrets have lowest range and HP and use most expensive ammo, so they must be placed behind laser/flame turrets.

[Hannu]

Hello.
I played mostly in peaceful mode, and now I am trying to design modern turret defense line.
Could you please advice how to use flamethrower turrets most efficiently? Are they better to be placed in a solid row or separated, in front or back of laser turrets?
Are turrets better to be placed next to each other to maximize damage density, or with gaps to avoid splash damage? And the same question about walls.

Answer depends mostly on your personal preferences. Most fancy defense lines are overkill solutions. I have now (0.17.17) single walls and machine gun turrets with red bullets. I have first bullet damage which use rocket science (maybe 7) but have not researched more. In most places I have six tiles between lasers. Usually I begin with 14 tiles between turrets. Then I can double strength by adding new turret between old ones and have finally continuous line.

I divide walls to sections which has up to 12 roboports and supply turrets, construction bots, repair tools, walls and ammo by trains. In 0.17 I have to supply inserters and powerpoles, because they get area damage when spitters shoot turrets. I lose entities occasionally but it is negligible (less than 1 %) compared science production. I have not had any breakthroughs in maintained walls yet. My base do not run at full power yet and I expect that I have to put more turrets and maybe double walls at some point. I try to avoid uranium bullets or more damage research. I do not clear nests near my walls wit artillery because I want to have constant attacks and additional resource flow. It gives more action to my system.

Of course you can use lasers and flame throwers if you want. Or you can build labyrinths, dragon teeth or other fancy wall structures. In my opinion all are technically equal if you play with normal settings. In any case material defending costs are very low and all solutions take about the same time to build (with construction bots).

[leadraven]

As I understand, flamethrower turret damage consists of 2 or even 3 parts : instant damage, ignite damage and ground damage. Which of this damages stack from multiple turrets?

[Serenity]

You can safely replace every second of those flame turrets with underground pipes