Asteroid Targetting

[Maxam3000]

TL;DR
Make turrets able to target asteroid size classes instead of just specific asteroids

What?
Generalized targeting options for asteroid sizes

Why?
I was playing around with making a really good late game (not endgame) spaceship that would last until i could get my hands on railguns, and noticed i was wasting a lot of rockets on targeting the asteroids that normal ammo turrets could easily destroy so i went into targeting on the rocket turrets and noticed there is no "big asteroid" general targeting option. I do not want to prioritize one large asteroid over another since i only want it destroyed and to make the rocket turret not shoot one further away from the base just because it is a specific type of rocket. Could there be made a general "small asteroid" "medium asteroid" "big asteroid" and "huge asteroid" targeting options added? it would make space shooting way way less wasteful.

[AileTheAlien]

This seems like a very niche feature, since you can copy-paste the settings to all turrets on the ship. Plus, I think it would be more interesting if the different asteroids had different resistances. Like, carbon asteroids are dark so they could take more laser damage, ice are shiny, etc. (Not to mention, future mods with more asteroid types.)

[computeraddict]

You could have a circuit cycle between the appropriately sized targets? Or place them in clusters that have slightly different priority orders

[Maxam3000]

This seems like a very niche feature, since you can copy-paste the settings to all turrets on the ship. Plus, I think it would be more interesting if the different asteroids had different resistances. Like, carbon asteroids are dark so they could take more laser damage, ice are shiny, etc. (Not to mention, future mods with more asteroid types.)

the "nichseness" of it you mention i don't see cause what i want to do is have the turrets target big sized asteroids. Currently to do that i have to weave priorities and is just way more annoying than there being a targeting option that is "big asteroids"

[thatspsychotic]

I don't understand this request... if you want something to target only medium asteroids, for example, you just set the target filters to all 4 types of medium asteroids and then check "ignore non-filtered targets" or whatever that checkbox is called. does that not meet your needs? if not, how so?

[Maxam3000]

I don't understand this request... if you want something to target only medium asteroids, for example, you just set the target filters to all 4 types of medium asteroids and then check "ignore non-filtered targets" or whatever that checkbox is called. does that not meet your needs? if not, how so?

that would mean that if you were to choose the carbonic asteroids as the first one in the list it would target the carbonic first even if there is another medium asteroid that is closer to your space platform than it. If it was "only shoot these types of asteroids" then i could do that but it is priority in not only "shoot these targets" but also in "shoot them in this order"

[thatspsychotic]

I can see the theoretical concern, but if this is truly a difference maker, isn't the solution just to add more firepower so that none of the asteroid types get close enough? You'd still achieve your objective of being selective to asteroid size in terms of what you throw ammo at, but you'd consume the same amount of rockets to kill a given set of asteroids regardless of how many turrets are firing those rockets.

[Maxam3000]

Personally i like compact designs, especially for spaceships, the idea of "just add more gun" is not always feasible since that would mean remaking the entire production system to accommodate more guns

[Ralfinator]

I strongly second this. I find it quite frustrating that I have to install ~3 times as many turrets on the ship as I should have to because they get constantly distracted by asteroids far away, rather than focusing on the nearby ones. Give that space it as a premium on a spaceship, this severely limits my ability to explore space beyond the edge of the solar system.

[Tertius]

because they get constantly distracted by asteroids far away, rather than focusing on the nearby ones.

This is a different thing than what the OP requested. The OP didn't understand the filter can contain multiple asteroids, not just one. Just add all of the 4 asteroids of one size to the filter and activate the option to ignore unfiltered ones. The filter isn't an ordered list of descending or ascending priority. It's just a filter. If the scanning of a turret gets a target matching the filter it will fire, no matter the type and filter position.

You're asking to target near asteroids first. Actually, that's what usually happens, but not always. If some asteroid pops into range, for example a medium asteroid is created by destroying a big one, turrets finish firing at the target they already got. After that, the new asteroid is considered.

Notice the different ranges of the turrets. Railguns are the longest (40). Then the rocket turrets (36). After that, the laser turret with 24, and the gun turret has the shortest range (18).
Set the railguns to target huge asteroids only. You need to put the railguns on the front line, because they destroy everything in front of them.
Next to them, you need to put the gun turrets to not waste their range. They will target medium asteroids only.
In the second line, put the rocket turrets. They target big asteroids only. Their range is outside the gun and laser turrets and inside the railgun range, so they will destroy all big asteroids reasonably far away. If you use explosive rockets between Aquilo and the solar system edge and the shattered planet, you will destroy most of the created medium and even small asteroids at the same time, leaving only some remains for the gun and laser turrets.
In the 3rd row, and in any gaps you have near the rocket turrets, place laser turrets. Set them to target small asteroids only. Their field overlaps with the front line gun turrets, so both will finish whatever comes through the rocket fire.

Inside Aquilo, it's easier to use the regular (non exploding) rockets, since asteroid density is not very high, but outside Aquilo it helps keeping gun turret ammo consumption low. You don't even need red turret ammo - the yellow ammo is well enough.

And with this, the question of prioritizing near asteroids first isn't relevant any more. It just works as it is.

[Ralfinator]

The filter isn't an ordered list of descending or ascending priority. It's just a filter.

Are you sure? The documentation surely makes it sound like targets will be considered in the order they are listed: "gives an explicit order". Otherwise, what difference would "target priority" even make without "ignore unlisted"?

Set the railguns to target huge asteroids only. You need to put the railguns on the front line, because they destroy everything in front of them.
Next to them, you need to put the gun turrets to not waste their range. They will target medium asteroids only.
In the second line, put the rocket turrets. They target big asteroids only. Their range is outside the gun and laser turrets and inside the railgun range, so they will destroy all big asteroids reasonably far away. If you use explosive rockets between Aquilo and the solar system edge and the shattered planet, you will destroy most of the created medium and even small asteroids at the same time, leaving only some remains for the gun and laser turrets.
In the 3rd row, and in any gaps you have near the rocket turrets, place laser turrets. Set them to target small asteroids only. Their field overlaps with the front line gun turrets, so both will finish whatever comes through the rocket fire.

Thanks for the advice!

[Tertius]

I checked again and indeed it seems this little detail has slipped my attention. "Gives an explicit order..." ok, this makes my above comment somewhat stupid. Sorry for that.

However, I built the promethium ship as I described and never got any issue with not hitting the asteroid type that is listed last. Also, with all other platforms - I have the same order everywhere, the order in which the asteroids are listed in the picker.

[Ralfinator]

I spent a lot of time tweaking the mix of target priorities in my ship because it kept getting destroyed.^^

Out of curiosity, how fast do you fly through "outer space" (outside the solar system edge)? At speed 380 my ship sill gets destroyed, but with a bunch of careful tweaking I can manage speed 250 most of the time.

And anyway, I think then this reaffirms my idea/suggestion: there should be a way to give turrets a filter for asteroid sizes without setting a priority list among asteroid types. There are various ways this could be done, but the status quo leads (at least in my case) to spending a lot of time tweaking the exact arrangement of target priorities across the ship's front.

[SirSmuggler]

Out of curiosity, how fast do you fly through "outer space" (outside the solar system edge)? At speed 380 my ship sill gets destroyed, but with a bunch of careful tweaking I can manage speed 250 most of the time.

I was a bit confused reading this thread, woundering what kind of scrap defenses people where flying with to have such problems. Now I understand My fastest ship in the inner system gos just under 200, my Shattered planet ship is limited to max 45 at the moment. Slow and steady does it!

[Ralfinator]

Ah yes, that would make a difference. My biggest ship flies 380-400 until the solar system edge (380 on the way out, 400 on the way in, with the usual "pull" from the closest planet) and can almost keep up with ammo production for that trip, but I have to throttle it outside the solar system.

I originally hoped to actually reach the shattered planet and at speed 45, that takes something like 30 hours or so... but for just producing promethian science, I don't need these kinds of speed. I want to get outside the system fast to reduce the "downtime" wasted not collection promethain asteroids, but once I am collecting I think going slower should be fine. I was going to add some circuits for better speed control anyway so I might just cut the speed to 150-200 or so for now.

But having smarter turrets would still be great. Not sure if that fits into this thread or should be a new thread?