Gun turret:
Basic ammo consuming machine guns. Range 17 (lowest), damage depends on the ammo used.
Pro's:
- First turret to research and cheap to produce.
- Doesn't require power, so can be used anywhere.
Con's:
- Requires ammo, so must be fed. This prevents dense clustering. Delivering ammo over wide areas can be a hassle.
- When deployed initially, will not have ammo, so no immediate activation.
- Enemies tend to evolve physical damage resistance, so these turrets become less effective lateron in the game
My main problems with the gun turrets is the ammo delivery. Sure, you can daisychain them with inserters to feed them in a loop, but large biter attacks can still take a chunk out. Also, one destroyed turret breaks that loop. A belt is another idea but that prevents you from making a turret wall multiple layers deep - the front layers won't get fed. Their short range makes leaving some space between them for inserters undesirable.
Laser turret:
Energy weapons that must be powered to function. Good range (25).
Pro's:
- No ammo requirement
- If placed in a powered area, activates immediately, allowing for instant defense.
- Dense clustering possible. 4 turrets deep is possible with Substations if you need that kind of defense
- Long range, outranges spitters.
Cons:
- Requires oil refining to produce, so only becomes available midgame
- Lower DPS
- Substantial power requirements, both idle and especially while firing. Large Accumulator clusters are needed to power defenses based on this.
- Turret shuts down if there's a power outage.
My preferred turrets due to the tight clustering possibilities. When you take defense compression and range into consideration, laser turrets allow for a much tighter defense of an area then guns. The added perk of range is nice too. Just make sure your power grid is able to handle the load of them, and can handle the occasional grid interrupt.
Flame turrets:
A type of turret that consumes oil (crude, light, heavy) to create a jet of flame.
Pros:
- Longest range (30)
- Area of effect damage. Roast them zerglings!
Cons:
- Inaccurate, turret does not track well.
- Unidirectional turret, attacks in a frontal cone.
- Friendly fire hazard. AOE damages your own structures if fired too close.
- Can start forest fires.
- Requires a pipe connection. Turret is larger (3x2 instead of 2x2) and must be fed sideways by pipe.
- Requires oil and shuts down if no oil is available.
This turret is an odd one. It can be useful to defend oil pump clusters far from your base, put them behind your gun or laser turrets as the extra range and reduced arc makes these less suitable for frontline duty. However, they'll end up roasting your walls (and the repair bots that go to repair those walls) if biters reach it. The AOE damage makes them useful for dealing with large swarms of biters - especially if you can funnel them into a gauntlet. Running pipes to them is a hassle though.
If you guys found effective ways of making use of the gun or flame turret, please share them here. I'm looking forward to trying out some new ideas on the Factorio locals
