Turret idle animations

[Reika]

Basically where the turrets, when not actively engaging a target, periodically re-aim in a random direction, primarily as an indicator of "combat readiness".

If you are familiar with Space Engineers, this is basically the idle behavior of their turrets (though in one plane rather than two-axis).

I am suggesting this on behalf of a friend who just bought the game, but I would like to see it too.

[mp0011]

There are bases with hunderts thousand ot turrets.
Each turret animation, even out of screen, costs some of UPS, so rather no...

Also, it's better if turrets points last target direction, instead of random direction. It can faster react for new wave, no need to turn back.

[Reika]

There are bases with hunderts thousand ot turrets.
Each turret animation, even out of screen, costs some of UPS, so rather no...

Also, it's better if turrets points last target direction, instead of random direction. It can faster react for new wave, no need to turn back.

Both of these are decent points.

[foodfactorio]

hi, maybe there is a way to do this on a smaller scale, so that a large base will not use up lots of ups/fps....

what if the game just picks any random turret, (that is within the players current cammera view only)
and only does this say once per minute,
and then animates just 1 turret in some way.

this way, the player (we) can still enjoy a nice animation from time to time, but without it slowing down the game
(of course, it might also mean that the modders or developers will still need to create something for the animation, but could be a cool way to do it)?

[foodfactorio]

actually, if a laser turret glowed with a red light, like the BORG from star trek, that could be cool too

firstcontact0718.jpg (50.76 KiB) Viewed 2518 times

found on the web

[eradicator]

Factorio turrents also "sit down" when they're in standby and need to "stand up" before they can fire. That would have to be reworked if they were constantly in "stand up" mode and randomly rotating. The borg laser sweeping could work even when sitting down but do you really want all turrents to be constantly laser sweeping? I think that kind of mechanic ultimately only works in games that don't have 100+ turrents on screen simultaneously, else it becomes to visually "loud"/busy. A small inconspicuous blinking light maybe?

[foodfactorio]

you're right, it would be quite distracting if they all started flashing like borg lights
maybe that could only happen during combat with the biters, and just with a smaller selection at a time.

[mrudat]

Perhaps once every 60 ticks:

• randomly pick a turret belonging to each force
• if it has ammo (or doesn't need ammo)
• if a player can see it - or all the time if doing the below isn't expensive
• the turret pops up
• turns left a little
• turns right twice as much
• turns left a little (returning to its starting position)
• returns to its starting position.

If at any point in the above, the enemy arrives, the turret should react slightly faster due to being in firing position, but also possibly slightly slower due to pointing the wrong way.

It might be niftier to have it pointed towards the closest enemy base, so that turrets that have yet to face the enemy are pointed in roughly the right direction.