Oolite Bulletins

General questions.

Can ships have turrets that move without interfering with the flight of the ship? Could you set it up so something like the fine tuning button on a joystick switches from ship control to turret control? Can you limit the range the turret swivels?

Yes, ships can have automatic plasma turrets that move and fire without pilot interference. Basically, what happens is that a turret-equipped ship will commence fire with its turret(s) if all below conditions are met:
1. It has an active target.
2. Said target is hostile.
3. Weapons are unlocked.

That's it basically. The player does not have significant control over the turrets, other than disabling weapons or releasing target lock so that they stop firing.

Note that the turrets can be used also for defense against incoming missiles. If you have a turret on your ship and a missile is fired against you, press Shift + T, which will instantly switch target lock from whatever you may have at the moment to the nearest incoming missile (no need to center it in the cross-hairs, it's done automatically). Then you can watch the light show as the turrets open fire on the missile.

I had heard about those, but was thinking of more player controlled. Basically using the side or rear view and adjusting aim while still flying straight. Just a thought I had for a ship design.

Perhaps the following should go in 'Suggestions' but it seems very relevant to this thread...

What if the turret was purchasable as a weapon?

• Too powerful, right? Who'd have side lasers when you could purchase a turret?
  But what if installing one occupied 3 laser fittings? (e.g. a MkIII could have one but not an Adder)
  Wouldn't that create an interesting choice for some commanders? Rear lasers are quite useful after all...

Still too powerful? Perhaps a new, reduced damage or range version (both?), a projectile turret perhaps?
Where would it go? Maybe default to the highest point of a model?

Could be a useful choice for some. I think it might work best if it were a good choice for less skilled combateers but had little power, so that someone really skilled with a front and rear laser combo might still prefer (or at least consider) that option.

...Just a thought

Many of us view turrets as point-defence weapons for large, slow an un-responsive ships, and disapprove of their use on small ships (which includes all player ships).
Just saying.

Smivs wrote:

Many of us view turrets as point-defence weapons for large, slow an un-responsive ships, and disapprove of their use on small ships (which includes all player ships).
Just saying.

"Many" is a subjective term. };] Just sayin'.

Smivs wrote:

Many of us view turrets as point-defence weapons for large, slow an un-responsive ships, and disapprove of their use on small ships (which includes all player ships).

And in some ways I'd be one of them.
As I attempted to describe however, I'm imagining as smaller, less powerful, shorter ranged(?) device.

What it would have in common with (and why I used the word) turrets is that it need not be restricted to the facing of the ship in terms of what it could target. So rather than the turret weapon itself, it is the aiming mechanism that I see as key here. If one were to consider that strictly the realm of the ships desribed in the above quote, then I would imagine that little I say here is likely to change that opinion.

A pistol is often used in very different situations to a cannon and yet, crudely speaking, it's function is similar.

Just so long we we're clear that I was never talking about those kind of turrets Just the idea of having your usual port, starboard or rear views, but with an option to aim independent of ship maneuvering (say, with a circle to indicate where the "center" is so you can return to it).

Thargoid wrote:

And this is of course also why the two most popular player uberships are both turret-equipped

And so is the silliest
But to come back to mossfoot's idea, the problem I think is that we don't have any mechanism for aimable weapons in the game. We actually aim the ship!

Smivs wrote:

Thargoid wrote:

And this is of course also why the two most popular player uberships are both turret-equipped

And so is the silliest
But to come back to mossfoot's idea, the problem I think is that we don't have any mechanism for aimable weapons in the game. We actually aim the ship!

*ponders* Is it possible to piggyback the playership on an AI ship so that the player ship is carried along wherever the AI ship happens to go?

How does your 2 part capital ship + shuttle combo work again?

I'm wondering if it's possible to replace the player ship with an AI ship carrying the new player ship along with it in the same direction of travel, then the player ship becomes the turret which has a maximum speed of zero, so can't be moved independently of its carrier...

... or something like that...

Neelix wrote:

*ponders* Is it possible to piggyback the playership on an AI ship so that the player ship is carried along wherever the AI ship happens to go?

It's possible to dock with a ship (eg a behemoth or liner) that then goes and jumps somewhere else, and when you launch you are in a different system. That's happened to me a few times.

Neelix wrote:

I'm wondering if it's possible to replace the player ship with an AI ship carrying the new player ship along with it in the same direction of travel, then the player ship becomes the turret which has a maximum speed of zero, so can't be moved independently of its carrier...

... or something like that...

Almost exactly like that. See Okti's Sunskimmers or Capt. Murphy's Escort Contracts or Explorers' Club (1.3, not current) for examples of frame callbacks that take control of the player ship. If anyone goes ahead to make this, include me in the testing please. It's been on my to-do list for years.