FTT Turrets

[TexZero.7910]

I didn't make it to the AMA but i haven't seen this covered in my quick browse of the responses so far so here goes a few things on my mind with them....

 

Can we get an AI update to the attack turrets ? Currently they seem to attack weird things (Walls or objects in them) and it would be nice to see them prioritize my target (for AoE and Direct Damage).

 

Secondly i suppose is there a max target cap on the support turrets (Boon Wall/Shield/Speed/Healing) and if so what's that cap ?

Third the turrets feel really awkward and i'm wondering if there's a design reason for this ? Are they inheriting player stats for damage/healing/boon duration or is this fixed and their impact supposed to be low, because that feels unrewarding to use/invest time into.

 

And finally i'd like to ask if there's any plans to maybe update the UI to allow players to directly deploy higher level turrets (Perhaps on the bundle itself slots 2-4)

[digitalruse.9085]

These were clearly a labor of love for some Dev. Some really neat and different stuff going on. Unfortunately, after getting all the achievements I’ll probably never touch them again as there isn’t much reason to stick around Kourna. I’d strongly urge looking into making the FTT like ele powder or pet whistle. Give it a cool down, but let it be used in more places. It deserves it.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Some of them will have to be balanced as they’re a little OP.

[digitalruse.9085]

I think that is fair and reasonable to a degree, but they do get costly (time wise) to make since you have to return to Kourna for shards and spare parts.

[Keaven Freeman.6157]

Since I developed and implemented the _Field Tech Turret_ system, I'll do my best to answer these :)

 

> @"TexZero.7910" said:

> Can we get an AI update to the attack turrets ? Currently they seem to attack weird things (Walls or objects in them) and it would be nice to see them prioritize my target (for AoE and Direct Damage).

 

The offensive turrets are currently set to select a random enemy within range each time it fires. I decided to go this route because I wanted the turrets to feel low maintenance - i.e., you just set it up to start blasting without having to worry about target juggling for the sake of the turret. I say that as a way of explanation of where my head was when I made that, not as a veiled way of suggesting it's off limits :smile: I'm not averse to tweaking this - I'll talk with the team about this :+1:

 

 

> @"TexZero.7910" said:

> Secondly i suppose is there a max target cap on the support turrets (Boon Wall/Shield/Speed/Healing) and if so what's that cap ?

 

The support turrets currently have a max target of five per pulse, with your party and squad taking priority.

 

 

> @"TexZero.7910" said:

> Third the turrets feel really awkward and i'm wondering if there's a design reason for this ? Are they inheriting player stats for damage/healing/boon duration or is this fixed and their impact supposed to be low, because that feels unrewarding to use/invest time into.

 

The turret does not inherit anything from you when you deploy it; it has its own stats. Outgoing damage *per bolt* for the Direct Damage turret doesn't change as you upgrade it, but that's because there are other things that increase as you upgrade it: number of bolts, number of chained bolts, and overload chance percent per initial bolt all increase as you upgrade. Thus, the average DPS for the turret increases despite damage-per-bolt remaining static.

 

The other turrets have statistics which are less complex -- Most of the other functions have values that increase at a controlled (and easily configurable :wink: ) rate through their upgrade cycles. We tried to make sure the numbers were balanced so the turrets would be attractive and fun, but not feel like you HAD to have them in order to be effective on the map ... that was the goal, at any rate. Like I (parenthetically) noted above, all the numbers for the turrets are easily configurable. I did that specifically so they could be revisited and tweaked should the need arise.

 

 

> @"TexZero.7910" said:

> And finally i'd like to ask if there's any plans to maybe update the UI to allow players to directly deploy higher level turrets (Perhaps on the bundle itself slots 2-4)

 

This is something I kept going back and forth on. Ultimately, the reason I went for the incremental method was two-fold:

* First, the upgrade achievements don't care whose turret you upgrade - you can earn all the upgrade unlocks by helping your friends upgrade their turrets. If you had the ability to deploy a max level turret, we remove a few rungs from the community ladder we tried to build into the system. That said, I'm not blind to the in-the-heat-of-battle frustration of having to deploy the turret site, configure the turret, upgrade the turret, upgrade again, upgrade again .. rinse & repeat cycle. I would like to maintain the former while helping reduce the latter, so I welcome more discussion on this :smiley:

* Second, and somewhat selfishly, that interface is already a confusing mess under the hood and the thought of adding more things to it kind of scares me :astonished: hehe

[zealex.9410]

> @"Keaven Freeman.6157" said:

> Since I developed and implemented the _Field Tech Turret_ system, I'll do my best to answer these :)

>

> > @"TexZero.7910" said:

> > Can we get an AI update to the attack turrets ? Currently they seem to attack weird things (Walls or objects in them) and it would be nice to see them prioritize my target (for AoE and Direct Damage).

>

> The offensive turrets are currently set to select a random enemy within range each time it fires. I decided to go this route because I wanted the turrets to feel low maintenance - i.e., you just set it up to start blasting without having to worry about target juggling for the sake of the turret. I say that as a way of explanation of where my head was when I made that, not as a veiled way of suggesting it's off limits :smile: I'm not averse to tweaking this - I'll talk with the team about this :+1:

>

>

> > @"TexZero.7910" said:

> > Secondly i suppose is there a max target cap on the support turrets (Boon Wall/Shield/Speed/Healing) and if so what's that cap ?

>

> The support turrets currently have a max target of five per pulse, with your party and squad taking priority.

>

>

> > @"TexZero.7910" said:

> > Third the turrets feel really awkward and i'm wondering if there's a design reason for this ? Are they inheriting player stats for damage/healing/boon duration or is this fixed and their impact supposed to be low, because that feels unrewarding to use/invest time into.

>

> The turret does not inherit anything from you when you deploy it; it has its own stats. Outgoing damage *per bolt* for the Direct Damage turret doesn't change as you upgrade it, but that's because there are other things that increase as you upgrade it: number of bolts, number of chained bolts, and overload chance percent per initial bolt all increase as you upgrade. Thus, the average DPS for the turret increases despite damage-per-bolt remaining static.

>

> The other turrets have statistics which are less complex -- Most of the other functions have values that increase at a controlled (and easily configurable :wink: ) rate through their upgrade cycles. We tried to make sure the numbers were balanced so the turrets would be attractive and fun, but not feel like you HAD to have them in order to be effective on the map ... that was the goal, at any rate. Like I (parenthetically) noted above, all the numbers for the turrets are easily configurable. I did that specifically so they could be revisited and tweaked should the need arise.

>

>

> > @"TexZero.7910" said:

> > And finally i'd like to ask if there's any plans to maybe update the UI to allow players to directly deploy higher level turrets (Perhaps on the bundle itself slots 2-4)

>

> This is something I kept going back and forth on. Ultimately, the reason I went for the incremental method was two-fold:

> * First, the upgrade achievements don't care whose turret you upgrade - you can earn all the upgrade unlocks by helping your friends upgrade their turrets. If you had the ability to deploy a max level turret, we remove a few rungs from the community ladder we tried to build into the system. That said, I'm not blind to the in-the-heat-of-battle frustration of having to deploy the turret site, configure the turret, upgrade the turret, upgrade again, upgrade again .. rinse & repeat cycle. I would like to maintain the former while helping reduce the latter, so I welcome more discussion on this :smiley:

> * Second, and somewhat selfishly, that interface is already a confusing mess under the hood and the thought of adding more things to it kind of scares me :astonished: hehe

 

Any chance you will make them usable outside of kourna rn ftt are a huge waste of their development if they are limited to that one map.

[Tails.9372]

The turrets feel like a huge missed opportunity, they should have been a gizmo like the Prototype Position Rewinder from episode 2 awarded to the player after completing all the achievements. Also, properly using them shouldn't require spare parts (or anything else for that matter). Nobody is doing to farm trash mobs just to use a gimmick and as others already pointed out they shouldn't be limited to Kourna.

[zealex.9410]

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> The turrets feel like a huge missed opportunity, they should have been a gizmo like the Prototype Position Rewinder from episode 2 awarded to the player after completing all the achievements. Also, properly using them shouldn't require spare parts (or anything else for that matter). Nobody is doing to farm trash mobs just to use a gimmick and as others already pointed out they shouldn't be limited to Kourna.

 

I dont think they should be completely free but the farming method shouldnt be the one we have rn. Instead give us blish's arm ability n5 to use on the turrets in kourna to farm them faster and allow us to use turrets anywhere in the ow.

[Tails.9372]

> @"zealex.9410" said:

> > @"Tails.9372" said:

> > The turrets feel like a huge missed opportunity, they should have been a gizmo like the Prototype Position Rewinder from episode 2 awarded to the player after completing all the achievements. Also, properly using them shouldn't require spare parts (or anything else for that matter). Nobody is doing to farm trash mobs just to use a gimmick and as others already pointed out they shouldn't be limited to Kourna.

>

> I dont think they should be completely free but the farming method shouldnt be the one we have rn. Instead give us blish's arm ability n5 to use on the turrets in kourna to farm them faster and allow us to use turrets anywhere in the ow.

This would still be to off putting for too many people, remember that these are just gimmicks without any real use. They're not going to do anything vs. any real content (except for PvP based modes in which they shouldn't be allowed in) any room cleaning AoE of the more advanced bosses would make short work out of them, the same thing would probably hold true for most of the stronger OW boss fights like Amala. They might be efficient vs. normal zombies and stuff but then again this goes for pretty much everything else as you almost just need to breathe on these mobs in order to blow them away.

[TexZero.7910]

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> > @"zealex.9410" said:

> > > @"Tails.9372" said:

> > > The turrets feel like a huge missed opportunity, they should have been a gizmo like the Prototype Position Rewinder from episode 2 awarded to the player after completing all the achievements. Also, properly using them shouldn't require spare parts (or anything else for that matter). Nobody is doing to farm trash mobs just to use a gimmick and as others already pointed out they shouldn't be limited to Kourna.

> >

> > I dont think they should be completely free but the farming method shouldnt be the one we have rn. Instead give us blish's arm ability n5 to use on the turrets in kourna to farm them faster and allow us to use turrets anywhere in the ow.

> This would still be to off putting for too many people, remember that these are just gimmicks without any real use. They're not going to do anything vs. any real content (except for PvP based modes in which they shouldn't be allowed in) any room cleaning AoE of the more advanced bosses would make short work out of them, the same thing would probably hold true for most of the stronger OW boss fights like Amala. They might be efficient vs. normal zombies and stuff but than again this goes for pretty much everything else as you almost just need to breathe on these mobs in order to blow them away.

 

I can see both reasons, and personally i'd love to see them used in other places. I understand why they currently aren't but here's hoping future releases/maps allow their usage.

[zealex.9410]

> @"Tails.9372" said:

> > @"zealex.9410" said:

> > > @"Tails.9372" said:

> > > The turrets feel like a huge missed opportunity, they should have been a gizmo like the Prototype Position Rewinder from episode 2 awarded to the player after completing all the achievements. Also, properly using them shouldn't require spare parts (or anything else for that matter). Nobody is doing to farm trash mobs just to use a gimmick and as others already pointed out they shouldn't be limited to Kourna.

> >

> > I dont think they should be completely free but the farming method shouldnt be the one we have rn. Instead give us blish's arm ability n5 to use on the turrets in kourna to farm them faster and allow us to use turrets anywhere in the ow.

> This would still be to off putting for too many people, remember that these are just gimmicks without any real use. They're not going to do anything vs. any real content (except for PvP based modes in which they shouldn't be allowed in) any room cleaning AoE of the more advanced bosses would make short work out of them, the same thing would probably hold true for most of the stronger OW boss fights like Amala. They might be efficient vs. normal zombies and stuff but then again this goes for pretty much everything else as you almost just need to breathe on these mobs in order to blow them away.

 

I believe that if they were treated like minions do which take less dmg from aoes they would be fine. There would prob be a need for some hp buffs but i honestly seem them working well in fights where there can be safe spots.

[hugo.4705]

Just about these turrets, it would be nice to be able to deploy them on any map, it's a great improvement, and nice idea by the way.

[GrubySzymek.1362]

I completed turrent achievements yesterday. I don't mind some grind for rewards, but since I can't use these turrets outside of Kourna it feels like game wants to waste my time more than usual with this achievement.

[Zaraki.5784]

Most important thing, could you add the option to deploy them in every Tyria's map? They being able to be deployed only in Kourna feels really unrewarding, compared to the work spent from both parts (ours, for unlocking high level upgrades and yours, for your dev time spent on a "single-map only" object).