Am I missing something with the turrets?

[Kurtino]

I don't really understand their design. The upgrades for them imply you should be either deploying multiple, or that you can move them, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Why do turrets cost more the more I place, and why is there a dedicated tree to reducing the increasing cost, if I can't remove them? The downside of having limited placements is enough of a mechanic on it's own, IF you can't move them, because the chances of you benefiting from multiple turrets is unlikely.

For example, if you're lucky that you have multiple mines next to each other that you're going to be spending a lot of time on, then you might get some benefit from turrets firing at things off-screen, but again usually this isn't going to be the case, and turrets have limited benefit the further you travel (because mines are spread out amongst clouds, and you don't repeat areas). Which begs the question, why would I place towers to defend a zone that I'll never come back to beyond walking past if I want to change wall directions?

Basically, if I could freely place and move turrets then the increasing cost and limit would make sense, because having 3-5 turrets in one area would be powerful, hence the increased cost for upkeep. Right now multiple turrets don't benefit me, so why would I be paying an increasing cost? If I have 5 "charges" of turrets that I have to choose tactically where to place because I only have a limited amount of them, fair enough, but why the increased cost per charge?

The drone is infinitely better than the turret, being turret itself that is essentially always following you. What exactly are the benefits of turrets over drones that would make up for not only the initial and growing resource cost, but taking up parts of the upgrade tree to decrease costs as well?

It feels like the turret has been thrown in for the game to be classified as a soft "tower defence" and advertised as such in the trailer, yet there's no real game play decision around it. Or am I wrong and you actually can move them, and I'm completely misunderstanding their mechanics?

[Dave]

You're not missing anything.

[DrWilyeCoyote]

he is missing a dedicated upgrade tree for teh turrets that he didnt seem to notice. but yes the turrets are kinda inferior to the drone, although if you find yourself in a area with a few tightly packed mines a turret or two isnt a bad idea. really saved my rear the first time one of those wall boss things showed up when the counter hit 0.

[KamiNoBaka]

As a counterpoint, strategically ending up near a couple of closely-spaced mines with turrets on them can get you past the second boss encounter before you're ready for it, in terms of permanent upgrades.

Turrets could definitely use a rework, though. Only removing the increasing cost would make them just plain OP in certain situations, even with the placement limit. I'd suggest upping the cost to place, adding an option to either deconstruct or move the turrets (the turret could actually physically move to the next mine taking time for balance) that still costs a small amount of resources, making the upgrades that increase the number you can place be the only way to place more than one, and replacing the reduced cost upgrades with something interesting, like some kind of specialization. That would make it more worth it to buy the upgrades, and there would be more interesting upgrades to buy.

[Philburt The Great]

Imo the drone is just the best artifact you can get period with Overdrive coming in close second. For the most part though I feel a lot of the artifacts are significantly less impactful than say the upgrade chips which can give you like +30% mining efficiency.

[KamiNoBaka]

Originally posted by Philburt The Great:

Imo the drone is just the best artifact you can get period with Overdrive coming in close second. For the most part though I feel a lot of the artifacts are significantly less impactful than say the upgrade chips which can give you like +30% mining efficiency.

I'd still argue that turrets are situationally better than drone. First time I beat the first boss encounter I had two turrets up and only got one homing missile off. Only had the first turret upgrade, too. Have not had similar results with the drone.

[Grimm]

With the Spider speed upgrades, one could set up the turrets outside close set mines as a boss fighting spot. Then use the speed upgrades to make your way back to it before each countdown to zero for the boss fights. There are certainly other ways that require much less focus on time management, but it’s an option for someone out there.

[Kurtino]

My issue is turrets seemed only good when I was first starting to play the game. Although setting up turrets for boss fights is cute, to kill a boss you're essentially just waiting for the missile cooldown, and turrets don't need to do damage to the boss, you just need to survive. I could place a lot of them around me to help clear the waves, but it would be better for me to invest in say bomb launcher, which clears everything a boss timer fight throws at you anyway.

At the point in the game where turrets become economically viable, you've already got way better answers for everything. I'd rather invest in drill efficiency so I can clear caves quicker, so I'm not staying at a cave long enough to even get value out of the turret, and the rest of my resources go into a weapon that's used to clear whatever's outside (although I'm not staying longer than 2 waves for a cave now).

Originally posted by Grimm:

With the Spider speed upgrades, one could set up the turrets outside close set mines as a boss fighting spot. Then use the speed upgrades to make your way back to it before each countdown to zero for the boss fights. There are certainly other ways that require much less focus on time management, but it’s an option for someone out there.

That's so much wasted time and resources for boss fights just so I could potentially prevent some damage to myself. With full spider movement upgrades I'd rather spend that time getting more resources rather than trying to setup a dedicated spot to come back to, especially when clearing caves becomes considerably faster late-game and you're travelling far deeper. Since turrets do virtually no damage to the boss past the first timer, and the first timer doesn't need turrets once you've upgraded your missile enough to 2 shot it, I just don't see the point.

[UneasyBoosh]

Originally posted by ( °□°) ︵:

As a counterpoint, strategically ending up near a couple of closely-spaced mines with turrets on them can get you past the second boss encounter before you're ready for it, in terms of permanent upgrades.

This.

earlier when I was progressing when I was getting close to second boss I would setup two turrets at 2 close mines to take him out. then after I could mine those two in relative safe waves with turret support.

Later when you are zooming they fall off but they don't cost much and upgrades are cheap in the grand scheme of things. Since the game (for better or worse) gates progress many items seem to be more useful at different points in progress.

[FIZZ]

Originally posted by ( °□°) ︵:

As a counterpoint, strategically ending up near a couple of closely-spaced mines with turrets on them can get you past the second boss encounter before you're ready for it, in terms of permanent upgrades.

Three close mines is how i cleared Timer 2 my first success :D