Custom Turret Controller - first time using it...

[Scoob]

Hey all,

Last time I played, this block did not exist. Gotta say, what an excellent addition to the game!

I can see it'd be great for aligning Solar Panels to the sun - something I did via custom third-party scripts previously. However, for me, it was about making some custom gun turrets!

As I use a few mods, many WeaponCore-based, I thought I'd add the longest-ranged fixed laser I had available to a custom turret. This thing has an EIGHT Kilometre range!

I set it up pretty quickly, and manually controlled it to shoot some wrecks over 5km away. Worked great. I'd not at this point had it fire under AI control though. As luck would have it, that didn't take long. I'd just jumped into my Mining vessel when a hostile spawned in. The turrets was engaging at close to its maximum range, opening fire long before my regular "only 4km" range regular turrets started shooting.

I got back to my base and I saw my custom turret firing constantly at the enemy ship until it dropped beyond 8km away. Good test! However, it was with the next enemy that things didn't work quite so well....

I noticed another enemy ship approaching, yet this one was well within 5km yet the custom turret hadn't started shooting yet. I waited a little long and still no shooting. I jumped into the turret myself and opened fire - most satisfying - and that worked fine. I then exited manual control and now the turret fired its self.

Enemy ship crashed, falling behind a hill about five or so km away. However, despite no LoS, the custom turret keeps shooting, just hitting terrain.

So, in summary, this is a GREAT addition to the game, but suffers from two issues:

1) Sometime there's a long delay before it fires, sometimes it works great. Consistency is lacking.

2) When aiming and firing, it seems to not take into account blocking terrain. Regular turrets can be seen doing this from time to time, so I guess the same, slightly flawed, aiming logic is used.

All in all, I'm pretty happy, thought my "Uber Gun" offering long-range protection for my base is a little unreliable...

How are others finding this block? I know I'm waaaay late to the party here lol.

[SEKSP_9002]

whats the name of the part??

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, I like to have only one on top of an Indestructible Defense Tower or one station and set that CTC turret to target large block Warships only.

I prefer to lower all my turrets range and lure the enemy so it can come closer, because they miss a lot on long range moving enemy ships and lose all my ammos on those missed long range shots = End up no more ammos once the enemy ship is getting closer.
+
The sad part is that they keep shooting all in their way, even my other ships/stations and friends ships, also keep shooting at the soil (Voxel) till the enemy ship is completely destoyed that empty my ammos way faster in survival.

That said, Ilike it a lot to control handmade turrets, moving arms on stations and ships or "Crane" like setups, also for solar panels to track the sun. (edited)


___

Note

Weaponcore users told me that Mod deletes some Vanilla options on the CTC block.

[Dan2D3D]

I will add :

-> 6 normal Gatling turrets is still the minimum to be able to win a battle against SPRT Stations having enemy Drone Spawner with minimum of damages done to our Warship and/or small block Fighter on close combat (100m). and easier to build for sure ;)

+
Normal turrets will save more ammos if not set too long range, well compared to CTC AI shooting all in their way.

[Scoob]

As my game is modified, things are a little different. For example, I'm regularly shot at from 4km away, which means many weapons will not even be in range to return fire. I built regular turrets that matched this range, but any exchange of fire lead to heavy damage to the base too. Fixed weapons have longer ranges than their turret counterparts, hence creating this custom weapon. Works fairly well but sometime the turret won't shoot - until I manually fire it at least once at the target - and it does like trying to shoot through terrain. One target, just under 8km out, is directly on the opposite side of a large hill to me. I had to turn the range down to 7km so it'd not keep trying to shoot it. Regular Gatling Turrets exhbit the same issue.

Originally posted by sorensennation:

whats the name of the part??

The part? Well, there's the Custom Turret Controller, alongside associated Rotors and the Lasers themselves something Mk1A from a weapon pack.

[Dan2D3D]

Cool to see different solutions!

I just use one CTC AI so far and I will surely try different setups at some point :)

The one I've worked on is Rail Gun on station top and not the best cause I must limit its angle for not shooting at the station roof and it keeps shooting when the enemy ship drops out of range (under limited angle) when hidden by the staton roof :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3196628604

[Oparator Stalker]

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

Hi, I like to have only one on top of an Indestructible Defense Tower or one station and set that CTC turret to target large block Warships only.

I prefer to lower all my turrets range and lure the enemy so it can come closer, because they miss a lot on long range moving enemy ships and lose all my ammos on those missed long range shots = End up no more ammos once the enemy ship is getting closer.
+
The sad part is that they keep shooting all in their way, even my other ships/stations and friends ships, also keep shooting at the soil (Voxel) till the enemy ship is completely destoyed that empty my ammos way faster in survival.

That said, Ilike it a lot to control handmade turrets, moving arms on stations and ships or "Crane" like setups, also for solar panels to track the sun. (edited)


___

Note

Weaponcore users told me that Mod deletes some Vanilla options on the CTC block.

Oh idk about that, my turrets eat everything at long range, by the time the enemy is close enough range to my battleship, the pirate ships is torn limb to limb trying to ram me. The bulk of my damage is from being rammed than being shot, they crazy. And I am set to target everything but neutrals/friendlies. And I am not using mods either.

[Dan2D3D]

Originally posted by warcatt00:

Oh idk about that, my turrets eat everything at long range, by the time the enemy is close enough range to my battleship, the pirate ships is torn limb to limb trying to ram me. The bulk of my damage is from being rammed than being shot, they crazy. And I am set to target everything but neutrals/friendlies. And I am not using mods either.

Looks like there are a lot of different gameplay, and I think it's one of the reason why SE is my Favorite sandbox game on Steam.

Thanks for sharing.

[Dan2D3D]

I lure enemy ships to come closer and they get destroyed by my indestructible Defense Tower :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3191775905
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3191775721
=
Not much ammo used and I can loot the Debris of enemy ships very close to my station :)
(edited)

[Dan2D3D]

Back more on Topic :

I have Blueprinted all parts of my CTC turret so I can rebuild in new survival worlds and I can tell it's easier in space (no Gravity), need a lot of practice to attach all parts without problems on planet :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3196627879
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3182320744

[Oparator Stalker]

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

Originally posted by warcatt00:

Oh idk about that, my turrets eat everything at long range, by the time the enemy is close enough range to my battleship, the pirate ships is torn limb to limb trying to ram me. The bulk of my damage is from being rammed than being shot, they crazy. And I am set to target everything but neutrals/friendlies. And I am not using mods either.

Looks like there are a lot of different gameplay, and I think it's one of the reason why SE is my Favorite sandbox game on Steam.

Thanks for sharing.

np

[Scoob]

Thanks for the replies guys, appreciated.

My custom turret was upgrade to have three fixed lasers - each is 1x1x3 - and it worked well. I then added the much larger - like 3x3x5 IIRC - Mk2 version of that laser, it's huge. Now the turret has quite a lot of bounce, I assume due to the added mass. I have the rotors moving quite slowly, but need some more tweaks I think. I've seen guns FAR larger than the one I created.

Didn't get chance to play at all yesterday, perhaps later today!

[Scoob]

Custom Controller still occasionally stalls and simply will not fire at anything, irrespective of the settings. I then jump in, fire manually at the target - which works great - and then the turret will work fine for a bit.

Note: when the turret stops working, it won't even track targets, let alone shoot. It's like it doesn't see them until I shoot them myself.

[Dan2D3D]

One reported having similar problem when entering and exiting the cockpit but the SE Programmer asked for more info and video to help them pinpoint the problem.

You may post in your STR to help :

Custom Turret controller Wont stay on Target
https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers/pc/topic/42410-custom-turret-controller-wont-stay-on-target

EDIT
Reported Bug = Something related to long range.

[Scoob]

Revisiting this topic as I'm still have some issues with the Custom Turret Controller...

I'm quite familiar with how it works now and am able to set up a custom turret with ease. As you'd imagine, I like to put the BEST weapons possible on these, to get the most out of it. As such, I'm using a modded "MK2A" laser. It's a fixed energy weapon - no ammo to worry about - and has an up to 8km range.

I mentioned previous issue where sometimes they don't fire at a valid, in-range target until I manually fire at the target at least once - then the AI takes over when I exit control. However, an in many ways more annoying problem is them constantly IGNORING any obstruction. Player blocks in the way? No problem, fire anyway! Luckily they don't damage own blocks. Terrain in the way? No problem, fire anyway! They don't to terrain damage so they cannot bore through to a *slightly* obscured target.

My Custom Turrets are constantly wasting time and power shooting at things they'll never hit. Currently, and entire hillside is in the way, but my three custom turrets are shooting into the hill.

Is there any way to improve this behaviour? I did wonder if it was the weapon controller freaking out because the modded-in weapons I'm using have very long ranges. However, I see this happen at regular (under 800m) ranges too, so I don't think it's that.

I did look at using one of the AI modules to influence the Base's overall custom turret behaviour, but they seem to be limited to just 2,500m.

Edit: This isn't limited to the Custom Turret Controller, regular turrets seem to suffer from the same issue, though not as often. For example, right now, there's a ship I shot down the other side of the hill. My turrets are firing lasers into the hill in an attempt to hit it, at the same time, the shot-down ship is spamming missiles into the other side of the hill attempting to hit me lol.

Is there any way - be it mod or some setting - to prevent a custom turret from trying to shoot obscured targets? The base wasting fire on a closer, but obscured target vs. the more distance one it can actually hit is a little frustrating.

[Dan2D3D]

IMO
= Best to avoid making too much CTC turrets
or
build only one at soil level setup to do one Job only like shoot large block ship and build your station and ships underground to be sure it will not shoot at your shtuff.

EDIT
I would also lower its range.