Tesla Towers

[Synray]

Ive finally got my defences set up for my base, but frostlings and other mobs a whittling down my towers so i was wondering if there was any where to repair them?

[ehyder]

No. Have you triple-stacked the teslas? And I usually add archer towers on the sides to 'bait' the mobs. Cheaper to replace those than the teslas.

[crowbarzero]

I built a bridge that overhangs where they path to my house. They work really well vs the guys as they pass, but make sure the dwarves take out the guys that let the other mobs stack up on them. Only danger is the gargolyes as they fly in pretty fast and can do some damage. Other than that, very late stage, with 4-5 full staged testla towers, nothing was getting thru. Also used 2 sets of doorways to get in with a ladder and 3 archer towers (2 on base level, 1 on same level as the testla towers) to help guard.

[ehyder]

I use bridges as well to provide better firing range for the towers, and strongly recommend adding fences on the ground to slow down the mobs and give the towers take them out. I also build so that the gargoyles are funneled towards the towers, giving them less opportunity to mob a tower.

[GamingMuddler]

@ehyder - care to show one little pic of that? - sounds interesting.

[ehyder]

It's not pretty, but here is an early game version of my gargoyle protection layout. Once the advanced defenses become available I add towers/bridges/fences and replace the sand walls with brick and doors.

I'm finding you do not really need to do this on the Forest World now that they ramped down on the gargoyle attacks. But this design helped a lot on the next two campaign worlds.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5Gewu-3qhdANElsTktmNVdiU2M

[ReneMiner]

i stick to keeping the side-exits as close as possible together so i can fast move my dwarves to defend the other side of the base. Also a trap or spikes on bridge in front of the tesla will protect your towers. Keep a few towers out of range of the other enemies so these can cover the main-attack-towers. Wooden towers have a higher range but lower durability - so keep them behind tesla, else you'll lose them.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423850642

[ehyder]

Nice, my variation is very early game. In campaign I have been spending less and less time on the shelter. I tend to go balance low cost and effectiveness. The one downside to this strategy is that it does tend to be higher maintenance. Just like the real world!

[smoothed]

you don't even need teslas or towers if you build down and to the side

[xenxander]

Does anyone know the damage for level 1, 2, and 3 teslas?

I had an idea about building smaller tesla variants above one another, instead of just a x3 tesla.
I was thinking 2 level 1 or 2 level 2's might do more damage than a single level 3 and I have an idea about how to make that work.

But I would need to know the damage of each level, to see if this is even worth while.

[stylez]

Keep in mind, Tesla Tower not only has greater damage, but also a greater range and greater Health when you upgrade it to Tier 3. The relevant info from the game files:

    <item name="tesla_tower1" ... properties="...healt=11,radius=5...">

    <item name="tesla_tower2" ... properties="...healt=28,radius=5...">

    <item name="tesla_tower3" ... properties="...healt=44,radius=6...">

    <item name="tesla_spark1" properties="...healt=-0.3..."/>
    <item name="tesla_spark2" properties="...healt=-0.5..."/>
    <item name="tesla_spark3" properties="...healt=-1..."/>

So a Tier 2 Tesla is less overall damage than two Tier 1 Teslas, with the same range, but it has 28 HP vs 22 (combined) HP.

A Tier 3 Tesla is slightly more effective damage-wise compared to three Tier 1 Teslas, while having 1 extra range, and 44 HP vs 33 (combined) HP.

[xenxander]

Hmm. Three level 1 does slighlty less damage than 1 level 3, but the level 3 has +1 range, wherease both level 1 and 2 have identical ranges.

One level 1 and one level 2 seems to yield less damage than a level 3. The only benefit to this would be one more 'shot' fired.

While that might not seem like a big dela, that you get just one more bolt out there can make a difference, considering it does chain.
I may try an experiment with a setup. The one problem is, due to the 1 less range, I would have to go with a below + above approach, instead of a 'two above' formate. But when you put teslas 'below' the walkway, the only way to effectively do this, is via hatches.
There are no steel hatches in the game, just iron and with a 5 portal wave, I'm worried that they won't last.
Perhaps though with a more concentrated firing zone, that can be mitidaged. *ponders*