Are explosive rockets ever useful in turrets?

[Hurkyl]

I've been playing around with the Rocket Turret. I've mainly been loading them with the basic Rocket since it has high damage, but occasionally I've tried using the Explosive Rocket for aoe purposes.

The idea is that the explosive rockets can take out swarms while the other turrets focus on the big threats.

This didn't work: the rockets were taking out my own base instead.

Then on the Space Platform, I was looking at the splitting of the bigger asteroid types, and I figured at some point, there would be nice clusters of asteroids to blow up.

That didn't work so well, since the turrets would still fire at all of the individual asteroids in the cluster and waste rockets. It would again have been better firing the basic Rocket.

I might try exactly one turret armed with Explosive Rockets that is filtered to target the smaller asteroid types while the other rocket turrets aim at bigger ones. That would hopefully avoid the overkill problem... but I'm not confident it would go well or that it would even be worth the trouble.

Does anyone use Explosive Rockets effectively in turrets? Or are they really just for active assaults by foot or spider?

[Fel]

They work against swarms but the AoE makes them dangerous unless you make the turrets ignore bitters.
In that way, they can kind of replace flamethrower turrets but spitters have higher resistances to explosion damage so it's not that great either.

I wouldn't use anything with AoE in turrets that would potentially fire close to your own things, so explosive rockets and their upgraded version (nukes) are things I would not put in turrets unless I had a specific scenario for it (turrets not necessarily meant to survive and just take out as many enemies as possible with them for example).

[dragonsphotoworks]

Originally posted by Fel:

They work against swarms but the AoE makes them dangerous unless you make the turrets ignore bitters.
In that way, they can kind of replace flamethrower turrets but spitters have higher resistances to explosion damage so it's not that great either.

I wouldn't use anything with AoE in turrets that would potentially fire close to your own things, so explosive rockets and their upgraded version (nukes) are things I would not put in turrets unless I had a specific scenario for it (turrets not necessarily meant to survive and just take out as many enemies as possible with them for example).

Your reply is right but... you mention Biters bud :-) He talking about space the astroids. But ya same situation different target so your reply stands :-)

[Fel]

The second part is about the asteroids but the first part was more generalist (even mentionning taking out swarms).

[dragonsphotoworks]

Originally posted by Fel:

The second part is about the asteroids but the first part was more generalist (even mentionning taking out swarms).

Oh i wasnt intending to sound negative. Just thought be funny to mention the biters and spitters part is all. As normally your straight to the point and on point is all.

So was surprised when he asked space and you mentioned biters :-) Guess i misworded my reply again, sorry. Been getting worse with that lately. I keep having things mix up on me a lot lately. Think im just getting too old.

[knighttemplar1960]

I've made an attempt to use explosive rockets in rocket turrets on Nauvis. I have had limited success targeting only the behemoth biters and setting a limit with a timer using the circuit network to limit the number of rockets available to an initial salvo. It works but not any better than the set ups from 1.0 and its lots more expensive than flamethrowers with a back up turret.

Those trials convinced me not to attempt explosive rockets on a platform.

[Fel]

Originally posted by dragonsphotoworks:

Originally posted by Fel:

The second part is about the asteroids but the first part was more generalist (even mentionning taking out swarms).

Oh i wasnt intending to sound negative. Just thought be funny to mention the biters and spitters part is all. As normally your straight to the point and on point is all.

So was surprised when he asked space and you mentioned biters :-) Guess i misworded my reply again, sorry. Been getting worse with that lately. I keep having things mix up on me a lot lately. Think im just getting too old.

Don't worry, I didn't take it as negative in the first place.
His whole question was "are explosive rockets ever useful in turrets", OP first tried to find a use for it on the ground but ended up destroying his own stuff in the process from the AoE, so he shifted his attention to space where it "might" be more useful at taking out groups of asteroids at once.
But even on the platform, it's the same problem, if the asteroids get close enough to your platform you end up damaging it and what is on it with the AoE.

The fact that you can't get the turrets to really take full advantage of the AoE doesn't help either.
If they don't end up targetting a tight group, they do less damage than normal rockets.

Overall, most AoE stuff are best reserved for the player, flamethrower turrets are only an exception thanks to walls being completely immune to fire damage.
Explosive rockets still do relatively well in combat spidertrons thanks to their high resistances towards explosion damage but they are not really "turrets".

[dragonsphotoworks]

Originally posted by Fel:

Originally posted by dragonsphotoworks:

Oh i wasnt intending to sound negative. Just thought be funny to mention the biters and spitters part is all. As normally your straight to the point and on point is all.

So was surprised when he asked space and you mentioned biters :-) Guess i misworded my reply again, sorry. Been getting worse with that lately. I keep having things mix up on me a lot lately. Think im just getting too old.

Don't worry, I didn't take it as negative in the first place.
His whole question was "are explosive rockets ever useful in turrets", OP first tried to find a use for it on the ground but ended up destroying his own stuff in the process from the AoE, so he shifted his attention to space where it "might" be more useful at taking out groups of asteroids at once.
But even on the platform, it's the same problem, if the asteroids get close enough to your platform you end up damaging it and what is on it with the AoE.

The fact that you can't get the turrets to really take full advantage of the AoE doesn't help either.
If they don't end up targetting a tight group, they do less damage than normal rockets.

Overall, most AoE stuff are best reserved for the player, flamethrower turrets are only an exception thanks to walls being completely immune to fire damage.
Explosive rockets still do relatively well in combat spidertrons thanks to their high resistances towards explosion damage but they are not really "turrets".

Ah the problem was I DIDNT read his post well... I seem to have missed the whole first part. Its not edited so was there whole time. Been up around 20 hours... So seems my brain only half working lol That or my brain just picked and choose a part and blanked the rest out :-)

But ya rereading his post yours makes perfect sense. I never had good luck with explosives in this game. Other then manually throwing grenades. So personally imma skip them :-)

[Hurkyl]

Originally posted by Fel:

They work against swarms but the AoE makes them dangerous unless you make the turrets ignore bitters.
In that way, they can kind of replace flamethrower turrets but spitters have higher resistances to explosion damage so it's not that great either.

Hrm. I had in mind specifically the wrigglers on Gleba, but the hordes of small biters that come with an attack wave on Nauvis was something running through my mind at the time.

But using them for the spitters would seem ideal since they cooperate and bunch up in groups well away from your structures. And rockets fire quick enough that maybe you can splash damage onto part of the biter wave coming with the spitters.

Originally posted by Fel:

If they don't end up targetting a tight group, they do less damage than normal rockets.

I had the thought in space when working out how to destroy a huge asteroid. Since it shatters into 3 big, which become 9 medium then 27 small, I figured there would excellent groups of targets for the aoe. I was right in that fact -- but overkill made the aoe pointless so often that I'm pretty sure normal rockets would have been better.

[god bless you]

Just unlock and test it.
I'm disappointed.
https://i.imgur.com/LGbn6hg.jpeg

[Marosh]

All explosives are kinda underwhelming in this game. They are simply not worth the extra ressources and problems they potentially cause.

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by Marosh:

All explosives are kinda underwhelming in this game. They are simply not worth the extra ressources and problems they potentially cause.

They have good points. Clearing nests by hand with explosive rockets, clearing nests remotely using spidertrons with explosive rockets, clearing nests with a tank equipped with explosive shells, and artillery. You just need to keep explosive AoEs away from your structures.

[Marosh]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Originally posted by Marosh:

All explosives are kinda underwhelming in this game. They are simply not worth the extra ressources and problems they potentially cause.

They have good points. Clearing nests by hand with explosive rockets, clearing nests remotely using spidertrons with explosive rockets, clearing nests with a tank equipped with explosive shells, and artillery. You just need to keep explosive AoEs away from your structures.

Tanks with explosive shells are a trap. The normal shells have pierce which is also AoE, just in a line. That makes them actually safer because they oblitarate anything bewteen you and your target, if a stream of biter attacks you. And if you target the furthes nest, you kill multiple nests with one shell.

The rest is preferences. Explosives have lower initial dmg, so you need a similar amount of ammo unless you have a really, really big hit. At that point they simply cost to much + the extra research you need.

That is what makes them underwhelming. Not useless, but just not there where I would like them to be.

[Hurkyl]

As an update, after retrofitting my explosive rocket block into a normal rocket block, I decided to go through the effort to wire up one rocket turret to have a forced delay after firing, and produce explosive rockets just for that one.

I'm decently pleased with the results in the more asteroid-dense regions of space. Still not sure yet as the ship still needs a lot of rejiggering.

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by Marosh:

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

They have good points. Clearing nests by hand with explosive rockets, clearing nests remotely using spidertrons with explosive rockets, clearing nests with a tank equipped with explosive shells, and artillery. You just need to keep explosive AoEs away from your structures.

Tanks with explosive shells are a trap. The normal shells have pierce which is also AoE, just in a line. That makes them actually safer because they oblitarate anything bewteen you and your target, if a stream of biter attacks you. And if you target the furthes nest, you kill multiple nests with one shell.

The rest is preferences. Explosives have lower initial dmg, so you need a similar amount of ammo unless you have a really, really big hit. At that point they simply cost to much + the extra research you need.

That is what makes them underwhelming. Not useless, but just not there where I would like them to be.

I have yet to be trapped. I use the flame thrower first and fire the explosive shells after the wave has immolated itself. The equipment grid makes a big difference. The resistances the bugs, spawners, and worms have isn't that hard to overcome especially with a few stronger explosives researches. The explosive radius also make the explosive shell have a longer range by the radius of the explosion.

I prefer craters to tunnels.

[Schobbob]

I'm having a great time with explosive rockets in shattered planet region, works way better than the regular rockets because of the high asteroid density.