Phorgetting the Phalanx

[Veteran]

People are constantly saying how bases need some magical new defense bonus, and yet more than half the time I survey a sieged base, the turrets are destroyed and nobody is repairing them.

The Phalanx turrets recently got a huge buff. They are absolutely sick now. So how come so few people will dedicate themselves to keeping them repaired?

[Sprog]

You seem to be forgetting a few things.

1) As soon as the phalanx is repaired, an ground or air vehicle within range is automatically fired upon. This will alert enemies, causing them to fire upon the turret, and the poor solider repairign it. The engineer is most likely to either get a tank shell in the face, sniped, or killed from the collateral damaged caused from the turret exploding.

2) If the generator is down, then turrets wont work

3) If the base has been ninja hacked, then the turrets wont work

4) If you are usign a turret to shoot at tanks and other enemies, you telling everybody "HEY LOOK AT ME!! IM IN A MASSIVE TARGET THAT CANT DODGE YOUR SHOTS!!! PLEASE COME KILL ME!!!

[Veteran]

You raise valid points. Perhaps the turrets need more advanced blast-shielding for repair personnel.

[Aurorapro]

Why dont people do the multiple engineer trick like they do with Max units? it may work. as the phalanx turret can easily damage a vehicle.

[JakeLogan]

Yeah this is true 3 phalanx turrets can takedown multiple vanguards quite easily

[Majik]

Yeah this is true 3 phalanx turrets can takedown multiple vanguards quite easily

What base has 3 turrets with enough overlapping LOS to all target the same tank?

I have been one of many engineers in massive defenses trying to keep turrets alive. While we stand there with our glue guns, motionless, snipers and AC pick us off and tanks pound the hell out of the turret. We can usually keep a turret alive for 30 seconds before we are respawning, during which the gunner is lucky to take out 1 tank and maybe chase away some air units.
In a massive infantry assault engineers can usually keep the turret up against the onslaught of rockets from troops, but once you throw calvalry and air into the assault we don't have a chance.

[Jagd]

What is it, 4 or 5 Liberator bombs to squash a turret? And only a few more tank shells than that.

[Mudflap]

Keeping turrets up is a big part of base defense. The turrets, mines, and vehicles are the only thing that stops enemy vehicles from taking the courtyard. And we all know that once the courtyard is taken, it's just about over(no, not always).

I repair turrets when I can, but the real problem is that automatic base defense turrets give xp to nobody. The carrot is completely absent there. People tend to think along these lines: "Hey, I can repair the turret, and maybe hold off teh zerg a bit, or I can go kill a few people and get a few thousand xp."

If they made the turrets a little more fun, maybe a little more armored, then they would be something worthwhile. As it is, if you mount a turret during defensive operations, you're almost certainly going to die....quickly.

Doubling current turret armor might actually be justified. Keep in mind, this is not mobile artillery, this is a base hardpoint. Why is its armor half that of a tank?

[JakeLogan]

What base has 3 turrets with enough overlapping LOS to all target the same tank?

Dropship center bud

[Peacemaker]

God not phalnaxs. Those things are the worst defensive measure in the game. The devs didnt really think about the idea of Zones of fire. Most bases have trees and crap in their way. Need fields of fire ppl then phalnaxs would be effective.

[Black]

I think that there should be 3 turrets 2 on the main enterence wall and one on the ground thats covered from the Metal boxes witch is in the middle of the enterence


(remember its jus an idea) :groovy:

[dscytherulez]

Turrets are almost always the target when they are alive. Once reavers or tanks or libs, or basically anything powerful enough hear a turret, its out in seconds. It's just too hard to keep them alive and pretty much not even worth it for engineers. It's just too easy to take them out. A steady stream of reaver rockets, combined with one or two tank shells kills em pretty fast. I used my lightning and took out 3 manned turrets on my own. All you have to do is get behind a hill, use 3rd person, and start barraging them with shells...they cant even hit you...or you could get under them and hit them, which is way too easy with fast vehs like lightnings.

A shield or armor buff I think would be good. Maybe give it a personal shield with a shield mod?

[Black]

a personnel shield with a shield mod would be good of course it would drain power when it shoots the shield should come down

[martyr]

You seem to be forgetting a few things.

1) As soon as the phalanx is repaired, an ground or air vehicle within range is automatically fired upon. This will alert enemies, causing them to fire upon the turret, and the poor solider repairign it. The engineer is most likely to either get a tank shell in the face, sniped, or killed from the collateral damaged caused from the turret exploding.

2) If the generator is down, then turrets wont work

3) If the base has been ninja hacked, then the turrets wont work

4) If you are usign a turret to shoot at tanks and other enemies, you telling everybody "HEY LOOK AT ME!! IM IN A MASSIVE TARGET THAT CANT DODGE YOUR SHOTS!!! PLEASE COME KILL ME!!!

[_-Gunslinger-_]

Double the armor and make it so that they have shields. Not needing the shield mod but a linked AMP station. Double the engies? HA. I tried this you need around 4 on one turret to keep it at 50-60%. Then a reaver comes by and kills 5 people in ONE sweep. Not to mention now the turret is down.

[martyr]

haha, during a base defense some no-cr guy broadcasted an order:

"man all the turrets, three engineers reapairing each one!"

i think he got laughed right out of the soi.

[Queensidecastle]

I think people would use them more if the Engineer repairing them wasnt complete and total sniper bait

[infinite loop]

Yeah it's just another sign that whoever designed the bases for "defense" was smoking the good stuff. Those turrets are death traps, and I don't bother with them anymore. They should either have more armor or even be indestructible.

What about this idea. Put a bunker around/behind the turrets that covers entry to them. Have the bunker go inside the base wall, with a short staircase or ladder down into the courtyard. This way, you could have engineers inside the bunker, able to repair the turrets w/o being exposed. They need something like this to ever be effective.

[Majik]

I think people would use them more if the Engineer repairing them wasnt complete and total sniper bait

I expect to get flamed for this BUT, I would actaully pick up the Inf armor for base defenses if I could use my glue gun in that armor. Perhaps make the bank usable for more than armor at a much slower rate than the nano-dispenser. At least then the engineers could try and fix a turret without EVERY enemy unit targeting right in on them. Could even make for some interesting infiltrations into enemy hacked bases to try and get the gen or tubes back up :D

[Liquidtide]

Maybe, just Maybe Turrets should not be able to be destroyed? ..waiting....waiting....flames comming..

That OR...
one of the older suggestions was lock on missle secondary mode to help against Air and distant vehicles. I like the COF and speed of the turrets but you all are correct in saying the speed of death inside of a turret is a little over say, 6 seconds. I agree something needs to be done, possibly more armor, higher angle for firing and an alt mode and you THEN have yourself some base defense.

~Tide

[gonnagetyou]

Turrets are simply big targets with a gun on them. I used to run around trying to keep them repaired but it became a futile effort and I gave it up. Pretty much every turret gets destroyed in the first minute of a zerg assault and they stay down for the rest of the attack.

Now smaller fights are an exception. I'll actually put some effort into manning turrets and keeping them repaired when the enemy is light and there's some chance of them being useful.

As others have suggested, I think some sort of shielding and a boost in armor is what they need as an immediate fix.

[UncleDynamite]

I'll ditto the problems of repairing Phalanxs in heavy battles. It would nice if there was a sort of engineering port at the base of the tower which the turret was mounted on. That way engineers can repair the turret while in the courtyard, keeping them far safer.

Eventually, the devs should considering doubling the number of current Phalanxs. Having one turret at each corner isn't sufficient at all. At least one, perferably two Phalanxs should be placed evenly midway on a typical wall. Might seem overpowered at first, but hey, it's defense. We need the extra firepower.

[Unknown]

I remember back in beta if you had an AMP station, the turrets had a primitive shielding (no shield graphic when firing on it, but it had a blue health meter overlapping the normal green health meter graphic) that you had to drain first before you could hit the armor of the turret. Dunno what they did with that...

[EarlyDawn]

Bunker/staircase system for the turrets would be nice. OBO upgrade, maybe?

[Vick]

Only thing turrets are good at is anti-reaver ownage.

[Phaden]

Ok after hearing all this, am i the only guy who uses the turrets succsefully?? My typical turret style is run out in agile with glue gun filled with over 700 repair juice. Ill repair a turret till full then hop in with avd target and actually own ass on the infantry and light vehics. In one turret sitting with no repair, i took out 2 prowlers and a flail plus some infantry before they killed me. Granted they must have not caught on quickly, but i think thats really good. Typically i just hop out when almost ded and crouch behind the stairs for teh turret. They blow it up i wait 5 secinds or so till the firing stops, and then repair it all over again.

I think it works good and since the damage buff, it works alot better. I personall ylike defense much moire than offense. If we start having better chances against larger forces, then yee haw! Im all for it.

[flypengy]

Didn't the devs make mention of enhanced defenses with obo?

[Rbstr]

As a sniper there is no easier kill than a fool repairing the turrets that will get bown away by reaver/tanks/av to moment they are repaired

[UncleDynamite]

As a sniper there is no easier kill than a fool repairing the turrets that will get bown away by reaver/tanks/av to moment they are repaired

This is very true. And the more engineers there are repairing, the more vulnerable they become.

[Fenrys]

Now smaller fights are an exception. I'll actually put some effort into manning turrets and keeping them repaired when the enemy is light and there's some chance of them being useful.



Ditto. I was in a platoon-on-platoon skirmish last night, defending an air tower, and used the turrets to devestating effect. I was able to take out 2 Vanguards, 4 reavers, a few MAXs, an AMS, 2 Lightnings, a Mosquito, and a handfull of infantry, and only died twice while inside it. We had about 5 guys dedicated to manning/repairing the 2 turrets.

[Veteran]

I hate to see repair personnel made easy victims. These are people that will cast off the lust for fame that the leaderboard people wear about their necks like slave-chains.

Anyone can be a hotdog. It takes a special man or woman to be support personnel. I'd rather have one good support troop than 10 hotdogs. Seriously: a soldier who repairs base assets while his head is exposed to every sniper has ten times the gonads of a Heavy Assault goon who surges unchallenged through the bowels of the base.

[infinite loop]

I hate to see repair personnel made easy victims. These are people that will cast off the lust for fame that the leaderboard people wear about their necks like slave-chains.

Anyone can be a hotdog. It takes a special man or woman to be support personnel. I'd rather have one good support troop than 10 hotdogs. Seriously: a soldier who repairs base assets while his head is exposed to every sniper has ten times the gonads of a Heavy Assault goon who surges unchallenged through the bowels of the base.

How do you feel about people who do both?

[SandTrout]

Backdoor is easy to defend, if you dont think so, you've never done it with more than 2 people. That's besides the point though.

More turrets are neccisary on most of the bases, as are stairs to the roof(damn BS, er, VS MAXes).

[Madcow]

Because of this post I spent a good portion of playing last night making attempts to heal the turrets at a critical tower that was constantly being sieged. I successfully repaired either of the turrets exactly 0 times. The only use that I was to my team was ringing the top of the tower with mines to slow down the multiple hot-dropping surgile Jacks. The instant I got crouched behind either turret with my glue gun out I started taking fire, and didn't get any turret healed more than 1/4 of the way before dying.

Yeah, there's a reason you don't see more people doing it.

[Queensidecastle]

If each base had a command room that only CR3-5 could enter and a war table that only CR5s could utilize for base defense, this type of problem could be fixed. Instead of Engys trying to repair and getting perma-sniped, commanders could redirect NTUs to keep the turrets propped up. Of course they would need a constant stream of ANTs but that would create other interesting tactics

[TheRagingGerbil]

There is never any engy's repairing your turrets because I snipe there crouching asses before they can get the job done.

[Sieldan]

If each base had a command room that only CR3-5 could enter and a war table that only CR5s could utilize for base defense, this type of problem could be fixed. Instead of Engys trying to repair and getting perma-sniped, commanders could redirect NTUs to keep the turrets propped up. Of course they would need a constant stream of ANTs but that would create other interesting tactics

Now this is a cool idea. And one I heartily support. Not that that means a whole bunch.

[xmodum]

how about this .... its just an idea .
Make another mod ... called the "Deffensive Module"
For the base that it is installed in , the turrets would be automaticlly changed to the turrets from the caverns , any1 can use them (so some1 without CC can use them)
For even 5 min that its stays in the base , a linked base will get the cavern turrets ....
and then the base linked to the base that was linked to the mod holding base would get them another 5 min later via links ... and so on through the links.

Just an idea ... but i do think that if not this, then at least give the turrets a little bit of a defensive buff plz

[Ait'al]

You cant send out enough people to keep the assaulting force busy to then man turrets and use them as help for the defending forces outside the walls? I mean by haveing them maned and make sure there not firing and drawing attention untill all the oncoming forces are fully enganged by the defending troops/vehicles?

[Vis Armata]

If each base had a command room that only CR3-5 could enter and a war table that only CR5s could utilize for base defense, this type of problem could be fixed. Instead of Engys trying to repair and getting perma-sniped, commanders could redirect NTUs to keep the turrets propped up. Of course they would need a constant stream of ANTs but that would create other interesting tactics

You would think that the control consoles (yeah, the things we hack) would actually run the base, besides conferring control on someone else. Perhaps something similar will be part of the OBO.

I also thought that outfits were going to be able to spend points on base upgrades; perhaps better turrets fall under that?

[Queensidecastle]

True, but I fear 3 things about OBO:

1) Small outfits will not be able to sustain a base (people not playing 24/7) and knowing such not want to spend the points necessary to trick out a base. Mostly because:

2) Any full zerg will crush an outfit base causing a huge lost of points expenditures (extra harsh on small outfits that spent a lot of time saving up)

3) Many outfits, not many bases. Certainly not many bases available that are Zerg resistant like Tech plants that are far on the lattice from warp links. Just imagine trying to hold Wele on Cyssor as your outfit base.

I would like to see some sort of additional defensive measures for bases that arent only OBO. Defensive module was a good idea