The case for automated turrets

[Rothnang]

I think the turrets in bases should be automated, and attack enemies even if they aren't currently crewed.

How they should work:

They prioritize targets acording to what they are best against to what they are worst against first, and distance to target second. So an anti tank turret will always prioritize ground vehicles if there are any, an anti air turret will always prioritize air vehicles if there are any and so on. It will always shoot at the closest target.

Target priority:
Anti tank: Ground vehicles > Infantry > Aircraft
Anti Infantry: Infantry > Aircraft > Ground Vehicles
Anti Air: Aircraft > Infantry > Ground Vehicles

When the turret is unmanned it isn't very smart. It will always follow this pattern, no matter if that means its getting its ass kicked. (For example, a flash riding around in circles dodging its shots while an MBT is wrecking the turret, the turret will continue to fire on the Flash as long as its closer)

The turret will also have no predictive AI, it will fire exactly where its target is at the time, meaning that it will have a very hard time hitting moving targets that are not coming straight at the turret.

An AI controlled turret fires in a pattern that doesn't let the turret overheat, so it has a steady output of damage, firing in short bursts, but it doesn't ever overheat its weapon to spike its damage output momentarily.

A hacked turret can be piloted by an enemy player, but it does not become AI controlled by the opposing faction.

Turrets will never target cloaked units.

A player in a turret should make the turret more threatening by giving it predictive targeting and intelligence.

Why I think this would improve the game:

Basically defensive perimeters around bases are pretty meaningless right now because they don't serve as a real force multiplier. Your average amp station has somewhere around 20-30 turrets in it, so there really is no way to effectively man all of them. That many players would be much better off simply roaming in the base, protecting the generators. If the defense perimeter was automated there would be a real incentive to actually defend the turrets and keep them up and running. Especially an extensive grid of anti air turrets would provide significant protection to a base until it is destroyed by making it impossible for aircraft to hover overhead. (but they can still fly over due to the automatic targeting being dumb)

Turret farming is currently really lucrative. Just yesterday I made 100 certs in just around 55 minutes by getting into a Liberator by myself on Amerish and wrecking every single enemy turret I could find, and then repairing all of my own factions turrets because none of them were alive due to other people having the same idea. Didn't actually fight a single person doing that. If those turrets would shoot back it wouldn't be anywhere near as easy to take them down.

It would give people time to organize a defense of a base, since taking out the turret grid would take some time. A group of a few people could easily destroy the turret grid by dismantling it carefully, having some units draw the fire while others take out the turrets, or some skillful maneuvering. However, destroying the whole thing and opening a base up for attack would take some time, the turrets are still deadly, and going in reckless would get you killed pretty quickly. Especially stuff like running a single ESF into a base, then blowing up the SCU won't be all that easy if there are a few turrets to defend.

This would also make taking an empty base more entertaining. Yea, shooting at robotic turrets isn't as fun as shooting at players, but it's more fun than shooting at nothing. And as per the point of "Turret farming is lucrative" you'll be shooting all the turrets anyways while the base flips if you are a frugal XP farmer, so why not let them shoot back for a bit of entertainment.