Sparktacus

Yeah, solution there is hoverpads, with round voxel "wheels" hiding them. Did someting similar in empyrion to make an E:D rover

Hence the idea of the type of automatable turrets being limited. Im literally talking about the small stuff that would be a threat to fighters, but does little more than tickle bigger stuff. No-one wants to see huge ships with massive automated cannons.

Just saw this, looks like we posted at the same time. Safe is debatable. Safer, is more the point. A single person in a fighter can destroy an unarmed frieghter. An auto turret or 2 to shoot back with, gives the frieghter a fighting chance, or at least the opportunity to bloody the fighters nose a bit.

The irritating thing is, ive just read up in the pre-alpha boards, and im no longer worried about it, but cant articulate why without breaching NDA. I hate leaving conversations like that, sucks for everyone. I'll try and cycle back to this once the NDA lifts so I can wrap up

Not sure I follow you there? We're not flying about looking for a fight here. The ship is literally doing a shuttle run to and from the mining site back home, a trip of a couple of hours. Getting people back aboard isnt an option once you leave. You either leave with everyone, and everyone makes the dull trip back, or you leave people on planet working.

We're into necessary evils at that point. If you want to mine a distant planet, youve gotta suck up flying there. Long haul is never fun. Take this as an example of how id use it, for context. 4 man mining/survey team. Load the frieghter, everyone aboard. Dull long haul flight ensues, everybody yawns, but you get there. You de bus. One person gets into the atmospheric scout you brought with, goes looking for likely prospecting locations, while the other 3 throw a little outpost together. Surveys ensue, and mining. Eventually, you have enough mined ore stored that you want to ship it back. With auto turrets, one person shuttles the ore back, while the other 3 keep mining/surveying. One person drops the ore off, yawns, and flies back, knowing its someone elses turn next time. Without auto turrets, all get aboard, fly back etc, knowing they all need to do it every time.

Oh, if theres no one online aboard the ship, it should be parked up somewhere safe, or easy meat. No issue there, i think we're on the same page. Early warning would be nice, regardless of any other tech. Trouble is, it would take time to get friends online (probably longer than early warning will give you id reckon), and it would also require the players avatars to be aboard, so they couldnt be playing DU. Essentially, same problem exists - no fun to have in game, so you go to do something else. Thats not a particularly satisfying thing to experience. Same problem with them flying a fighter rather than operating a turret, theyre still mainly waiting about.

I did read your reply. I disagree with your conclusion. Essentially, your argument seems to be that you should only fly small craft if you cant find people to sit aboard doing nothing while you fly a bigger one, in the offchance that they need to may your turrets for you. I do not see what that adds to the game, hence why I am pro AI defenses. As covered in my first post, I am completely on board with the idea that these should be limited, to ensure that you cant run big combat ships with loads of turrets and only one pilot. However, i do not see how allowing a few automated anti-fighter defensive measures detracts frim the game, in fact, I think this would improve the play experience for all. Taking the frieghter example I put forward in my second post, having the turrets on AI would let my 3 friends do other (more fun) things than sit aboard waiting, and would give the attacking pirates a better experience as well, as shooting at a target that can fight back a bit is a lot more satisfying than shooting at somethung defenseless. I would be interested to hear your opinion on what disallowing AI defenses on ships adds to the game?

Fair enough. We're allowed to want different things. Essentially, I think having AI Defence would minimise the amount of time players spend doing dull things, rather than having fun. That includes Players flying combat ships, coming up on lone freighters. I would rather have targets shooting back at me being the norm, rather than just sitting there and getting shot. With the best will in the world, if you build a freighter, there's only so much to occupy you while you're in flight between stops. It'd be some VERY dedicated friends who stayed logged onto the ship ready to man the guns on the off-chance someone attacks.

Id like to see it taken further than just static constructs, and expanded to include what i'll refer to as "defensive turrets" - i.e things that need to be operational constantly in order to do their job right, but that would be mind numbingly dull for a player to sit in and do. For point defense chainguns or similar for instance - need to be able to respond at a moments notice, but will spend most of their time doing nothing. Sitting manning one of those would be incredibly dull most of the time. "Offensive turrets" - things intended to attack other constructs, like cannons should absolutely not be automated, to stop solo battlecruisers being in any way useful. As for limiting them, perhaps an ai control block to mount them on? Could have it with a significant power drain and cost to discourage spamming, and only have them compatible with a limited weapon subset.