T3 Artillery Turret Symmetry

[Swaygin]

Hi everyone, I'd like to suggest a change to T3 artillery. The figures below are for the Emissary (Aeon).

The speed of the turret is very slow (and probably rightly so), with full 360 degree rotation taking a bit over 2 minutes. However, it can only built with its turret facing south, this creates a significant advantage to map position.

For example, if Player X spawns at 6:00 and Player Y spawns at 12:00, X must wait an additional 60 seconds after completion to fire at Y, while Y will begin firing immediately.
For diagonal starting positions the difference is less extreme (a 15 second rotation delay vs. a 45 second rotation delay), but still significant.

There are a number of possible solutions, although almost all seem far too complicated. Two possibilities:

(1) Allow building position-specific artillery. I.e., the player can select from 4 possible turret directions (N,S,E,W). This would solve almost all symmetry problems, but would require modifying build menu.
(2) Make the T3 Artillery the player can build a function of their position, determined at the outset of the game. E.g., the only artillery of a player spawning at 7:30 would be one have a turret starting at 45 degrees, while that of a player spawning at 1:30 would have a turret starting at 225 degrees.

Again, I don't know how difficult this would be to change, but I believe 60 seconds is a significant difference.


"To work for crumbs, or to keep from the lash, says maybe a slave's what you are."

[IceDreamer]

This is true for all units. If we do this, we'd want to do it for PD, Factories, AA, TMD, etc, the list goes on. It has been proven possible in the past that we can allow totally free, 360 degree building rotation, but whether or not this is a good idea for gameplay is very much debatable. It breaks adjacency for one thing.

[ZenTractor]

A possible workaround might be to have all buildings/units with turrets to spawn with their turrets facing the centre of the map.

[nine2]

it affects where units come out of factories as well ... its different for top/bottom player. Not a huge deal but while your talking about it ... the solution would be

1. make it optional
2. rotate all buildings towards center based off building position (not player start position)
edit: i mean rotate it a multiple of 90' that is closest to pointing at center of map

so some land factories would face down, some left, depending on where on the map you place them. Same dealio with t3 arty.

[theeggroll]

i dont think the grid for which you build in fa could handle rotated things. but i think this is a good point for t3 arti only, most things with turrets turn significantly faster so its not an issue. t1 pd turns 360 in like 6 seconds, not 60

[nine2]

without looking into it, i suspect grid system can handle rotation in multiples on 90' which is what i am proposing. i didnt mean to suggest we allow any other rotation.

[pza]

Of course it has to work. It works in other games aswell. It just requires a lot of coding i suppose.
Tbh this was the first question i ever had. selected the factory and asked my friend: "how do i rotate a building? whats the hotkey? do i have to click and then drag into the general direction?" i was really disappointed and my first thought was "wow this game is probably not really competitive".

that would be how I would implement it. Factories auto-facing the middle sucks because map could have a cliff in the way and you'd desire to change the direction to normal, and then you cant.

[nine2]

Well I would do it my way. Towards center is a better default than just down all the time. Manual rotation is nice too but I think many wouldn't use it because its not important enough to sacrifice apm. It would also be a bit more confusing to see what is going on with buildings rotated every which way, but I just use strat icons anyway ...

[Swaygin]

Thanks for pondering the suggestion guys, especially since my coding ignorance allows me to suggest all sorts of things that may be impossible to actually implement.

[pza]

Well I would do it my way. Towards center is a better default than just down all the time. Manual rotation is nice too but I think many wouldn't use it because its not important enough to sacrifice apm. It would also be a bit more confusing to see what is going on with buildings rotated every which way, but I just use strat icons anyway ...

in Spring rts it works like that, and everyone, i repeat: EVERYONE does it. even tho the pathing is better than here. units would get clustered less when spammed, get to their destinations better, especially when assisted by many engies and with lots of adjecency bonuses.
especially in naval yards that is incredibly useful.