Why won't turrets hit anything?

LuxAngel7 · Apr 22, 2015

So after finally saving enough to buy some larger turrets for a bigger ship, I was supremely disappointed to discover they don't hit anything. Like...anything.

Is there something wrong with turrets? Right now I just spent a butt ton of credits on useless hardpoints and since they don't hit anything using a bigger ship is practically pointless.

OrLoK · Apr 22, 2015

Hello there

Im a dirty Turret lover and I have one on my fighter.

I mainly use it as a compass to my locked on target and whilst its not super accurate it does get hit at angles I cant.

I use it as a secondary weapon and a constant irritant to targets whilst i switch through other modes.

Ensure your sensor package is upgraded.

Lear to love your filthy turret.

Rgds

LoK

TMC · Apr 22, 2015

Make sure turrets is set to "fire at will". I don't think upgrading sensors has any benefit to turrets.

Garagiste · Apr 22, 2015

I'd edit that to fire at will in combat zones, target only elsewhere or you might find yourself hitting everything rather than nothing! When set to target only they don't start popping until you've hit the target with another weapon first. This is perfect for me as I can put the KWS on the same button and not start sniping at them until it completes.

Midian27 · Apr 22, 2015

Sensors don't effect the accuracy of any weapon, gimbal, turret, or otherwise. Turrets are bugged currently in that they build up inaccuracy over time and can become very inconsistent. You can overcome this by dropping then re engaging your target or simply moving the ship so that the turrets can't fire momentarily. This will reset their accuracy.

Imrus76 · Apr 22, 2015

Think in PvP, turrets cannot be confused by chaffs, if they were hit always, then PvP combat would be about, who has mre money, stronger, bigger turreted wepaons.
So turrets have a hit rate, because of,this... balancig, balancig, balancig...

TMC · Apr 22, 2015

Garagiste said:
I'd edit that to fire at will in combat zones, target only elsewhere or you might find yourself hitting everything rather than nothing! When set to target only they don't start popping until you've hit the target with another weapon first. This is perfect for me as I can put the KWS on the same button and not start sniping at them until it completes.

Great advice. Thanks

- - - Updated - - -

Curious (no turret experience yet), how do the turrets manage when the WEP capacitor is fully discharged or the weapons are overheated? Do they stop firing automatically until WEP has charge or the temp has dropped and then start firing again? To get them to fire at more than 1 ship at the same time, do you need to then shoot another ship first?

Garagiste · Apr 22, 2015

Yes, they'll stop and start again as you describe. They'll merrily shoot at (I guess) whatever is closest when set to fire at will.
This meant great credits earning opportunity in combat zones with Capital ships which I enjoyed for one whole afternoon before it got nerfed thanks to the AFK brigade. I was dragging in bonds from ships I hadn't even seen, let alone targeted.

Darth Ender · Apr 22, 2015

Turrets are buggy currently. Sometimes they fire as intended. Sometimes they glitch out and stop firing at anything regardless of the mode (except when you set them to forward fire and take manual control). Seems to vary on how often they glitch out depending on ship.

Note: by glitch out, i'm not talking about an in-game malfunction. This is a bug and not working as intended.

Surround · Apr 22, 2015

How about that chaff doesnt work on turrets but works on gimbals? Is it a feature or bug?

Scimiter · Apr 22, 2015

The turrets on my Ananconda are brilliant! They hit everything.

Jackie McMackie · Apr 22, 2015

Surround said:
How about that chaff doesnt work on turrets but works on gimbals? Is it a feature or bug?

Gimballed weapons use heat signature tracking, therefore it's a feature

LuxAngel7 · Apr 22, 2015

I really hope it's a bug and not working as intended, because using turrets for me right now is just not an option, they're not hitting *anything*, thus making using larger ships pointless...

Garagiste · Apr 22, 2015

Do you have them set to forward only? They're just like fixed weapons if so, and I'd struggle to hit a planet with them.

LuxAngel7 · Apr 23, 2015

Garagiste said:
Do you have them set to forward only? They're just like fixed weapons if so, and I'd struggle to hit a planet with them.

No of course I've got them either to fire at will or my target only, but even though I'm less than 700m away from my target they hit the enemy ship maybe 1 out of 5-6 times. It's ludicrous.

LordKee · Apr 23, 2015

Strange, I use 5 beam turrets on my conda and have no trouble having them hitting targets. Just "show the belly" to the enemy and they melt away. (I use target only setting). Only problem is when you are having hostile targets that haven't shot at you yet. Switch target to one of those and you become wanted.

Tryst · Apr 23, 2015

Garagiste said:
I'd edit that to fire at will in combat zones, target only elsewhere or you might find yourself hitting everything rather than nothing! When set to target only they don't start popping until you've hit the target with another weapon first. This is perfect for me as I can put the KWS on the same button and not start sniping at them until it completes.

They will also fire at any ship that fires at you first if you have it targeted, you don't need to fire at it with other weapons for the turrets to start working.

Poy · Apr 23, 2015

What kind of turrets do you use ?

SirAdelaide · Apr 23, 2015

Turrets work for 3 seconds. Then they lose accuracy. FD admitted bodging them to give small ships a chance against NPC anacondas. If you want to keep them accurate, you need to retarget every 3 seconds.

Jenrai · Apr 23, 2015

I knew I had read about this somewhere. It is a bit of a long thread but some really good replies from one of the dev team and explains a lot about turreted weapons.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=122482&highlight=turret+accuracy

From Mike Evans - Designer:

"Sensors do not affect turret behaviour in any way other than being used to resolve the contact in the first place so they can be tracked."

"The turrets do not have a time based decay in performance. What you're seeing is the target's evasive manoeuvre effecting your turret tracking. The mechanic is that the faster the target is moving perpendicular to the turret the harder it is for them to track it. This "confusion factor" builds up a little bit and can cause the turrets to miss. Once the target stops moving so much in the field of view of the turret the more accurate it'll become. "

"I'm not trying to create a realistic experience. I'm trying to create a gamey but fair experience with a sprinkle of plausibility thrown in."