The Art Of Turret Placement

Redford · November 2002

<div class="IPBDescription">What and what not to do</div>If there's one thing that I love to take advantage of as a skulk, and somthing that pains me to see as a marine, is terrible, god awful turret placement. It is probally the number one reason why marine minibases fall early in the game, the majority of marine property destruction happing late game if the marines are sloppy. A single skulk can take down an ill-prepared base simply because he can sneak behind the RT or factory and chomp it into oblivion while the turrets busily try to shoot him through it. This guide was created to assist new and expereniced commanders alike in the art of turret placement.

Part 1
The Rules of the Turret

These are the basic rules that turrets fire and operate by. All problems and solutions discussed in this guide are some artifact of these limitations (or advantages) of turrets.

1. Turrets don't fire at a target instantly unless they are on alert, or have gained a diffrent target.
In other words, it will take a turret a moment to turn towards you and start firing when you enter it's LOS. When a turret has gained some target and is firing at it, the turret will be refered to as "on alert". It knows somthing is there and will then eliminate anything else that crosses it's path with extreme prejudice. After losing LOS on a target, the turret will remain on alert for a short period before going back to passive scanning. Note that if a turret is alerted by another alien, but you are nearer to it (rule #2), and duck out of cover, it will start firing at you at the beginning of the next firing cycle.

2. Turrets allways target the nearest alien to their position.
Turrets will allways shoot the alien chomping at it's base before it tries to shoot the lerk sniping it with spikes. Similarly, if an Onos is near a cluster of three turrets, they will fully ignore the lerk advancing on them until it starts dismantling one of them, in which case only the turret that was attacked will fire.

3. Turrets can't shoot through buildings, including turrets, or marines.
Allthough turrets will try very hard to shoot a skulk chewing on that turret factory, they will only make a lot of noise if the factory is between them and the skulk. In addition, marines standing in front of turrets will render them less effective because the turrets will hit the marines instead of the aliens beyond them. Marines will take FF from turret fire if bacterial gridlock has gummed up FriendlyFire .

4. Turrets have terrible tracking over a short distance
These things were probally meant for shooting armored human targets and slower... this makes them significantly less effective aginst most moving aliens, save the Onos, who is too big to miss. A quickly moving alien (esp. with celerity) will be completely missed by any number of turrets if he moves fast enough in a line. Note that starfing back and forth isn't as effective... turrets are able to track short direction changes well at long range.

5. Turrets can't aim beyond about 30 degrees up and down from center
This limits their angle of operation to about 60-120 degrees in front of them. Therefore, they can't hit targets directly above them or on a steep angle. Targets near the firing angle limit will still be fired at, allthough the turret will miss.

6. Turrets fire powerful, single shots.
It may look (and sound!) like the turret fires non stop, but they actually shoot a rapid burst of fire represented by a single tracer, followed by a brief cooling time.

7. Turrets don't miss unless their tracking is askew, or range is a problem
A turret versus a nonmoving alien will quickly injure or kill it. This is related with rule #4... even though the fire of turrets themselves is very accurate, the tracking is what causes turrets to miss. Thusly, if a turret is firing at you, and you are standing still, except to be hurt to some degree, especally at medium-long range when the tracking is more accurate.

8. Turrets are the weakest marine buildings.
A single turret only has 1K hp. They will be quickly be destroyed by even small aliens if they get the chance.

9. Turrets need the factory to continue operation.
This was added in 1.01 in order to allow aliens to more easly destroy enemy marine turret bases. If a turret isn't within the build radius of a functioning turret or advanced turret factory, it shuts down. Note that a normal factory can apparently power a siege turret if it's been built allready.

10. A marine is far more effective then any turret
Marines will time and again kill aliens your turrets have an impossible time hitting. Turrets exist to keep skulks (or larger) from chewing on your buildings. Marines are your very best defense aginst the aliens.

Part two which discusses incorrect and correct placement will be up soon!

JasonBostwick · November 2002

Couldn't have said it any better myself ^_^

tommy14 · November 2002

i like to put 3 turrets in a close bunch with the fac, and then a few more further out for xcross fire.....or to cover doorways where fades may try to bomb from. if EVERYTHING is bunched, which i see often, then a fade can hit it all with 1 bile bomb. but if there is a seperate turret covering the doorway he might hid in, then the FADE has to spend time & acid rockets to take that seperate turret out before he can bile bomb the main mass of fac and close in turret defenses....

also, as mentioned, at longer range turrets are mor accurate with targeting, so it helps getting the skulk running through to have some further away turrets.

MINES on the GROUND as landmines around a turret fac can also help if there are "dead zones" turrets cannot reach. however bile bombs tend to set off landmines and pre-detonate them. so mines are best vs skulks and onos.

of coourse, turrets are DUMB, and aliens WILL get through sooner or later without human backup/repair.

Redford · November 2002

After shamlessly spamming the link in both chats, it's back to writing part 2.

part 2
Correct turret placement

Using the rules from the previous section, we can figure out the best ways to place turrets so they are effective versus the aliens, while remaining cost-effective and hard to destroy.

Problem #1: OMG I AM TEH 1337 STARCRAFT PLAYAR!
This syndrome is suffered from by people who have played entirely too much SC, and think their turrets can fire through anything, never miss, and do 15 billion damage with every shot. They randomly scatter turrets about the room, in an attempt to possibly annoy the aliens into submission. they also defend each minibase with about ten turrets each, five of them being arranged in a manner where they could be taken out by one fade with acid rocket.

example:


###############
#.............#
#.....T.......#
#...........x.#
#.....O.......#
#..x..........#
#..x........x.#
#####___#######

# = wall
. = floor
T = factory
O = node
x = turret
_ | = doorway, passage outside node room
- = vent
A = Alien

If this was starcraft, sparky would be all set! But this isn't starcraft, so the turrets are probally doing to die quickly.
Solution
Try to at least think about your turret placement. Don't randomly drop your turrets everywhere. At least think for a second what will happen if the aliens attack them.

Syndrome #2: Aliens will never make it past my wall of turrets!
Many commanders think that putting a solid wall of turrets will act like a ziplock seal: keeps rescources in, and aliens out! The problem is, most commanders don't realise that the aliens could just jump the turrets.


########
#......#
#...O..#
#..T...#
#.xxxx.#
#______#


In this case, the aliens can simply jump the turrets, and then maul the factory until it dies. Even a fade could move fast enough to evade the turrets, then plummel the factory into submission. In addition, an alien approaching the side of the formation


########
#......#
#...O..#
#..T...#
#AxxxxA#
#______#


Could simply bash the turret on the end of the line without being shot at by the others.

Solution
Put the turrets in places where they have maximum sight of everything, and where they can shoot all sides of a building.


########
#x....x#
#...O..#
#..T...#
#x.xx.x#
#______#


This will allow the turrets to fire on any alien that tries to attack somthing in the room from any angle, making it difficult to destory without assistance from lerks or fades.

Syndrome #3:The turret factroy isn't important, so I can just throw it anywhere.
If the factory dies, the turrets stop working, so good placement of the factory is core.


##########
#x.......-
#....O...#
#x.....T.#
####...###
|..x...x.|
|..x...x.|


In this example, the skulk can simply squeeze behind the turret factory and destroy it by going through the vent!


##########
#x.......-
#....O...#
#x.....TA#
####...###
|..x...x.|
|..x...x.|


Solution

You want to make the factroy as hard to attack as possible, either put it on a higher elevation, or stick it in a corner, or wedged next to the rescource tower. Anything that will make it very difficult for aliens to attack it.


##########
#Tx......-
#....O...#
#x......x#
####...###


In this case, the entire room is effectivly defended by 3 turrets, and the factory is difficult to attack.

Syndrome #4: My 10 billion turrets will kill skulks instantly!

Only if the skulks stand still. While large numbers of turrets can be more effective at repeling larger aliens, a room full of turrets is seldom worth the trouble, especally if everything gets wiped out through the death of the factory.


####################
........TO##########
..........#.x.x...xx
......x......x....xx
....x....x........xx
.x.....x..........xx


This arrangement would defintly keep skulks out, but would also be destoryed by acid rocket, bile bomb, or a few effective Onos.

Solution

If multiple turrets must be placed, do it intellegently. Make sure they aren't too close together, and all can get a good shot.


####################
........TO##########
..........#.........
.....x........x.....
....................
..x..............x..
....................
.....x........x.....
####################


The most effective turret placements consist of a minimum of turrets covering every side of a building from a possible alien attack. if you must build walls of turrets, space them out so they don't all get attacked at one time, and make sure at least two turrets will be firing on an alien from all angles of approach.

Have any suggestions, turret plans of your own, or effective case studies you want to post, then go ahead. I created this post in a hope that commanders will get the picture and will place their turrets more effectivly.

There have been people on the forums saying that you should not place turrets by the wall because skulks will slip behind them and kill them. This is only partially true. Turret factories are allways dropped on the map at the same angle, and it is allways diffrent then the one represented by the glowing "build" model. If you carfully slide the build model into the corner, you should be able to squeeze it firmly ( to the point of partially clipping through) into a corner or side, making it very tough to attack. A similar movement can drop a TF so close to the rescource tower that the aliens can't attack it from the side crammed aginst the tower, making defending the combo much easier. Dropping the TF adjacent to the wall so that aliens can't hurt it as well does work if performed properly. However, it is simply impossible to do in some corners, and the angle that the TF is dropped seems to be diffrent from map to map. Simply put: trust the color of the build model. If it's green, you can drop the building there, even if it appears to be inside the wall. Any non-hitbox part of the TF will clip through the wall if this is done correctly.

Part three, with case studies of node and hive rooms on NS maps coming.. whenever!

EDIT:
-Thanks to all that added to this topic.

-Oz contacted me recently, and my paper on turret placement is being added to PlanetNS.com for you to see whenever you wish.

-added paragraph. up there. It relates to current issues raised on the forums about TFs being attacked because of proximity to walls.

Redford...out.

mwells · November 2002

Very very nice, and very very agreeable. I always try to think of a place where all turrets will receive maximum exposure, and the factory won't be vunerable. I played on bast today, and the commander decided to wall up all entries with 4 turrets, we were low on resources constantly, he spent 50% of his time placing turrets in new locations, and we lost miserably.

To all commanders who let turrets do your marines' jobs: Stop it. Read this man's guide, it's excellent and he obviously has put a lot of collective thought into this, and it shows.

Kiz · November 2002

Another vote for "must-read". I'm gonna fire up a LAN game and get some shots of effective turret placement.

kronikwisdom · November 2002

Your last 3 listings are RIGHT ON.. its a MUST to place the factory in a corner where you can move on to another point without worrying about the one you just built.. besides your main goal is to take atleast 1 hive QUICKLY!!!! Fades are not your friend...

Kiz · November 2002

Alright, first group done. The map is Hera, location is the Hera Reception resource node. Minimum turrets for coverage of node and turret factory: 3, 4 if the CC is there (I just put it there so I wouldn't have to trek across the map just to build an example). Red areas are fields of fire, and the last image shows the total overlap.

<img src='http://solfire.com/~steve/ns/img/herareception1.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>
<img src='http://solfire.com/~steve/ns/img/herareception2.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>
<img src='http://solfire.com/~steve/ns/img/herareception3.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>

Kiz · November 2002

ekent · November 2002

A few things to note that I think you missed.

1. Turrets will not stop or kill a decent fade.

At best, once the enemy has two hives, a turret farm is a way of alerting you to enemy attack. It is common for two fades and a lerk to take out a room FULL of turrets in about one minute flat. Defend your important locations with phase gates that are protected by turrets.

2. Turrets cannot fire straight up.

Use the lay of the land to place turrets on high elevation and make sure each turret is covered by another one.

3. Turrets will never save the game

If you ever have a choice between spending more turrets or upgrading technology, spend it on technology. Turrets are an impedance for the aliens. Marines are the real weapon. Make every effort to quickly outfit your marines.

Edit: forgot an addendum.

Addendum: I make it a rule never to place a turret factory against the wall or in a corner. Whenever you drop the factory it comes in at an angle, for some reason, and that inevitably leaves a small area between the factory and the wall that is comfortable for a skulk to camp and munch away. Place your factory in an open area. Additionally, only three turrets are required to adaquately cover a turret factory.



###############
#.x.......x...#
#.....T.......#
#.............#
#.....O.......#
#.x...........#
#.............#
#####___#######


This example will also cover the resource node.

FlatlineUTD · November 2002

Ah, the tried-and-true triangle formation. I knew it worked, but I never knew how well. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'>

Like (e)kent said, however, *never* rely solely on turrets - any good Fade can take them out with ease.

qtiger · November 2002

A final note:

Rule #1: Aliens come from all directions. Really. If you are securing a corridor, intersection, or other vital hub, placing turrets towards one direction only is universally stupid. Cover every entrance.

The Art Of Turret Placement

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