Auto-turrets

[GARAK]

I was playing the Worms 4 demo the other day and they had added a new weapon to the game, the auto-turret. Sure it's an old idea but a useful one. Proximity mines just don't do the trick when you need to leave some firepower to cover a large area.

 

Some thoughts:

-I guess you could start with cannon or rocket turrets, then laser, plasma, blaster bomb or fusion...

-At least 50 or 60 pounds.

-Less ammo than the HWPs (rocket turret only has 4 shots, or 2 even...)

-Takes awhile to deploy

-Scans only 90 degrees or less

-takes longer to pack up and move than to deploy

-Noisy so aliens wouldn't be surprised

-early versions may shoot civilians or fire randomly occasionally (perhaps at a bird or dear. It wouldn't hit xcorp personelle on purpose, that would be stupid, but if Joe Carr is standing too close to a sectoid...

-Maybe the turrets are only deployable by a special HWP and are to heavy to carry.

-Or there could be a "light" machine gun version that is carryable like Half Life 2.

-Some could be deployed in xcorp bases already, or in alien bases against xcorp...

 

Just a suggestion, I don't know if it came up already.

[kashyyk]

I second that

[sir_schwick]

For heavier versions, they could be on treads or wheels for easier and faster movement inside basements. Maybe to save space and allow faster defence, they are stored in secret wall compartments and must be activated by X-CORPS personal(vice versa for aliens).

 

Squad support weapons are a no-brainer, especially ones with tripods. With alien hover technology, the possiblities multiple greatly. Partially assisted(small motors for turning and getting moving) engines on hover platforms would not be hard and be pretty small. These platforms would not even have to be automatic to be effective Of course they will scare the crap out of you when first seen by alien strike forces. Plus their terrain handling makes them reasonable in woods.

[Snakeman]

Its a good idea for when you want blind spots covered too and you have men and HWPs needed elsewhere. This is why I still love the proximity grenade in particular, I just wish it had better punch, for instance, having a High Explosive Proximity Pack veriant or something too where you could sticky the thing on walls or ceilings or for sneaking up to an alien HWP for direct placement.

 

But only a limited number can be carried so turret weapons of different kinds is cool. Split the varieties up in terms of ordiance sure, but also when they can be used, for instance if it has to be manned or if it is automated but also whether it is too heavy and needs to be deployed by a HWP with tools to do it.

 

An exception to this rule could be for base defense, not only can you assign permanent places you want men and tanks to spawn but also these kinds of turrets.

Edited August 30, 2006 by Snakeman

[gu35s]

A thing that I had been thinking. Why don't the aliens attack the human craft? I mean, they saw the craft and they walk right by treating it as a building, don't they? Shouldn't the aliens be smart enough to at least destroy the escape route if they are winning? In this case, the turrets are a brilliant idea. Place the turrets around the craft for auto-defense. And maybe even the craft can have auto defense shooting any alien in sight.

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[Snakeman]

Yea, like the bitty cannon Han Solo's ship had in Empire as it mowed down snowtroopers. Something like this doesn't appear to have to be manned, it looked totally autonomous, probably worked in conjunction with motion sensors or heat detection to ID targets and fire at them. If there were other rebels in the line of fire, I don't think that cannon would distingish between the two sides.

 

Its a good idea for a retractable turret type - though it couldn't distinguish from friend or foe, just be sure your not anywhere near it when its deployed. i.e. probably only ever useful prior to troop deployment from your ship, or for planting in UFOs, or in corridors or sections you don't plan to reinvestigate with valuable men and tanks. A turret like this may mean it has to be controlled by remote.

Edited August 31, 2006 by Snakeman

[Robo Dojo 58]

Uhm.... HWP? It already does all of the above, AND you don't need one on every corner, like you would with an auto turret.

[sir_schwick]

Yeah, but an HWP costs a lot more and has a much bigger silhouette. Also you get more guns to tool around with, which is always fun.

 

IFF could easily be done using the myriad of electronics that will be built into even the simplest of armor. Whatever data channels that are used would probably provide location data of all your soldiers to each other. Such data could easily be incorporated into the turrets. Of course this means that a zombified soldier would not be fired upon by turrets unless a dead-man's switch was added to soldier equipment.

[Snakeman]

If Zombies were a much more common occurance in Xenocice, I think I'd take the remote controlled turret. Actually now that I think about it, IFF features wouldn't be necessary if all your men had power/flying suits - probably have internal cooling mechanisms like the tubing in astronaught suits do, so if the gun sensors only responded to heat signatures, that could do away with that apart from what weapons generate- motion is a different matter though.

 

Tanks would be a different story up until hovering I'd imagine. Presumably xenium burns so clean that a heat signature is minimal anyway, in which case the only heat signature it might emit is from its weapon. The counter to this again is probably motion tracking.

 

Besides, IFF sounds better suited to why you'd have been evolving things into HWP platforms or other automated turret types. You gotta start with a more indiscriminate turret choice I'd think.