Automated Defenses

I was wondering if it would be possible to have A platoon of Security Robots to patrol routes and reinforce my future sentry turret forests and land mine meadows.
Then pay those robots a salary

 

Actually they already listed in the compilation of suggestions the idea of hiring NPC squads to help you, si I guess this is already being considered, but having the possibility of giving orders to them would be awesome

 

Personally I think the idea of buying guards or mercinaries is neater because you get to use NPC's but automated turrets are fine too

 

I am a huge fan of the automated turret idea, but they would have to be incredibly nuanced or they would be either utterly useless or game-breakingly powerful. On that note, here is an extremely unfinished list of ideas to make turrets a balanced part of the game:

-they should be difficult to get, requiring resources unobtainable in the early stages of the game and only​

available in relatively small quantities later​

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-IF upgrades are a major factor, important upgrade fields could include, but not be limited to: accuracy, fire​

rate, firepower, swivel speed, range, durability (health), ammo capacity​

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-even when fully upgraded, the ammo stores should be large, but not terribly so; this would mean that the​

turrets could only be active for reasonably short periods of time (which is a good thing, from a balance perspective)​

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-once the ammo runs out, the turret goes into standby until resupplied manually; this would discourage just​

covering the world's surface with turrets, because each one would need individual maintenance to keep it running​

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-turrets should be able to be deactivated to conserve ammo; this could be done by interacting with the turret​

directly, or by means of a switch or remote control​

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-different types of turrets! instead of having one catch-all super-turret, there should be multiple highly​

specialized types (flak turrets for flying threats, heavy cannons for large enemies/ships, flamethrowers for​

hordes of small enemies, etc)​

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-specialized turrets should gain significant damage bonuses against their designated enemy type, to make them​

worth having over more basic turrets (flak turrets would be useful in areas populated by, say, large tribes of​

hostile bird-men)​

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-basic all-purpose turrets like lasers and machine guns could exist, but they would have to be weaker, more​

difficult to research, more expensive to build, have no situational bonuses whatsoever, or some combination of​

the above​

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-to avoid making them into a tedious chore instead of a fun gameplay element, they would have to repair​

themselves; their repair speed could be yet another upgrade (SO MANY UPGRADES)​

I'm sure I could come up with more ideas or refine these ones further, but basically my ideal turret system boils down to this: They should be difficult to get and expensive to make, they shouldn't just run forever once placed, and above all, they should be FUN, not a chore. Please, if you disagree with any of the above ideas, or can think of improvements or additions, post them! Thanks.

EDIT: I know walls of text are painful to read, so I've been screwing around with colors and formatting to make things a bit easier on the eye. I think the current format is at least a significant improvement, but if anyone reading this knows the secrets of aesthetic layout and other such wizardry, please let me know.

 

I especially like the manual recharging idea. A bit of maintenance for your stuff is always fun, helps keeping the game real. Of course multiple types of turrets are something to be taken for granted. And... well, you pretty much said all that there was to say, though maybe you could make the list a bit neater to be easier to read

 

...Wow, I really wasn't expecting such an immediate response. And, with regards to making it easier to read: how do you suggest? Because I have no idea.
Also, is it me or do these emoticons kinda suck?

 

Well spacing between each item of the list would be a good thing

Also these emoticons are... well, some are decent and some are bad