I posted a thread in bugs, cos I thought it was a bug, but it seems the devs see differing results than me (maybe due to my distance from the server?) but whatever.

Seems the turrets (are supposed to) re-spawn within 30 seconds of them being killed, This is way too short, as it is not like they are easy to kill! Now my suggestion is to _only_ increase the border turrets re-spawn time (the ones protecting worm holes, not stations). Maybe make it semi-random, and make it something between 10 to 15 minutes.

Would make raiding parties and camping some worm holes possible, obviously ones inside nation space would have the local Aerna Seekers (the only effective counter measure to a hostile before turrets) to back them up, but give us evil pirates that don't care to be green dots on folks radars our worm holes in grey space back already!

[edit]

Why would turrets be able to respawn so fast at stations you ask? Well, isn't that where they come from?

Yes.

I probably don't even need to read it. Yoda always has awesome, well thought out suggestions. Why isn't he part of Guild yet?

Because then GSW would have about 30 main developers instead of 4.

I find 10 to 15 minutes excessively long, though. Cut it down to 5-10, and I'm your man.

Tosh, go kill a turret, then get back to me.

15 minutes is too long. I don't care if they're difficult, they're the freaking military border turrets of the major nations. They should be difficult, and require an organized group of experienced players (like, say, five people). Only two of the turrets are particularly threatening anyhow (the homing missiles).

I do support the general idea of taking out turrets and assaulting nation space, however. That would be cool. We could try five minutes in the next release, and see how that goes?

I would rather start small and work up, than make it too easy.

Thoughts?

Make the respawn time the time it would take for a turret to travel from the nearest station and get into position. Maybe add a minute or two for manufacturing/unpacking/whatever time. Out at the borders (on the other side of the wormhole) that's probably around 5 minutes but would be much quicker near the stations themselves.

You'd also think that after a few turrets get popped that someone (like a Strike Force) would come out to see what is going on.

Start small and work your way up, if needed, sounds like a plan to me Inc.

I'm all for this. Would make both the pirate life and anti-pirate life more interesting/fun.
I really like Daare's ideas. I say take it a step further (if it doesn't take too long to implement). Actually have the turrets travel from the nearest UIT/Serco/Itani base. That way aggressors would also have to deal with the turrets headed towards them as they head into nation space. This could also mean that a team of aggressors could kill the turrets, then assault the turrets on their way back down to the boarder, effectively destroying the nation defenses. Of course, SF might be deployed to escort the turret or something (I don't mean to make it too difficult).

We'll change the respawn time, but I have more important stuff to do right now than screw around with AI turrets flying about and causing other ships to investigate after a certain period of time and so on. These are all good ideas, don't get me wrong, but they have enough caveats and what-ifs and technical "oh shit" potential that they could easily suck up a week, or more. And I need our weeks to.. fix the faction system and other exciting crud.

Respawn time just requires incrementing a number.

Try 6 or 7 minutes. 5 is too short; 30 seconds is so far out of the ballpark that I hope it was a drunken error rather than an deliberate choice.

everybody, STAND DOWN!!! Be silent.

Inc is working on killing the faction system, lets give him the peace he needs to fix it... Nobody disturb the faction killer;)

Nothing to see here, move along

Az, Who hopes that the faction system will die a horrible death:)

Lecter, we cannot anticipate all the tactics and corner-case strategies that people will come up with, ahead of time. Generally the problem with our defenses is that they are too trivial (once people adapt), rather than too difficult. Thus, we are conservative: we know we can easily change it later, and given the pre-holiday-promotion goal of some newbie protection, erring on the side of "too difficult" was better than "too easy". That does not make it a "drunken error".

Please keep up the feedback, reduce the unnecessary editorializing.

Sorry, not about the respawn time, but I have to ask: are the turrets as flighty as they seem, or is it an effect of the rather large spread of the wide spread of warp-in points?

It seems to me like most of the time the turrets in dau are right on top of me, and I have to put quite a bit into the first few seconds of dodging before turboing to safety in the best cases, and exploding in most. Every so often, however, I seem to be almost entirely ignored by the homer turrets and missed wildly by the gauss turrets. A good deal more often I get hit by a gauss seconds before I have control of my ship, and by a homer right after I dodge the second gauss.

I can see the placement of the turrets relative to where I warp in having an effect, but I could swear that in half the times I made it into dau I did so because the homers never even shot at me, which seems rather extreme

Azumi, ye stand down, and thats and order. Newb protection AKA turrets IS part of the reworked faction system, So if it needs a few adjustments now, do em now (as long as they are simple).

I also had thought about "moving turrets" in the past, but new AI is always a ball ache*

*(pain in the ass)

'kay. Due to my temporarily decreased patience with the messageboard and generally full plate, I've made an executive decision and ticketed the change for 5 minutes. It should appear in the next release (slated for Fri, assuming I stop posting on the forums and get something done). We'll give that a whirl and get feedback/modify as needed after.

Don't get down Inc, I've really enjoyed you increased forum presence over the last few days. It may take time away from development, but it's really what makes Guild feel like Guild. I guess I can't speak for everyone, but I know I'd take you being involved on the forums in exchange for a day or two delay on updates.