I used this for a little bit last night. Being that its so amazingly expensive I was hoping for a little bit more than I got. With a fast charge battery it depletes your energy very quickly. With a heavy battery it depletes a little slower but then takes an eternity charge. So it won't be too great for dog fighting (although I haven't tried it up real real close yet though). But it also doesn't really hit from too far away either. Or maybe its my bad piloting or targetting or something. Is it a 26,000c light show or do others have success with it where I fail?

What are other's experiences with this weapon?

It is a very good weapon, which in my opinion it should be. Most of the Large weapons aren't notably superior to the Small Weapons in firepower. If Large weapons are to be a true advantage in firepower they need a clear edge. I think that the Advanced gatling is worth every penny, but only because there are so few good options for a direct fire large weapon port. I've said this so often it is becoming trite, but price is not a good way to achieve balance. It only reduces the size of the elite few that have an edge, making that edge all the more unfair. Because people flying ships like the Warthog need access to good large weapons, the advanced gatling price should go down considerably. For that matter, so should the price of the Avalons - though the price of ammo should remain relatively high.

I personally think that the Warthog needs two large weapon ports rather than one large and one small to make it a top of the line ship. I also think that the Wraith and the Centurian need more hull points. This would result in alot more ship diversity and alot more top pilots in something other than 'advanced ships'. The Vulture needs a little bit of help too but I haven't decided what. Personally I think that the Vulture and the Centurian would benifit from 'small rocket only' ports, but the devs may be philosophically opposed to that idea.

Yes, the turret is a very mean weapon. With good auto-aim + a good spread, it will quickly eat anything that gets caught in its grasp. The best ship to use with it is a Ragnorok with two turrets, and you can fill the small slots with whatever you like. I generally like 2 turrets + tri rockets. It's a really mean ship. A heavy battery is a must, however. Hit a ship with turrets, and when it gets in close, let lose the rockets. Wicked. ;-)

I was able to chase after someone while turboing and kill them with the Adv. Gatling gun (it was the only weapon I was using). I had a heavy battery and a heavy engine. I don't think the energy usage is enormously high. I think it's perfect. =D I did run out of energy just as they died, but still..very nice for pirating.

I especially like the "Forward L" and "Rear L" weapon options, that allow you to keep firing as you fly *past* your target. It gives traders an edge while trying to turbo through a dangerous sector.

I agree that they aren't that great at hitting anything form a distance, but then... if they could do that they would be too powerful.

Still... what I would like is a SMALL turret... maybe do less damage and have a shorter overall range. This would allow blockades to be run by a faster, lighter trading ship (which I personalyl prefer).

The advanced gatling turret should be left untouched. It's perfect. Before I thought it needed more damage points, but now with the Itani advanced fighter balanced, it really doesn't. It fits its role perfectly. And as Celebrim said, it's worth every penny. There's a reason why it's expensive.

Regarding the Warthog, I think it's fine as it is. One small port and one large port is very reasonable for its size. Adding an additional large port would be nice, but I think that's pushing it for such a small ship. All in all it's a great defensive ship that can provide excellent support fire. Beautifully balanced. Again, should be untouched.

3.2.1 kicks major ass. It seems gameplay is very balanced now with the changes. Despite initial concerns, It looks like the devs are headed in the right direction with these future releases.

=)

I agree with Arolte on most points. The advanced gatling is well balanced. I just think that it should either become cheaper, or else there should be other effective alternatives to it - for instance a vastly improved version of the plasma cannon. The ships with heavy weapons slots are heavily dependent on this weapon in my opinion to be competitive, and they shouldn't have to pay such a high premium for competitiveness.

I think a good smaller counterpart to the turreted gatling would be a turreted tachyon. Same rate of fire, just with the aim assist. Price point at about 6000,

Are these true turrets with 180 degree fields of fire or do they merely have some more limited 30 degree (or so) traversal?

I don't want to see true turrets on ships even as manueverable as 'low'. I'm kinda skeptical of the whole notion of turrets on fighters as they overly substitute for skill. Again I ask, wasn't everyone prior to 3.2 insisting that the game should be about personal skill?

Nah, they only have what appears to be a 30 or 45 degree arc. Actually, I'd like to see these for smaller ships, and true turrets for frigates...

All i have to say is, thank you gatling gun turret, whatever.

I like that, but you could also just have a select target lock key to toggle among targets in range. The turret would maintain a lock on that ship. You could fire at will. Did anyone ever play Interstate 76? That's how it was handled there.

I don't think we'll be seeing a full 360 degree turret anytime soon. The ship models just won't allow it. Maybe the top of the Prometheus can be remodelled, I'm not sure. I also don't see how you'd aim one when you only have a 90 degree FOV. How would you work one right now? An "on" and "off" switch that automatically engages the nearest enemy? And suppose the AI goes crazy on you and continously engages every enemy in sight? You energy would hit rock bottom as you'd be struggling to boost out of the mess. So the way I see it, 360 degree turrets should only be controlled by human players, with their own HUD etc. And since that's not possible now... again, we probably won't be seeing them soon.

Sounds like a frig weap :)

Join PG and have free rum! YAR!!

I don't think we will see them any time soon either. There is alot of code (and maybe a new interface) that needs to be created between here and there, and the devs definately have some other things as priority - like a full navigational interface.

I think you would control them with something like:

/lock #
/unlock #

Where # is the firetic containing the turret.

You'd probably also need some 'rules of engagement', something like:

/setpreferedtarget # 'fighters'
/setrange # 600
etc.

I don't think turrets should be full spherical fields of fire. It always offends my since of disbelief (not to mention love of tactics). They should have roughly hemispherical traversal, ideally blocked by los of the ship model they are mounted on.

"You energy would hit rock bottom as you'd be struggling to boost out of the mess."

On a ship with sufficiently low manueverability to need turrets, manuevering is not necessarily the activity of the captain that primarily determines his skill. Big ships aren't terribly dodgy. For the most part you are going to be traveling at speeds below that of 'boost', and you have a huge profile. So flying a big ship might mostly involve minor course corrections and managing your numerous systems. Not everyone would dig it, but not everyone dreams of being a fighter pilot.

I just realized that the "Rear Large" slot still shoots forward... bummer. I want to do fly-by's.

To have a turret track more than your FOV, simply have another circle in the HUD: currently one represents your path, one represents your ship's orientation, and the third would represent your gun's orientation. You could toggle between your FOV moving with the gun or with the ships orientation.

Just a thought.

Hmmm.... what I was thinking was maybe you'd begin firing at your target, like you do with the current turrets by first facing the target, but this time keep holding down the fire key and rotate as much as you want without losing track of your target. That's assuming you wouldn't tilt the ship forward or backward too much, to obstruct the turret's view that is. I think it could be possible. Your turret would basically keep firing towards your target regardless of where your ship is pointing within the horizontal plane parallel to your ship. But again, you'd have to face your enemy first to do this, making it ineffective for engaging targets behind you. And I doubt there'd be enough energy to really allow you told the fire key long enough to make a full rotation, let alone half of one.

... or sending a packet with post-timestamped shots in it. By the time he pressed the trigger, the shots would have already hit you, as the actual speed of shots relies upon client-server communication. The server would update your armor accordingly, whether or not the shots actually connected.

I think the rear large port is actually just a bottom port. Notice that when you drop mines it no longer drops behind you, but below you. Since the gatling gun is so lengthy, it would also make sense to install one at the bottom of the ship too. So there is no true rear port for any of the ships, per se. Otherwise you'd be shooting mines and lasers through your engine!

I will definitely have to give the adv. turret more of a look when I can. Its replacement cost does get prohibitive I think. (total heavily outfitted Centaur trader costs about 70,000 credits I think, if you are using one adv. gat. one avalon, one small energy weapon and standard parts) .

But everyone is voicing good success with the weapon so I will have to see if I can perfect my approach with it. That's what I was posting for by the way... I wasn't complaining I was asking for some feedback. Grassyass.