[MT]

I have never modded FS2 before so I am not too familiar with how the tables work. From what I see in the ships.tbl file for the Orion, the large turrets can accommodate up to 3 weapons. My questions are, what is the difference between having 3 THT and having only 1 THT has on the firing rate of the turret? If I have 3 THT, does it mean that the 3 fire at the normal rate or a reduced one? What happens if I have the turrets mount 3 different weapons, would their firing rates be affected?

[TrashMan]

AFAIK - if you have 3 THT's equipped, all 3 barrels will fire, alltough not in a salvo...at least I rarely seen them fire like that.

Stock FS2 (and some earlier builds) actually ignored teh extra barrels - only the first one shoot.
The new builds fire everything you put in altough I would reccomend to kep the same weapon types on the barrels.

and I havn't noticed it affect the rate of fire..

[Snail]

I'm not sure, but I've seen it fire the three as different 'banks.' It would fire the first barrel, while that one recharges the second barrel fires, when that one is recharging, the third one fires. But I'm not sure.

[BlueFlames]

Multi-weapon turrets' behavior depends on what weapons you mount.  For example, if you put three different weapons onto one of the Orion's turrets, the AI will pick the one and fire it exclusively.  If you set all three slots to the same weapon, the weapon will fire about three times as often.  I'm not exactly sure if there's any circumstances where a mixed-weapon turret will switch weapons, such as swapping from long range flak to heavy flak as a fighter closes on the warship, but given how doggedly AI fighters refuse to switch weapons, I don't hold any hope that capital ship gunners behave any more intelligently.

[edit]Forgot to mention this is retail FS2 behavior.[/edit]

[TrashMan]

Actually I think I recall seing the double turret on the Faustus with the Rockeye and maxim(or was it a disruptor?) fire BOTH.. so I think you can slap on different weapons...I still wouldn't reccomed it tough..

[MT]

Multi-weapon turrets' behavior depends on what weapons you mount.  For example, if you put three different weapons onto one of the Orion's turrets, the AI will pick the one and fire it exclusively.  If you set all three slots to the same weapon, the weapon will fire about three times as often.  I'm not exactly sure if there's any circumstances where a mixed-weapon turret will switch weapons, such as swapping from long range flak to heavy flak as a fighter closes on the warship, but given how doggedly AI fighters refuse to switch weapons, I don't hold any hope that capital ship gunners behave any more intelligently.

[edit]Forgot to mention this is retail FS2 behavior.[/edit]

Does this mean that effectively the Orion has 5*3 = 15 THTs?

[BlueFlames]

If you just look at damage dealt over a certain length of time, yes.

There's some nuances to consider, though.  Multiple weaker shots are tougher for fighters to fend off than a single, more powerful shot.  (Not an issue, with Terran Huge Turrets, since their regular rate of fire is so slow, with travel speeds to match.)  Five triple turrets also don't provide coverage as thorough as fifteen regular turrets would.  Given all of the blindspots in the Orion's defense, that's a pretty important consideration.

TrashMan, I think that the issue of the Faustus' multi-turret firing different weapon types derrives from the fact that one of those weapons is a primary weapon, and the other is a secondary weapon.  You'll also note that the Akheton turret has a second primary slot that has a weak yellow blob laser assigned by default.  Ever see a blob fired from the multi-turret?  Probably not, unless the mission/table modified the turret's loadout.

[Wanderer]

Just checked with 369 builds.. Orions turrets three barrels all shoot independently and all three really shoot. Switching weapons causes turret to fire independently with all (three) set weapons. Firepoints did alternate however so while testing with turret which had THT, TT and subach the THT fired sometimes from the right and sometimes from the left barrel.

[TrashMan]

And that's why I say it's best to stick with one weapon in all barrels...looks better

Hm...which reminds me..is there a limit to barrel fire poins? I don't thnik FRED can handle more than 4....

[Trivial Psychic]

MODview won't allow you to place more than 4 per turret, though got around that on the Aeolus by creating two separate sets of firepoints for the same turret.  That said, you can conceivably assign a total of 6 slots per turret, as long as 3 of them are primaries and 3 of them are secondaries.  Never tried it though.

With regards to the apparent cycling of weapon types when more than one is placed on a multi-firepoint turret, it would be useful if we could override that tendency, so that a weapon would stay bound to the firepoint its assigned to.  Ran into that problem with the Victory's triple-barrel turrets, which fire beams from the outer firepoints, and a red pulse weapon from the central one.  Couldn't get it to work properly because of the cycling issue.

[Wanderer]

Looking at the code it looks like maximum turret firing points is currently 10

And for the note.. current 369 behavior increases Orions THTs firepower threefold when compared to retail. At least while testing with retail turret shot only single shot. With SCP turret shoots atm three shots. Cycling thing is really annoying though.

[TrashMan]

Now, if you beef up that THT you get even more firepower for the Orion... 

[jr2]

Looking at the code it looks like maximum turret firing points is currently 10

And for the note.. current 369 behavior increases Orions THTs firepower threefold when compared to retail. At least while testing with retail turret shot only single shot. With SCP turret shoots atm three shots. Cycling thing is really annoying though.

Could you counteract that by dividing the hitpoints given by 1/3?  Also, lock them to fire at the same time?

[TrashMan]

Why would he do that? It's not like THT's are worth much anyway? Even with triple power....

[jr2]

Retail backwards compatibility thingy... ask karajorma.