Cadet II/Turreting

Turret gunning

This lesson is a quick guide to the basics of being a turret gunner. The notes in this section apply to any kind of ship you may turret, from heavy scout to battleship.

You can join as a turret gunner while you are in base via the "Base Transferring screen" (F8). If there are any ships with turrets available simply click on their name to transfer to their ship.

Who should turret?

Believe it or not, being a turret gunner is not an easy task. Sure, you don’t have to worry about where the ship is flying and sure, you have the lead indicator to tell you where to fire. But look at it this way: everyone else on the bomb run is relying on you to defend them. You need to be able to make instant decisions about which enemy to fire at, and be accurate enough to hit them.

Internet Connection + Common sense = Competent Turret Gunners (usually)

OK first off, connection is very important when turret gunning due to lag issues. Most 56K-ers won’t have much success turret gunning...... you simply won’t hit that much. Especially as more and more defenders launch to defend the base. Lag will hinder your ability to hit people and thus HURT your team if you are gunning. So its best if you don’t gun during larger games or when too many people are in one sector. If you have a good connection then you should be fine for most games.

Secondly, common sense is now in list form:

The turret gunners’ Ten Commandments

1. If you don’t have eye then DON’T SHOOT!
   
   If everything is too far away to eye you, then it is probably too far away for you to hit it.
   Firing raises your ships signature. You’re probably going to get your bbr eyed, which is the worst thing to happen to it.
2. STAY awake in the turret. Nothing worse than getting hammered by the enemy and your gunner is AFK, or there is a probe spotting you and no one is killing it. Be aware while in a turret, the game is far too unpredictable for you to not stay focused at all times.
3. BOTH gunners should be concentrating their fire on the same target WHENEVER possible. Call out your targets via the Voice Chat menu. (Use the “ship” channel so you don't spam the general chat) ~5 key will issue the “Attack my target!” command. Don’t shoot different enemies unless:
   1. You BOTH have insane KBs
   2. There are plenty of NANS (5 or more) covering your ass and the enemy units are sparse.
4. If you have time to pick between multiple targets, identify the one with highest KB defender while and SHOOT THEM FIRST!
   Why? Because they die just as easily as any other defender, but they have a higher damage output.
   Use the E key (by default) to cycle through the oncoming attackers and identify which Pilot has the high KB. Make a judgment call as to whether you have enough time to kill someone closer before the KB pilot is in range.
5. Kill the defenders that are killing your NAN'S if it is possible for you to distinguish. Your NAN'S will repair your bomber. #Kill those who are killing the NAN'S. Then worry about the rest.
   Ignore the idiots shooting the bomber. (Unless he has a high KB)
6. Always shoot any towers first when you come through the aleph. They have perfect accuracy and high damage output. Look to see if a Nan scout is nanning the tower!
   Then shoot Figs's/Int's/DEFENDERS, in that order. If the opponents have a mix of figs and ints at about the same tech level, as dumbfires and minepacks are more dangerous than miniguns.
7. ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM!
   Use the zoom key (numpad +/- by default) whenever possible to achieve a much higher level of accuracy while you are gunning. Your throttle can also be used to zoom in and out on your joystick. If you cannot become skilled at zooming in and out while you track your target then you will not be an asset to your team as a turret gunner.
   Zooming is for accuracy and is imperative to precision turret gunning (plus connection speed of course).
8. When being attacked by stealth fighters it is best to try and shoot their MISSILE'S while the SF is cloaked. They will undoubtedly be trying to take down your NAN'S and shooting their MISSILES helps - if you are accurate enough to pop the MISSILE before it pops your NAN. Trying to hit a cloaked SF is usually a waste of ammo. Don’t bother if you are low on ammo or they are lobbing MISSILES at your NAN'S.
9. Don’t forget whether friendly fire is on or not. Don’t get so caught up in shooting that you try to fire THROUGH your NAN'S. Ease off the trigger if your NAN drifts into your firing path or switch targets altogether.
10. NEVER Pod Kill when you are bombing. NEVER! Let them float. The last thing the opposition needs is another defender. They had better have an insane KB (like 40 or so) if you PK anyone and even then it’s debatable.

Target priority

When you first pop through an aleph you’re going to be overwhelmed by new information and it can take a second to decide what to shoot. Shoot at anything hostile that is in range and visible on my screen initially (so no major turning involved). If there is nothing useful currently on my screen (for example, I end up pointed straight at the aleph behind us), or there are multiple targets possible on my screen initially, I prioritise as follows:

1. Advanced Fighter
2. Towers (nan on tower first if one exists)
3. Scouts ahead of my bomber / by aleph
4. Gunship (skip if it has multiple nans)
5. Bomber (skip if it has multiple nans)
6. Heavy Int
7. Heavy/Escort Scout w/ turret
8. Advanced SF
9. Light Int
10. Int
11. SF
12. Enhanced Fighter
13. Light SF
14. Fighter
15. Heavy/Escort Scout
16. Advanced Scout
17. Scout

Advanced Fighters are the best target around. Adv Figs will usually have DF2 or DF3, Mine Packs, and 3 front guns. They can blow a bomber or a nan out of the sky incredibly quickly... but unlike Heavy Interceptors, which can do the same sort of damage, Advanced Fighters die fairly quickly. Enhanced Fighters can be just as nasty, but often lack the punch that Advanced Fighters have since usually comms try to jump to Advanced Fighters before getting the gun and missile techs. If you know their Enhanced Fighters have solid weapons, or their Advanced Fighters don't yet have good weapons, you can adjust the priority here appropriately.

Towers are good to pick off (particularly SC Towers), but a good friendly scout pilot can absorb Tower shots with their shield and some movement, and a great one will turn and shoot a missile or two to keep it distracted or even kill it themselves.

As noted by others, mines are the next biggest threat, not necessarily for the damage, but because they'll slow your run down which gives the other ships more time to shoot, so removing the scouts dropping prox mines is next up.

Gunships and Bombers, if they're in range of your guns, are quick kills to remove a lot of fire power against you, especially if they have no nans. If you're looking at two or more smart nans, leave it for last -- good nans on a camping GS or Bomber will keep the ship they nan between them and you, making it nearly impossible to kill, and even if you manage to kill a nan, you've only removed a ship not doing damage to you -- spend your initial ammo reducing the number of guns shooting at you and your nans -- let their nans float around not being useful while you remove other easier-to-kill threats.

Heavy Ints pack 3 guns, they need to die. Light Ints and Ints both have 2 guns, but Light Ints are easier to kill, so they get priority.

SFs should usually be picked off any time they are visible. They're usually quick kills and can definitely wear down your nan train quickly if your team isn't ready to cross-nan (and even then they can still pop nans or even your bomber fast with coordinated Hunter or Killer launches).

Scouts floating to the side generally lack the fire power to make a functional difference. However, if one has a turret gunner and you can tell they have it, you should probably pick him off since the combination of scout pilot and his gunner will be doing pretty hefty damage, but the scout itself is fairly weak.

So at this point we've all thought long and hard about exactly which target to hit when coming through the aleph. Anguirel's reply is inarguably the "right" list, and I hope you've all carefully read it.

In fact, I get this image of a studious Cadet, carefully taking notes on a sticky and posting them on a monitor. He is very excited, as the bomber he is turreting is going through a camped aleph and he gets to apply his knowledge for the first time. He carefully cycles through every available target, compares it to his sticky, thinks out his choice, changes his mind because that heavy int is piloted by a better pilot than the adv fig...

and his bomber died ten seconds ago.

When you go through that aleph, find something to shoot and start shooting at it. That's hard enough.

Shooting at the wrong thing is a thousand times better than shooting at nothing because you're trying to find the best thing to shoot.

This principle applies throughout Allegiance. If you just woke up two miners with your heavy int, don't take time to carefully calculate which one of them you are more likely to kill. Kill one of them.

The hot seat

Having a high kb can really help destroy a station by making each AB do more damage. Turret gunning can really help you get a high kb.

Put two and two together – promoting a gunner to the pilot seat just before you reach firing range can make the difference between a live station and a dead one. By default the keys to promote gunners are:

Sometimes this will be preplanned between the pilot and the gunners, the pilot will ask his gunners who has the higher kb, but other times the pilot will just put a gunner in the hot seat with no warning.

There are a few subtle clues when this happens to you:

• Your turret starts tracking a lot slower.
• Your target switches unexpectedly.
• You get a missile lock on your target.
• When you fire gattling bullets appear, not AC cannon bursts.
• You get a big red message which says “You have been promoted to pilot”^Verify

It’s very easy to panic when this happens, but keep your head and carry out the mission. Press Z to target the enemy base (by default), finish flying to missile range, and open fire.

Getting out

Sometimes it may be necessary for the gunners to leave the seat. For instance, you’ve been flying a frigate for a while and are running low on ammo and missiles. Either the pilot and his three gunners can fly all the way back to the shipyard to rearm (frigates can’t ripcord), or the gunners can eject, get picked up, and do something useful while the pilot docks the ship. hmmm, tough choice.

To eject hold ctrl and shift and press D three times (by default).

The importance of kb

Kb alone is irrelevant. Combined kb is important. Imagine the following: Two equal-skill gunners jump into the gunner chairs. One has a 10 kb, the other 17.

They start taking out enemies. Both train in on the first ship at the same speed and start firing. These gunners, however, are stupid and believe that kb is irrelevant and so they both shoot until this ship pops before going after the next closest. Who gets the kill? Who gets the increase to kb? On the second ship? The third?

Here's the pop quiz - Why is what they did stupid? What could be done better to be smart about it?

Stop here and think about these questions, then move on to the next section which will should give the answer away.

OK, after 10 enemies are podded, what's the total KB across both players? What is the maximum total KB that is possible if they had shared kills?

Kills   0   1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10   11
kb      0   10   17   21   25   28   30   32   33   35   36   37

Keeping your kb

When you're playing Allegiance, there are always other considerations that are way more important, than padding/protecting your kb.

• You have a 30 and are podded? An enemy bomber pops out of the aleph next to your tech base? Don't hesitate a split second - suiciding on a caltrop is the right thing to do.
• You have an opportunity to rush the bomber and get the triple whammy KB instead of staying together with the pack? Don't do it. You might cause the defense to fail.
• Chase a damaged scout or stay back with the miner (especially if you suspect there's a SF in there)? Don't be greedy. You will get your kb in due time.
• You can’t nan because you’ll lose your 37? No, a 37 means you can nan that much better!

Anyway, what's important to realize is to know that sometimes you must take one for the team and risk your huge bonus for an important game turning event.

You will often see me do things like rush into a hot combat zone, and get podded just to pick up 3 pods, even though it's a sure fire way of losing my 35. The logic behind this is simple - kb is easy to get, spare pilots aren't. Either they PK me (and I'm back in base in no time, with 3 extra pilots on my team), or they don't, I keep my kb, and there is one pod floating home instead of 2.

NOTHING is more annoying to a commander than a wannabe whore who keeps padding his KB, but never uses it for something worthwhile, because he might get podded.

Guys, please, don't be like that. It simply sucks.