Turrets Randomly Do Nothing in Combat

[SergioCQH]

I keep running into situations where some of my turrets will do nothing at all in combat. Healing pylons won't heal. Blessing pylons won't bless. Attack turrets won't attack the enemy. They always start out doing nothing from the moment they are summoned and keep doing nothing throughout the combat.

 

One fight where I had this problem was on Yutsua's second quest, where I summoned a snare turret that just sat there while the ogres pounded me. Another example is the fight against two mines and a turret leading up to the deep storage under rockridge. I reloaded this fight several times trying to use a healing pylon, but the thing never healed me.

 

I've tried searching for any posts about this issue but it seems as if I'm the only one who's had them.

[Lilith]

Even blessing and healing turrets have to be close enough to "notice" an enemy in order to activate. If there are enemies close to them and within their line of sight and they're still not doing anything, though, I'm not sure what's going wrong.

[SergioCQH]

In the fight against the ogres, they surrounded me while I was standing next to the snare turret, and it did nothing.

[Jerakeen]

Yes, the enemy has to be within attack range of the turret, not just of your characters. Placing them close enough without getting yourself swarmed can be a little tricky sometimes, but in most cases you can let the enemy come to you. It helps to remember that a turret will always be placed in the space immediately north of the character if there's room for it. If not, it will go in the next available space counterclockwise.

 

And turrets will never be triggered by, or aim at, mines. Though they may hit them incidentally while aiming at something else.

 

ETA: It's also possible for turrets to get stunned.

Edited December 22, 2013 by Jerakeen

[Pajama]

I've noticed this too. Quite often the turrets do nothing even though there is an enemy standing right next to it!Trouble is there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it but it happens enough to be noticeable.My Tinkermage now usually chooses another form of main attack and only uses turrets when absolutely necessary. Still having a blast with the game though

[Earth]

my guess is stunned or slowed or terrorized (no idea if possible) or dazed.

[Jerakeen]

Turrets are highly resistant to mental attacks, but not immune. Just hover your cursor over them to see what status effects they're under. Also, I find that often they act very quickly, almost simultaneously, so it's possible to miss their actions if you're not watching closely. Snare turrets don't do a really noticeable amount of damage against higher-level foes, who may also be resisting the status effects; hit 't' to bring up the text log and scroll back to see what's been going on.

 

Really, other than the occasional stunning, I've never had my turrets fail to act when enemies are in range.

[Aoslare]

Turrets (like all summons) do not get a turn the round you create them.

 

 

Other than that, they get a turn each round. That turn is when they check to see if enemies are in range. This means that if they take their turn BEFORE other enemies, they may seem to miss a round because the enemies didn't rush into range until AFTER the turret would have had a turn.

 

Other than that, Stun and Daze are the only effects that would keep a turret from attacking when enemies are in range. Like Jerakeen, I've never had problems with that.

[Randomizer]

Turrets can get slowed, but by that point in the game they start out with haste.

[Earth]

Turrets can get slowed, but by that point in the game they start out with haste.

 

yea but later part game enemies have very effective slow-spell.

 

when my turrets haven't acted I have just ignored it and put it on stunned category.

[Superba]

I am wondering why party Tinkermage is not allowed to place mines. For what I understood of Avadon's 2 world it is them (and some constructs) which build them.

[Kelandon]

I would say that it takes too much time, except that mine-laying constructs contradict that.

[Superba]

My guess is that the choice may depend upon the fact that Tinkermage is already told to be the most powerful member of the party, and Jeff didn't want to give him further advantages. However it seems to me a bit odd.

[Earth]

our Tinkers aren't trained (allowed) to do that unlike enemies Tinkers, just like enemies have unlimited supply of battle frenzy scrolls and lots of other things.

[Jerakeen]

Look at it this way, you're already lugging around enough gear to build up to two turrets/pylons at a moment's notice. There's probably no room in your pack for any more tinkery stuff (junk bag notwithstanding).

 

But it would be cool, though.

[springacres]

I would say that it takes too much time, except that mine-laying constructs contradict that.

My impression was that the minelaying constructs carried pre-built mines around in their packs? I could be wrong, though.

[Earth]

some mines were/are capable to reproduce (can't remember where those were encountered).

 

Look at it this way, you're already lugging around enough gear to build up to two turrets/pylons at a moment's notice.

 

except enemies seem to do that quicker (partially thx to battle frenzy).

[Jerakeen]

except enemies seem to do that quicker (partially thx to battle frenzy).

Quicker how? I mean yeah, a Frenzied enemy could build two turrets in one round, but so could I. Actually, I found it surprising how few enemies built turrets in combat - mostly they relied on the ones already in place.

 

some mines were/are capable to reproduce (can't remember where those were encountered).

What? I don't think so. Unless you're thinking of the mine-laying construct referenced above.

[Lilith]

some mines were/are capable to reproduce (can't remember where those were encountered).

 

You might be thinking of Geneforge here.

[Earth]

Quicker how? I mean yeah, a Frenzied enemy could build two turrets in one round, but so could I. Actually, I found it surprising how few enemies built turrets in combat - mostly they relied on the ones already in place.

 

Frenzied and cooling down faster than player.

 

What? I don't think so. Unless you're thinking of the mine-laying construct referenced above.

 

most likely.

 

You might be thinking of Geneforge here.

 

never played except ~15 mins to test if I can reproduce bug some1 has encountered.

[Lord Yanaek]

Just noticed this too. I wonder if this happens when there are out of range ennemies and the turret chooses them as target for whatever reason, then fails to fire cause they are too far away.

In a recent combat where i had this bug, there were some wretches hunters firering at my Ice Turret while Warriors and one big Ogre were pounding at me. The turret first fired at one of the warriors, but after he died, the turret did nothing more. It had no effect visible (and there were no spell casters anyway).

[Jerakeen]

Missile weapons have a longer range than offensive turrets, so the wretches could have been out of its range and still attacking. Is it possible that the ogre and warriors were also out of its range?

 

Btw, I really love the Calling Scarab on my warrior for pulling enemies into range of my turrets.

[Lord Yanaek]

No. I had the whole group 1 or 2 squares behind the turrets as i wanted to lure everyone in range so the melee ennemies were right next to the turrets.

 

Only explanation i can think of is Turret choose target without checking range, then tries to fire and fail, ends up doing nothing. And since it seems like they will only get a new target after the first one dies, it means they will do nothing for the whole combat unless you manage to kill the unknown target yourself.

 

EDIT : OK. I've been observing turrets. At one occasion i've got an ice turret "fire" at a monster it couldn't actually hit as it was hidden around a corner (the fire animation did trigger, but the monster took no damage and there was no "miss" or "immune" text, there was no text at all. On another occasion, i was right next to an ennemy turret and it would not fire at me (not fire at all) so at least this does affect all turrets. There was another group member out of range.

 

I wanted to take ScreenShots but they turned out black.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Lord Yanaek

[Jerakeen]

At one occasion i've got an ice turret "fire" at a monster it couldn't actually hit as it was hidden around a corner (the fire animation did trigger, but the monster took no damage and there was no "miss" or "immune" text, there was no text at all.

This I've seen, though it's rare. I assumed that the target was detectable, but not quite hittable with a cone-shaped attack. Annoying, but minor.

 

On another occasion, i was right next to an ennemy turret and it would not fire at me (not fire at all) so at least this does affect all turrets. There was another group member out of range.

What kind of turret was it? I'll reiterate that the turrets often act very quickly and almost simultaneously. In a large battle it's easy to miss a single action if there's no big obvious animation attached. Like a razordisk shot, for example.

 

As for the rest, I'm stumped. I've never seen any evidence that turrets acquire targets outside of their range. I've seen them change targets without hesitation if their original choice moves away. If this is seriously affecting your game, the only thing I can suggest is to email Jeff. Let him know what operating system you use, etc.

 

Screen shots wouldn't show much... I wonder how practical it would be to get some sort of Let's Play app to record a battle sequence?

[Earth]

I've seen them change targets without hesitation if their original choice moves away.

 

I saw that alot, turret changed to target cause that enemy hit it last, annoyed me alot especially in Core.

[Lord Yanaek]

This I've seen, though it's rare. I assumed that the target was detectable, but not quite hittable with a cone-shaped attack. Annoying, but minor.

Agreed it's a minor issue. Just added as it might be related / part of a larger issue.

What kind of turret was it? I'll reiterate that the turrets often act very quickly and almost simultaneously. In a large battle it's easy to miss a single action if there's no big obvious animation attached. Like a razordisk shot, for example.

Some sort of "fungus" shaped pylon. The sort of stuff that creates large rings all around them. Hard to miss and it was the last stuff still in the battle.

I've never seen any evidence that turrets acquire targets outside of their range. I've seen them change targets without hesitation if their original choice moves away. If this is seriously affecting your game, the only thing I can suggest is to email Jeff. Let him know what operating system you use, etc.

I have no evidence either, just wild guesses as to what might cause the "no action" bug. I also had turrets change target occasionally, but i think it happens when something hits them hard.

I would rather have more than guesses and general observations before sending a mail. It doesn't even seriously affect the game but might be annoying at some occasions (such as when you are counting on your turrets for a tough fight).

Unfortunately, since it's impossible to save during a fight, i can't even save when the issue shows up to help debug it.