I was playing brink (xbox) online last night on 8 v 8. I'm a level 20 engineer and had followed the ability tree of light turret then medium turret but when you finally get to choose your rank 5 ability the Gatling gun turret. i would expect it to be of a better standard than the light turret. but its not, it is completely useless to the point that the turret gets you killed more times when your constantly reparing it or placing it in a nice well covered corner of a room where you feel that the only way to attack the gun is from a head on attack only to get shot in the process of building it when your guard is down. now i know that's the chance you have to take when building a turret or repairing one but thyey are so bad at there job that all you are doing is constantly building and repairing it and getting killed in the process. i used to love going an engineer in team fortress 2 because the turret was really good at its job of taking down enemy targets. but in brink the turret will just sit there staring in the direction it was built and you can simply run up to the turret from the side and unload a mag into it and destroy it. it wont even lock on to the person while under attack. but if you place it in a corner of a room as i said earlier thinking that you have cancelled out the flank maneuver you can still run up to it lob a grenade and disable the thing in about 2 seconds. the turret doesn't even get to shoot off any rounds and even if it does it does less damage to the person than what they did to the gun. a rank 5 Gatling turret takes about 5 hits to bring down an enemy but because it takes so long to lock onto any target whats the whole point of the thing. everybody knows they are useless so why are they in the game if they dont work. i wish i could trade in my turret for 2 more mines because at least you get a guaranteed kill with mines unlike the turret.
now as i end my rant i would like to point out that i dont want the turret to be as aggressive as in team fortress 2 because it would make the game unbalanced. I'd also go along with the ability to flank a turret from the side and it wouldn't instantly swing round and waste you in 1 second. but if i build the turret facing in a certain direction then i think the turret should instantly lock onto the target in the direction that its facing and finish them off after its 5 hits that it requires. if its a rank 5 ability Gatling turret. a rank 5 should have some form of fear surrounding them but not to the extent that they dominate the game.

I kind of agree with you. I understand what they had in mind with the game to make it more balance but using up 3 abilities slots for the same turret just the rate of fire being the same just seems blah to me. Maybe get the Gattling turret to lock on to target a little faster?

the turret may not be good but it has this psychological effect.
as an operative I constantly get distracted and destroy the turret because of these "what if" scenarios
if the turret locks on to me it can do some serious damage and maybe even deplete a pip of my life on a glancing blow
sure the turret svcks but I racked up some good points from a hacked turret because the enemy wasn't expecting it.
the best turret is the one that's strategically placed or hidden
but It should definitely circle around when an enemy is too close to it and blast him unless he's an Operative
heck the hack turret ability should be default and instead the Op should have the ability to approach the turret from behind as the ability (naturally it woudn't fire on him while hacking)

situation

o_}-

the o is the guy and _}- is the turret
the guy should definitely be toast at this point regardless of which way the Sentry is facing

You have to remember that a turret can only be as effective as other abilities that have the same cost. A sentry costs one supply pip, as does a grenade, health buff, or land mine. A sentry also costs 1 ability point, as does 1 extra pip of supply, silent running, or comm's hack. If you look at from that point of view, it doesn't need to be more powerful; it does what it is suppose to do at a cost roughly equal to its effectiveness. That being said, I can't tell you how many times I've locked down an area with just me and my sentry fending off people single handedly. A properly placed sentry will force an enemy either to fire at you and let the sentry fire at their back, or fire at the sentry and let you fire at their back. To put it another way, it's one more thing the enemy has to think about and take care of when trying to do an objective (just like landmines, or a medic reviving people, or people using downed fire), which can make all the difference in a fire fight, making it well worth the ability cost and supply pip.

In Brink, your abilities don't define what firepower you bring to a fight unlike say TF2. You and your guns do, which everyone has access to the same loadouts, and any abilities you may have merely supplement your killing ability and increase the number of tactics you can choose to employ.

On a side note, if trying to set a sentry or repairing an existing one is getting you killed, then stop trying to set one down. Clear the area and wait for a calm moment to set it. Or just ignore the fact that you have the ability to place sentries and change tactics; focus on ensuring all your teammates are buffed. The engineer's weapon damage buff of 18-31% is nothing to be scoffed at and costs the same supply pip as a sentry.

It's not a That Was Easy button. They're not super deadly turrets like in TF2.

You stick them where they can see the enemies, but the enemies can't see it. Think of it like another player on the field, standing still and constantly aware.

Because they're standing still, they'll obivously die quickly, so make it so they dish outb teh damage before they can die.


If you play TF2, use them with a Mini-Sentry mindset instead of using them as Level 3 Sentries.

Turrets aren't supposed to net you kills in this game. They act as a form of defense and another barrier
that the attackers, or defenders, must overcome.

One thing I would have liked to see is if somehow, when setting up a turret, you could choose its' field
of fire, or cone of fire, so that you could minimize its' oscillating feature into a smaller zone so you
could focus it on one area and 'force' it to pick up on enemies quicker.

i love my turret I'm a Lvl 20 Heavy Eng. ill set her down and i set it in one side of a area and ill be on the other if you come thru you will die. i think if him as a "trap" guy. all and all it should lock on faster the more you upgrade it. but i have had mine rack up lik 500xp b4 dieing sometimes but it avg about 200-300xp per drop so i like it