Strat Wars - Scenario Editing

Turrets differ from guns in that they can actually target ships. Whereas guns are fixed to fire in one direction, turrets have the ability to move. (Think of an F-16's cannon as a gun and a battleship 3-cannon battery as a turret.) The turrets panel is almost exactly the same as the guns panel. We'll go ever the different things here. For all other items, refer to the Guns page.

An addition to the Harmonization section is to display the firing arcs. Turning Show Firing Arcs on will display the range that each turret can move. This helps you to visually ensure that turrets will not swivel to track (and shoot) a target through the ship itself.

Setting the minimum and maximum angles of the X and Z coordinates sets the limits of a turret's swivel. Both the X and Z axes cross the Y axis, so the Y axis is not selectable. Setting all values to 0 creates a gun - a non-movable weapon which would be better off defined in the gun panel. Angles can be negative.

Entering values in the Platform fields enables the turret to act like it is mounted on a platform. This enables you to tilt the center point of a turret in what ever direction you want. For example, if you had a turret on the underside of a ship that you wanted to be able to fire at any object under the bottom plane of the ship, you would make the turret sit on a platform with an angle of 180, 0, 0. This will point the default turret straight down. From there, you can make your min and max angles 0, 0, -90 and 180, 0, 90, effectively creating the bottom of a sphere and enabling the turret to target anything below the turret itself. Platforms are great for positioning turrets on any non-front plane. Mounting turrets on surfaces that are at odd angles is a lot easier with the help of platforms.

Enabling the box next to the Platform fields will turn on a purple diamond with an arrow pointing in the relative up direction of the platform.

Selecting this makes all of the turrets in the current turret array track and target the ship's main target. Nothing like having ten capital starship turrets trained on you!