Opinions on the Sentry

[Der Vampyr Engel]

Thats what I am saying Pharoh, that would make it quite usefull make the third gun a cannon or give it a rocket hardpoint, make it actually deserve it's rep as a Sentry, I mean , what does Sentry mean? the word means or is interpreted as a guard, well if you got some ISDF Scouts , say 10 Scouts verus 10 Sentries the ISDF would problably win, not so if the Sentry had a Cannon hardpoint and a rocket hardpoint, plus, with a load of Seeker mines it would be quite a fast defensive unit, also it would be more of a devastating attack force, possibly with the upgrade FE guass guns.

As it is it is great fun but I usually overlook it in games really unless I want a bit of a laugh or I am desparate for ships.

[Zero Angel]

Giving Sentries a missile HP would make Lancers completely useless. Ion Guns are devasting to N armored units like scouts. Assault Ions are somewhat useful against Heavy armored units. Sentries are great units that have a lot more ammo then an ISDF scout, but could probably do with forward speed increase, and slightly stronger hull strength to compensate for their cost.

[Der Vampyr Engel]

Actually I must say this, I do like the idea of it being a stealth tank, if you could somehow make the Phantom IV invisblity shield make the tank invisible and totally undetectable to radar then you could make some devatating sneak attacks on a human or MPI base, while you got 30  of them tying down the baseas they attack, the other units won't see your other meduim and heavy units come and attack the base, so to me that is a brilliant strategic suggestion, four gun HP's? sounds nice that could be then like a ground gunship or something with better Ion guns .

And if you had an uprated Ion Gun on par with the heavy chain guns in FE then that would be good, and still have a cannon with it, 1 or 2 rocket hardpoints , bit more armour and a a lot more ammo hold and I think that could really work, it would make it different , formidible, and a more useful unit

[pharoh]

interesting that you mention that DVE....most of the times when i spot sentries, theres 2 of em tailing a scavanger. there nothing more than a glorified watchdog without a 3rd gun, a cannon, or a even a rocket.

[Der Vampyr Engel]

No it wouldn't,The  ISDF msl Scout dosn't make the ISDF Rocket Tank uselsss , although granted The Rocket  Tank can shoot down ariel targets and the Msl Scout can't but I think then the Lancer couldbe made to shoot down arial targets with rockets  and make sure the Sentry can't do that then I think that would create a good balance between the 2, also give a rocket the the Sentry can't carry but the Lancer can.

[Der Vampyr Engel]

That is what I am saying Pharoh, with just shields, mines and two guns on them, they really aint much :s

[Slaor]

DVE - 1.3 allows you to set a unit as stealthed in the same way as a deployed turret is stealthed - ie u can't target it and it doesn't show on radar unless u can actually see it. This is a powerful attribute in its own right, no need for full invisibility.

[Der Vampyr Engel]

I suppose but you can still see it and I am sure the other units can still see it so it could scout out a base but not go in invisibly and then suddenly
decloak and say attack the Factory or something like that.

With full invisbilty added you can do something like that although I wouldn't add it to multiplayer, I have seen loads of posts on here about the "hover bug" putting that in muliplayer would be asking for trouble.

[Speedy]

What FE did:

Removed light armour from sentry
Added 250 health to sentry (2250 - 2500)
-----------
Sentry somewhat more balanced with other early-game forces. Without the light armour, a laser scout might have a fighting chance against a sentry with the rev.C gauss gun. Of course, a laser scout needs something like tag cannon to hit pools, but things are at least a little close to fair now.


Sentry assault-mode health increased from 1900 to 2500
-----------
The sentry, having had it's light armour removed to tone it down, we found was much too weak in assault mode, making morphing essentially pointless (esp. In light of the fact that FE version one and revB features a combat gauss gun range of 150m rather than the 1.2 140m, meaning you do not need to morph to out-range turrets).

[Speedy]

As for actually changing the sentry, I'm for it. But it might be better to leave it as a mod thing although giving standard 1.3 players more ship-choice is a good thing. Sentries look damn cool, its too bad people don't use them like they should.

[IceWendigo]

bigger cannons, more guns, missile would all increase its firepower, thus make it more similar to others, which is not interesting.

"DVE - 1.3 allows you to set a unit as stealthed in the same way as a deployed turret is stealthed - ie u can't target it and it doesn't show on radar unless u can actually see it. This is a powerful attribute in its own right, no need for full invisibility."


The more I think about it the more that type of stealth option sounds perfect for the Sentry. It doesnt increase its head-on firepower but differentiates it while making it more interesting.  

Do you know which paramerter to include in the fvsent.odf to make it stealthy in this particular way?  

(I'll also try to make a seekersalvo mine [same as seeker with greater rate of fire; smaller 'shotdelay' value] and put it in as a default on the sentry, to test if its usefull when actually tested/used in a game.)

[Der Vampyr Engel]

I think ot was suggested in this thread by

Foxblade: "radarsignature is its ability to be picked up on radar. 0 means it cannot be targetted. in the customization screen for vehicles and their weapons, you see radar, heat etc. signatures. missils that home into radar will be much more effective with a higher signature rating. "


IceWendigo, put two extra guns on it as well, preferably a cannon as well if you can. but if not at least put four guns on it and make it a gunship I was thinking also of making the morph mode of it faster and the Ion 2 fire faster, kind oi like the alt-fire for the mini-gun in Unreal Tournament 2003

[BZZERKER]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think 4 guns (same weapon) will cause AV's if you change camera angle.

[Huscar]

Well I agree that this sounds much like a mod even if it would be nice to be in 1.3 final. Anyway this is what i was thinking of:
-Not stealthed but harder to target with some rockets (in one of the first SP missions S. said there were some units over a hill or something like that, sentrys)
-An escort vehicle, long engage range to make it attack before the important vehicle arrives (constuctor, scav, tug... anything)
-Better armour or more hull & stronger firepower (3 guns) for the same purpose as above (an escort vehicle is useless if it is blasted away immidiately)
-Powerfull mines & scout behaviour so when it flees because of to much damage it will destroy any chasers and it will not lead them to the important vehicle.

Is it an idea?

[Der Vampyr Engel]

I suppose so but I think arm it up more, otherwise it really isn't an effective ship as it is, possibly in the beginning but you might as well recylce them when the other ships come about

I shall try to put a couple of guns on it  or even a cannon on and see how it goes.