Uranium slug turret

The uranium slug turret is a defensive turret with very long range and shot damage, but with a wide blind zone.

Acquisition

Uranium slug turrets can be constructed once the Uranium slug turret research project has been completed. They require 300 Steel, 30 Plasteel, 60 Uranium, 6 Components, 15,000 ticks (4.17 mins) of work, and a Construction skill of 6.

Summary

The uranium slug turret uses the autocannon weapon. In addition to the weapon's accuracy, the turret itself has a per-tile shooting accuracy of 98% or equivalent to a Shooting skill of 14. It has a maximum range of 45.9 tiles, but is unable to hit enemies within an 11.9 tile radius. These ranges are centered on the lower left tile of the turret, regardless of orientation. Despite its damage, the uranium slug turret's stopping power is almost non-existent, not even being able to stagger humans - the same is also true for the autocannon turret.

After firing 30 slugs, it needs to be reloaded with 60 uranium by a hauler. This can be adjusted in the storyteller settings, but all default difficulty settings do not alter this.

Since uranium slug turrets are large 2x2 structures, ranged attacks are twice as accurate against them. And as of version 1.3.3117, turrets don't benefit from cover. Despite displaying in the mouse-over box as such, empirical testing demonstrates that turrets do not benefit at all.^[1]

Like all turrets, they are temporarily disabled by sources of EMP, with downtime scaling to the EMP damage dealt. Unlike mechanoids, turrets do not adapt to EMP and thus can be continuously restunned.

Visualization of effective turret range of all three turrets, from uranium slug turret (top), to autocannon turret (middle), to mini-turret (bottom).
Green is 80 - 100% of peak accuracy, blue is 50 - 80% of peak accuracy, red is below 50% of peak accuracy and grey is outside range. Gold tiles are spaced every 5 tiles. Values from 1.0.

Explosion

Uranium slug turrets have a 50% chance to explode when damaged below 20% health. The exploding turret will spark and emit a hissing sound for 240 ticks (4 secs) before exploding, dealing 50 Bomb damage in a 5.9 tile radius centered around the lower left tile of the turret. Bomb damage is multiplied 8x against walls, 4x against other impassable structures and plants, and 2x against passable buildings. All nearby raiders will attempt to move out of the blast radius before detonation.

Radius of uranium slug turret explosion. Note the slight offset from the 'true' center of the turret.

Graphs

True DPS over Range

Analysis

Uranium slug turrets are expensive, from research time to build costs to ammo costs. Uranium is difficult to come by and expensive to buy, limiting colonies that can even use one at all. The damage, while high, is overkill against most raiders, making it impractical against most enemies. It works well against centipedes or radiers with power armor.

Unlike the mini-turret, uranium slug turrets can not be moved after it is built.

Interestingly, it becomes more accurate ranges increase, and thus ideally would be placed where it can consistently shoot at targets from its maximum 45.9 tile range, however without other targets for them to engage, enemies will attempt to close to much shorter ranges. Placing colonists or other turrets further up, with uranium slug turrets further away but out of line to prevent friendly fire, solves this issue.

Raw DPS is weaker than the autocannon turrets, but this is before considering armor penetration, range, or the uranium slug's higher damage per shot, which is more likely to destroy organs.

Version history

0.19.2009 - Added.
1.1.0 - received a massive nerf to damage (75 -> 30), nerf to armor penetration (112.5% -> 70%), reduced range (49.9 -> 39.9), increased reload cost (60 -> 80 baseline) and nerf to shooting accuracy (98.8% -> 98%).
1.1.2618 - received a buff to damage (30 -> 45), increased range (39.9 -> 45.9), increased reload cost (80 -> 120) and reduced magazine capacity (40 -> 30).
1.1.2624 - received a buff to damage (45 -> 50), buff to armor penetration (70% -> 75%), and reduced reload cost (120 -> 90).
1.3.3200 - Damage increased from 50 to 55. Accuracy increased: touch 0.2 -> 0.22, short 0.3 -> 0.33, medium 0.4 -> 0.44.

Architect