In 3.11, new turrets were added in the vicinity of the R&R stations to act as protection with the removal of the armistice zone. Is there a particular reason for why these turrets weren't embedded as emplacements on the hulls of the stations themselves, rather than having them on "floating" platforms?asked by Commander_Jack
TL;DRFree-standing turrets give the most coverage with the fewest turrets, Art didn't want stations looking like battleships, and they also help with firing angles and make targets easier to pick out.
I think it's two-fold. From my point of view, it's because they offer the most coverage with the least amount of them, which is, as far as I'm concerned, the most important thing. And then there was a direction from Art, which is we don't want these things to look like battleships, which they would if we put turrets all over them, and you would probably need a lot more turrets to get [the same coverage]. So these things would end up looking like a battleship.
And firing angles for it. So it was a long thought process that we went through on it. And then it's also just from a targeting standpoint: okay, I can go and target that. Let's say I'm a pirate. I want to take that out. I want to blow it up. It's easier for them to pick it out and see it. And then in the future, we've obviously got cannons or ballistic weapons on there, but in the future it'll be missiles or those types of things.