Space Engineers - How to make drones using the turret controller

[@XiloTheOdd]

definitely increased my understanding of the turret AI block. good job on this. never even though to put gyros on the rotors to make a drone out of it to start, but the setup actions open up a lot of possibilities.

[@Daddy_Damo]

im glad this helped

[@zone-exe2648]

This right here is the video that's getting me back into Space Engineers after a few years hiatus, I simply love the potential for these drones! I'm going to spend hours seeing what I can come up with, would a mining or salvage/scrap variant be feasible? Keep up the amazing content either way! I'm definitely looking forward to more videos and insightful tutorials!

[@Daddy_Damo]

Maybe a ball with grinders on all sides that slowly drives towards grids could work lol

[@slomow-1540]

Same

[@kingjeffoftriton5507]

from a friend of mine: ua-cam.com/video/4KbQDHBgQP4/v-deo.html

[@zone-exe2648]

@@kingjeffoftriton5507 Tell your friend that this is cool as hell! This is exactly what I imagined! I'm definitely looking forward to 'Mining Joe' haha.

[@Valykry]

This just gave me ideas...

[@TimbavatiLion]

No longer needing scripts for stuff like this is amazing. The turret controller can do so much more than just control turrets 😁

[@randallb84]

the self guided missile was interesting. was not aware that the turret block could be used like that

[@damonhawkes2057]

After a lot of experimentation I found if you share inertial tensor on the rotors you don't actually need the gyros.
And with this they track super fast as well, no sluggishness.

[@IceMan-lm2gr]

You're just an even genius. I experimented for 5 hours in a row because of your video . At the end, I realized that you are just a devilish engineer...

[@RvKsword]

thats awesome, definitely learned some new stuff thank you, also i love those little gatling go carts at the end. I have this sudden image of flying a cargo ship over some enemies and dumping a swarm of them and watching the chaos multiply :D

[@schoboloc]

This was a great explanation, thanks! I saw someone build a missile with the controller, but when I tried I couldn't get it to work. This helps a lot!

[@Daddy_Damo]

glad this helped

[@trolly4233]

A bunch of people have been experimenting with the potential of the control blocks the moment the update dropped. I haven’t had a chance to make a proper auto-fighter just yet, as the rotor setup is a bit finnicky. Oh, and BEWARE CLANG WITH TURRET CONTROLLED ROTORS. THE PHYSICS ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I ended up accidentally making a teleporting drone that blew up appearing inside a ship… my ship to be specific.

[@Comicsluvr]

Thank you for making this video! I've seen people making all sorts of drones and missiles for years but I never understood the connection between the camera and the 'guidance system' or whatever it is. I'm hoping to do a 'drone master' UA-cam series for SE and I think you just gave me the last piece of the puzzle!

[@venator-classstardestroyer568]

Didn't watch the video for the drones but because the length made it seem you explain how it actually works, especially disconnected from a vehicle and in combination with a gyro.
And you did! There are so many things that can be done with this, without using guns.

[@comradesoupbeans4437]

this was super helpful, i had kind of picked up how you were making them from seeing them work but having them dissected like this makes it much clearer.
you make great content and are pretty clever with your designs, keep up the good work mate!

[@Daddy_Damo]

thank you

[@sevyrsgaming1202]

Very helpful. I've been at a bit of a loss for drones lately so this is great, thanks for the upload.

[@Daddy_Damo]

you're very welcome

[@elijahgrimm8052]

This could bring new life to a carrier I'm working on. Since I like to roll solo I lack other players to take command of combat drones, and even then they would only be able to control a few at a time. With this, I could have several squadrons of fighter drones releasing at once to wreak havoc on any enemy ships.

[@ChazWozaUK]

Normally I watched your other videos, had a chuckle and moved on with my day. This time I watched, took notes and then thought why am I not subscribed to this channel! Well now I am.

[@OrigionalCigarette]

Keep in mind your not limited to rotors. Hinges work as well.
I havent tested Hinges with the Azimuth, but perhaps its a good way to make a 180* turret.

[@felixsbert9163]

So glad I've come across your chanel. Since splitsie isn't explaining blocks anymore, I didn't know where to get good tutorials bout the new blocks anymore😅
I mean... more in depth but with out the need of a degree in programming. Really nice example, well explained with good implementation of the indepth-stuff.
Thanks alot👍

[@RichardGQue]

this is the best video I've seen on this topic.

[@CanDooBU]

When Warfare 2 dropped this was the first thing I made because xbox don't have fancy mods and I love drones!

[@Nathan5027]

Oddly enough, my first thought on seeing how this works is stationary mines, litter a few of these around, no comms, when an enemy enters an area, the Mines light up and attack until victory or defeat

[@Herpdongs]

i can just imagine seeing a ship just deploy these in combat for added firepower support, being constantly cranked out with assemblers, and just swarm an enemy

[@DelEnd_Virtua]

REPAIR DRONES

[@Em.P14]

i actually have though about making simmiliar drones to the first one with a thruster attached to the back side of the controller and on the end of the arm just a larger heavier support body.
but your idea is just mindblowing and it is funny to see that it really works using the gyros as infinitely spinnable flywheels. great idea, i love it. also to make the flywheels more effective, place some artificial weight blocks arround the motors, they will give a lot more innertia that the flywheel can counter

[@Sibelis1]

Thanks for doing this tutorial! I'd already asked in a few groups on FB if a stationary 360° turret was possible in this style and was told no.

[@loreman2803]

The Arms engineer at his finest. Can wait to see more marvels

[@andrewgodly5739]

Setup actions was a feature I completely overlooked

[@cmqptkloacjko]

Lol I’ve been trying to do a thing with sensors to keep my assault wing mate drones a certain distance to my sides and figuring out how to get them to aim without messing up my spacing has been hard but this video gave me an idea! Thanks m8!

[@Daddy_Damo]

sounds like an interesting challenge

[@onex0064]

I wasn’t subscribed but you asked nice and gently now I am (btw your content is nice is one of my motivation to play Se)

[@TrueMetalWarlord]

How have I not found this channel? This is really great stuff and we all appreciate you! I'm going to make a drone carrier like I've always wanted to now

[@kevingriffith6011]

I'm going to have to use this to make an auto-grinder drone. If only there was a way without scripts to tell when your cargo containers are full...
I think the only way around it would be to make the drone have excess cargo and have a fixed "work shift" using timers so that it won't fill it's cargo containers and keep grinding to waste parts.

[@TheMhalpern]

another option is to have your grinder attached to a larger grid, via piston or something, these drones like to collide with targets there may be ways around this, but probably not to the fidelity needed for an auto grinder. you might be able to use the GPS guidance and landing gear/ mag plates for a fetch drone though...

[@cmqptkloacjko]

I have no clue if this works and I’ll try it when I get to my computer in a few hours but
what if you had an ejector that shoots stone out to a collector that is then sorted back to the ejector and two timers, one that ejects the stone periodically and one that turns on a sensor a few seconds after the stone would be collected that triggers whatever you have that makes the drones return
It’s kinda bulky but what I’m thinking is that if the collector ends up getting full of parts it won’t be able to collect the stone so when the sensor turns on it sees the stone and says to stop the grinding
Idk I’ll try it later

[@EnjoyCocaColaLight]

Or... use a PB?

[@cmqptkloacjko]

@@EnjoyCocaColaLight he literally said without scripts

[@TheMhalpern]

You might be able to put the main body of the rotor on the drone itself if you have the camera rear facing, something I noticed in someone else's early turret control missiles, they were using space balls as counter wieghts, but in theory it should work for gyros. might be a bit more printer friendly, as the rotors and turret control block are on the same grid, you'd still have to do merge block or grinder shenanigans, but you might be able to get away from manually reassigning the rotors,

[@Daddy_Damo]

that would work if you only intended on looking at or following a target but if the camera / designator is facing backwards it will never look at the target so it wont shoot or activate the "setup actions" buttons

[@chJohnJobs]

you know, you can make a really cool base defense system with this, put turrent cams that trigger a timer block to set off alarms and trigger hidden turrets to pop out and to lock every single door.
ima totally go do that brb

[@goldridder]

FINALLY!! A video that actually delivers what I’ve been looking for!!! THANK YOUUUUUU

[@SpaceFlamingo07]

This is very helpful, thank you!

[@sarahkatherine8458]

The "one gyro, two rotors" version at around 5:00 is easier to print, so you can go for this if you want reloadable missile.

[@Spasstiskur]

Finally he speaks ^^, the silence ok but awsome to hear you speak finally ;)

[@nomekop777]

One thing I did differently is attaching the rotors to the main body and the gyros to the head, then setting the rotation multiplier to a negative number. This makes it a bit less tedious to construct

[@TheMhalpern]

interesting, do the controllers remember the rotors if they share a grid? if so they could be a lot more printer friendly.

[@nomekop777]

@@TheMhalpern @Michael Halpern I actually did testing with this months ago. Say you have a hangar, and you want to open/close hangar doors with a button panel. You would group the hangar doors (for example "left hangar doors") and add that group to the button panel as open/close.
Then you realize that the hangar doors should be somewhere else completely. But you're able to keep the button panel where it is. If you delete the doors and move them, then group the new ones in a group called "left hangar doors" like before, the button panel will still work on them. You don't need to change anything on it.
I know that works. I'm pretty sure it works with individual blocks too (for example, moving connector 13), but I'd need to test it.
I think it works similarly with the CTC, but sometimes it forgets what parts it's supposed to use? I'm not sure

[@secretman7208]

has anyone thought of using a static camera to set off a booby trap or something when a player walks past it that would be cool

[@sumguy01]

I had no idea Space Engineers was so cool until I watched this video

[@heighRick]

Thanks Damo, helps a lot

[@captaincookie72]

Thanks for this i really didn't know how to make turrets with the new turret controller now I do!

[@discopistons8604]

Top notch content that's informative and accurate. Subscribed!

[@Daddy_Damo]

thank you

[@SamaelHellscrem]

It's so easy yet i would've never thought about it xD

[@chaomatic5328]

3:19 I wasn't expecting THAT

[@Dingo_Winterwolf]

This has some good potential for self guided torpedoes

[@kermitkiller6669]

ive been looking for a system to put on my drones since im trying to make a mobile drone factory and this will probably be the thing that allows it to work

[@Dianaranda123]

Thanks for this so much, now i understand how you done it with the thrusters able to work.
To bad it wont be able to refuel/restock on ammo though.

[@drag0nmare]

Dude, this is awesome!

[@Daddy_Damo]

thank you

[@OPPEYRADY]

Honestly, I love this I do wish there was more natural way to do this stuff, I think drone combat is amazing and fits this game entirely, my one dream is to build a robotic army that can crush my enemies for me.

[@myrkurvr]

the drones in the desert are pretty interesting, fancy them up a big and you got yourself a mad max fight scene

[@FJRyder]

This was worth a sub👍

[@rangertato]

Great vid thanks! Could you go over your planetary homing missile, i can't get them to work as well as in your video in gravity fields

[@Daddy_Damo]

just need more than enough thrust in every direction except forward to be able to counteract the gravity

[@MightyAssa]

This is a inspiring video. It gave me some new ideas

[@ArgelTal_]

i wondered how they work ... but now i know. :D actually easy and still good to use in survival.

[@Pathfinder_]

Thanks for the Tutorial. Very nice.

[@lohostege]

Imagine having a ton of them with equipped with quad rail guns, they could be good anti-capital weapons.

[@TheMhalpern]

They don't need rail guns to be good anti-capital weapons, give them a rocket launcher or other relatively cheap weapon (for targeting mostly, that's why I mention RL) and warheads that only arm just before impact, they can be pretty good guided missiles/torpedoes, providing the effective long range explosive damage the Warfare 2 weapons lack, being mostly KE/piercing,

[@EnjoyCocaColaLight]

Beautiful engineering!

[@Daddy_Damo]

thanks

[@c.jandrews304]

Yep I saved it and I'm about to subscribe. I'm interested to see what else you make using these methods

[@zxJewl]

Great video! Love the tutorial

[@Daddy_Damo]

thank you

[@tylerclarke4678]

You have earned a sub my friend good job

[@mistermidnight1823]

Thank you for this video! I'm been wondering how to make my own custom drone NPCs.

[@themidnightbanshee5927]

Me sees title : You have my attention

[@Dagonius.]

Thanks! This was really good!

[@wepntech]

cool stuff mate

[@Daddy_Damo]

thanks

[@nicoro8872]

i have a playlist for vids like these, thanks!

[@Daddy_Damo]

thats awesome, and you're welcome

[@alpacaofthemountain8760]

very cool!

[@roshekaseral5980]

So, I tried building this exactly how you have it set up. I don't have ANY of the options you do, like Setup Actions or to even target characters.

[@MsWital]

It's incredible))) thanks for the great idea)

[@CrypticCode97]

Quality content

[@skinisdelicious3365]

Now to attach these AI Modules to my ships and have big ship battles :p

[@petrzacharias6622]

Is that only me or is turret control terminal settings different now?
I Cant setup actions or make only camera now. It "needs" weapon to work and cannot choose weapons anymore

[@deadchemist7585]

Would you ever consider doing a video like this one on guided missile design?

[@Daddy_Damo]

Guided missiles are basically just drones with lots of forward thrust and no reverse function lol. You can also use a separate turret to trigger a missile to fire when a target is in range, at which point the missile turret controller will take over

[@deadchemist7585]

@@Daddy_Damo Awesome, thank you. I look forward to what you make with the new update.

[@WiseOakDakota]

Question about the end of video, does using the Designator Turret for a targeting system actually increase the detection range of the self guided missile? I’m wanting to make attack drones with this info but I’m hoping for more range than the vanilla 600 (small block) that comes with the Turret controller console. Hoping I can set it up so that the designator will send drones towards an enemy that is in range of the Designator but not yet in the range of the Turret controller console (the drone itself)

[@Daddy_Damo]

unfortunately it doesnt increase the range. you can get 800m range but that requires a large grid turret controller

[@seamagician7042]

There does need to be a drone ai block instead of just the remote block. I get there are scripts but it would be both easier and also some people are on console like me and can't use scripts

[@wanjanechtangroeger]

Maybe I have missed this, but how do the drones keep their distance to target and not simply crash into it?

[@Daddy_Damo]

Another designator activates at a shorter range and turns on reverse thrust

[@wanjanechtangroeger]

@@Daddy_Damo Thanks!

[@randomstuffbychris]

Thanks

[@GabrielBallardin]

our dear, this missile at the end of the video is simply sensational, do you happen to have a video coming in and more details about your configuration? I don't understand how you made the launch trigger.

[@pocarski]

Someone recently discovered that if you use a script, you can set the turret controller's range to any number, even if it's something stupid like 5 km. I will definitely use this to exploit my way into the ultimate missile destroyer.

[@Daddy_Damo]

that script sounds very useful, if you could share that would be much appreciated

[@pocarski]

@@Daddy_Damo I'm actually working on a script for a printable supermissile, it's going to be using gyroscope override to turn and the rotors will be dummies with nothing on them so the turret controller can work

[@src6339]

I just add an antenna so you can access the control panel remotely

[@EnderGamerCubed]

so I have an idea, what if you were to make a designator turret that shoots auto locking missiles.
The designator turret will auto lock on an enemy, then release the missile. However, the missile also has a custom turret block. You can see where I'm going with this. Once the missile has a lock, it will keep its forward thrust on. Until it hits the target. Once it hits the target it would activate a sensor that activates the warheads. However it loses target lock, the missile also blows up. So in detail. Designator turret locks on, activates a timer which turns on missile, Then Launches. If you could, can you build this?

[@Daddy_Damo]

i think thats exactly what that missile truck is near the end of the video

[@EnderGamerCubed]

@@Daddy_Damo omg thanks, I didn't realize that there, i had to watch it in slow Mo to notice. but did you make that truck? it would be cool to see your version.

[@mintyorangejuice6348]

could you attach a heavy block before the gyroscope so it has more mass? that might lead to snappier movements

[@mulpomo8133]

Man, you have a lot of idea.
Please don't be gone..

[@thewolfboy3356]

I think that drone is really cool, do you think you can teach how to make it?

[@serdaraytemiz9978]

awesome video M8

[@harozuken]

I don't have the technical know how to make this happen but could you in theory create a drone that can follow a fighter and act as a detached turret/drone escort for a fighter? Possibly using the relative inertial dampener system?

[@redragon3003]

TYVM

[@TheMrShinagami]

Thank you so much!

[@Daddy_Damo]

you're welcome

[@styleisaweapon]

small grid turret controller 600m max ai without scripting .. not sure if programm=able block can even extend it like the large controller

[@GP-vl8en]

Can you teach us how you do the "return to position" on turrets i'm thinking of doing that to my base

[@alexgrimm354]

Thats amazing

[@geminisierra938]

in the last few seconds of this video (which is awesome by the way), on the h2 powered drones, how do you keep clang out with the rotor body in the blocks so that the gyro is only thing sticking out?

[@killianmiller6107]

I think the large grid rotors are better at allowing rotation within a 1x1 space than small grid rotors, and the gyroscope is sticking out so it’s not colliding with anything

[@kephyr2398]

Thanks for the tutorial! What skybox is this?

[@leroycarfrey7451]

Can we get an independent video on turret controller missle

[@lohostege]

Simple drone assault ship time!

[@GuardHouse-so1xl]

Use a hing rather than the second rotor.

[@robgeorge9259]

How did you attach the rotor part to the rotor using your tug? Was that with a magnetic plate attached to the tug?

[@commedertoast9335]

Could you post the drone frame with the inverted roters on the work shop

[@spenceabeen]

Gonk! :]

[@josephpetrikov1286]

Wait there is a small grid turret controller in vanilla?

[@Dwolfyone]

Yep!

[@nicoloiannetta2901]

I didn't totally understand how to make that cool ass missile, could someone clarify?

[@autarchconne9258]

What world are you using?

[@stewartbill3504]

anybody know how to make one of them with a wielder the rotor blocks don't stay with the projector