LMG Gun Platform
“ | One of the more advanced items in the DRG arsenal, these autonomous sentry guns will absolutely help in performing pest control. |
The LMG Gun Platform is a Utility Tool used by the Engineer. It is an autonomous Sentry turret that scans and engages enemies with short bursts of gunfire. In its MKI form, it is colored a dark green. When the LMG MKII upgrade is selected, the sentry gains a bulkier form and a dark red paintjob.
The LMG Gun Platform is carried by the Engineer and must be selected in order to deploy. It is placed into the world in a similar manner to calling a Resupply Pod, with a hologram previewing the placement position. The hologram is orange if the turret cannot be placed at the location of the preview (such as on a wall); otherwise, the hologram is blue and the turret can be placed by pressing the [FIRE] button ("Left Mouse" by default). If the Defender System upgrade is equipped, a cone is added to the hologram indicating the sentry's limited scan angle.
Before placing a sentry with the Gemini System upgrade, the [RELOAD] button ("R" by default) can be pressed to select which sentry to place. A faint glow on the sentry HUD indicates which sentry is selected. If one sentry is already placed, the other one is initially selected by default.
Once placed, the sentry starts out in an unbuilt state, appearing as a tripod platform on the ground. To assemble it into an operational state, any player may hold the [USE] button ("E" by default) on it from a close distance. Build speed increases when multiple players are helping.
Once built, the sentry makes a beeping sound indicating it is ready to fire. The sentry automatically targets and fires indiscriminately at enemies that wander into its Max Range, firing in bursts until it runs out of ammo. Sentries do not target passive creatures or Ebonite Glyphids. They make no attempt to aim at Weakpoints or avoid Armor. Sentries cannot friendly fire, even if a teammate deliberately crosses their line of sight. If no enemies are within range, they sweep horizontally in an idle pattern. Sentries are invincible and are always completely ignored by enemies, even when firing upon them.
The Sentry Ammo Capacity bar on the HUD tracks the amount of remaining ammo in placed sentries. Any Engineer (not necessarily the sentry's owner) can refill this magazine by holding [USE] on the sentry. Sentries always start out filled as much as possible each time they are built, limited by the owner's reserve of sentry ammo. When using a Resupply, the remaining ammo inside deployed sentries is counted towards the owner's current ammo.
A sentry can be recalled back to the player by selecting the LMG Gun Platform utility tool and holding [RELOAD]. Alternatively, a sentry can be moved to a new location by selecting the LMG Gun Platform utility tool and placing the hologram again. These are the only ways of removing / replacing sentries. Either action can be done from any distance, and in both cases the sentry deconstructs itself before physically flying to the player or new placement location. In the new location, the sentry must be constructed again with the [USE] button before becoming operable. Recalling a sentry to the player also returns its ammo to the owner's sentry ammo pool, including any ammo that other Engineers deposited into it.
Modifications
There are four tiers of modifications and each tier has two to three upgrades. Only one modification can be equipped per tier.
Understanding the Weapon
- Burst Size is how many shots are fired in a burst.
- Burst Speed is the time interval between shots within a burst.
- Burst Cooldown is the time interval between the last shot in a burst and the first shot in the next burst.
Therefore the Effective Rate of Fire depends on all of those factors combined.
- Effective Rate of Fire (per second): 2.7
Trivia
- In the closed alpha, the Engineer would get four sentry guns with 200 ammo each, but they could not be called back and redeployed.
- Sentries will always idle sweep South West, regardless of which direction they were built or what enemy they were last firing at, unless they have the Defender System upgrade.
- When going to the next stage of a Deep Dive, the sentry's ammo counter will show full ammo regardless of how much ammo it had in the previous stage. However, this is only a visual glitch and the actual ammo amount persists.
- Though the official name is "LMG Gun Platform", the Dwarves never use this name in their voicelines, preferring simpler terms such as "turret" and "sentry".
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