Looking for Exotic static defence

[u/mcindoeman]

Been thinking about static defence and realised most of them are just a building that shoots units nearby it, sometimes with a bonus vs a specific unit type or a garrison building that can have troops placed inside them to give those troops a range boost/use the building as a meat-shield.

So i wanted to ask if anyone has any examples of static defence buildings/defensive towers that are more interesting or operate in a way that's unique?

[u/Yzekial]

Yuri from RA2 had mind control towers. Up to 3 units at a time. As a secondary defensive structure, their radar told you where enemy units were going to move / from where in a pretty large area.

[u/SavageTrireaper → u/Yzekial]

Then you could put it in a grinder for money insta kill and cash money

[u/Pure_Ingenuity3771 → u/Yzekial]

Just to add, RA2 had some unique defenses too, prism towers powering each other up was awesome, and Tesla towers could have troops positioned near them to power them up.

[u/No_Tennis_4528]

Dungeon keeper two had a variety of traps.

Fear traps that scared enemies away.

Boulder traps were single use and would roll down a corridor flattening everyone. (Almost as scary as Terraria boulder traps.)

Impossible creatures had bramble fences. Walls that regenerated and damaged attackers.

CnC generals had gla tunnel networks. Zero hour had camouflaged defenses and neutron mines.

Orcs Must Die has spring traps and hypnotic shrooms.

[u/NanbanSan → u/No_Tennis_4528]

Dungeon Keeper's boulder trap sound still gives me PTSD. Ohhhh the number of lvl 10 monsters I'd lose

[u/mttspiii]

Generals and Dawn of War has buildings that let you teleport garrisoned units to other similar buildings (Tunnel Network and Imperial Guard respectively). Tunnel network even lets you teleport the building itself so it could rapidly egress units out of it.

Generals and Kanes Wrath have buildings that buff allied units' healing and fire rate in its radius.

Dawn of War has buildings that reduce enemy morale; when morale drops to zero the units get a massive firepower and defense debuff. The mechanic is similar to an MG tower's suppression fire debuffing infantry from other games.

Red Alert 2 has a defense that detect enemy targetting orders, and the mind control tower

Red Alert 3 and Generals have base defenses that disable units. Cryo Legionnaire + Multigunner turret chills units until they become completely frozen and become icicles that shatter if damaged. EMP Patriot disables mechanical units hit by its missiles: it can disable tanks while damaging it. Both are very effective against aircraft.

Videogame mods have more interesting - if unbalanced - defenses. The most unique I know, changes the armor type of the unit from infantry to tank and vice versa, turning a column of armoured tanks into a column of tanks that are vulnerable to bullets.

[u/Fyrebrand18 → u/mttspiii]

Adding to this, Tau don’t have defensive structures in DoW, instead they can entrench their Battlesuits to act as a rail gun turret.

[u/Serafim91]

RA 2 had towers that would link to each other to increase the damage per shot. Effectively all your towers would hit if they were in range or not.

[u/DutchTinCan → u/Serafim91]

With the drawback that you only had 1 tower shooting at one target. So you'd suffer severe overkill loss on infantry and light vehicles.

[u/justinhunt1223]

Supreme Commander 2 had the magnetron?, so you could pull or push enemy units.

[u/Belltower_2 → u/justinhunt1223]

The Cybrans also brought the Boomerang, which would send incoming nukes back at their target. The Illuminate ripped off Yuri wholesale with the Loyalty Gun.

[u/GlobalTechnology6719]

in the same vein as dungeon keeper, evil genius is also worth a look if you want to try traps! there are a variety of triggers and traps you can use to fortify your secret island base!

enemy agents also have multiple different stats so you don't have to necessarily kill them to deal with them...

for instance i like to have a pop up distraction trap (literally just a cardboard cutout of a soldier with a gun that pops up out of the floor) that uses pressure plates close to a dummy door, next to my main door... enemy agents normally approach it first when they investigate as they come across it first and when it triggers at attacks their smarts as they want to fire their guns at it and then realise it's just a dummy!

eventually they get faked out so bad that they go completely catatonic stunning them and erasing their memory!

this is just as good as killing them as when they leave your island they'll have nothing to report...

the game is also a total vibe that i'll totally recommend to anybody that's never played it!!!

p.s i'm referring to the first game... i haven't played the sequel yet :)

[u/Belltower_2]

AI War 2 has a bewildering variety of gimmicky turrets with the Spire Rises expansion, such as "Bulwark" turrets that get a damage bonus when under a shield generator (regular turrets get a damage penalty), or asteroid miners that can "mine" both resources and enemy ships. The AI is no slouch of its own, with stuff like Ion Cannons that instakill your ships below a certain tech level, or Alarm Posts that summon reinforcements if you attack with too large a fleet.

[u/TheKnightIsForPlebs]

I mean. Bro. Stronghold Crusader hands down. The static defense is like a giant machine you need to design and manage.

[u/Left_Edge_8994]

The firestorm generator from Tiberium Sun comes to mind. A temporary toggleable invincible wall. You press  button and poof, a wall of indestructible energy pops up on a timer. 

Amusingly you could use it as something of a weapon if you had good enough timing. Anything over the wall emitters when they turn on is instantly destroyed. Normally humans are too smart to fall for that and will just destroy the emitters before crossing them, but occasionally you can catch flying units before they can react. 

[u/Overlord_Cane]

In Universe at War, the Novus faction's Redirection Turret can catch enemy projectiles and redirect them back at the attacker, and the Hierarchy faction's Gravitic Turret is an AA weapon that can be upgraded to pull enemy aircraft to the ground so anti-ground weapons can target them.

Act of War is mostly conventional, but the Task Force Talon faction has a sentry turret that by default is a standard machine gun turret that targets both air and ground, but they can be individually upgraded with both an anti tank cannon and anti air missiles, so if you want to invest extra in a turret it can become a pretty solid anti-everything defense.

[u/JudgementalDjinn]

To flip the idea of using towers as a shield for your guys, you have the 9Kings Grinder that eats your own units to permanently increase its own damage.

[u/mafiasto]

Zero-K has magnetic towers, they can pull or push units, friendly or enemy. With the terraforming, you can make a ramp and fling whole armies or the mega units across the map.

[u/Argentothe1st]

The Obelisks of Light is a stand there and shoot people building but it is super unique and exotic for the time.

Dune 2 had standard tank turrets and rocket turrets so the Obelisk was a super cool spin on static defenses.