Common Questions and answers :

Why not use quality as the new ranks instead?

I have considered this but have decided not to as NOT using it enables more compatibility. Also, all quality currently adds is extra range and health. I think the added effort of upgrading your turret quality and then allowing them to level is a nice experience.

How do I change the amount of kills / damage needed for each rank?

Use the "Custom Kill Ranks Values" / "Custom Damage Rank Values" startup settings to set the Kill / damage to whatever you want. Make sure that the values you input are equal to the amount of ranks available. If they aren't, the first value entered and the last value entered are used to create a distribution across all the ranks.
Max value is 4.2 million kills (4200000) and there isn't really a max value for damage, other than it cannot have more than 999 billion (999000000000) as the number parser used start to act weird with higher numbers.

Also note that any values enter in here must not include separators.

There are also additional settings that will allow you to change the amount of kills by a percentage and multiplicatively.

For all the example formula below, you could replace kills needed for each rank with the damage needed for each rank IF the "Rank by Damage" startup setting is selected.

The startup Setting "Rank Modifier" will change the amount of kills you need per rank by a percentage. The formula is this :

N_KillsNeededTotalForRank = KillsForRank + (KillsForRank * Modifier / 10)

So, if you changed the Rank Modifier to "5" the formula for Rank 1 would be :

N_KillsNeededForRank1 = 150 + (150 * 5/ 10)

Resulting in

N_KillsNeededForRank1 = 225

That's a 50% increase to the overall kills needed. You can use the above formula for any of the ranks, but the percent increase will always be the same.

You can also use the Ammo, Fluid, Electric, and Artillery Turret Modifier settings to accomplish the same thing, but it is multiplicative instead of percent based. Meaning the formula would be :

N_KillsNeededTotalForRank = KillsForRank * TurretModifier

Please note that this also takes the Rank Modifier changes from above into consideration.

So if we took the example from above and set "Rank Modifier" to "5" and then changed the Ammo, Fluid, Electric, and Artillery Turret Modifier settings to "2". The final calculation for Rank 1 would be :

N_KillsNeededTotalForRank = (150+ (KillsForRank * RankModifier / 10)) * TurretModifier

Or with the mentioned values ...

N_KillsNeededTotalForRank = (150+ (150 * 5/ 10)) * 2

Resulting in 450 kills needed just for rank 1.

TLDR;

Big number in Rank Modifier makes the ranks harder to obtain

What if I wanted to double the amount of kills / Damage needed?

You could change the "Rank Modifier" to 10, which would result in a 100% increase or double what is needed.

You could also change the Ammo, Fluid, Electric, and Artillery Turret Modifier settings to "2", resulting in two times the amount of kills / Damage needed.

Why is there a Rank modifier AND Ammo, Fluid, Electric, and Artillery Turret Modifier settings? That's confusing

From my best understanding for the original mod makers intent, it was to give the option for users to increase the number of kills / damage needed for each type of turret. So, if you wanted to make the rank requirements for all fluid type turrets (think flame throwers) to be 5x the amount of the rest of the turret types, you would set the "Fluid Turret Modifier" to 5.

How do I increase the buffs given at each rank ?

Using the "Rank Buff Modifier" setting, which like the "Rank Modifier" setting is also percentage based. A value of 10 would result in a total of a 10% increase to the buff given. So a 12.5% buff would turn into a 13.75% buff and a 60% buff would turn into a 66% buff.

You could also use the new "Custom Buff Percentage for Ranks" startup setting to create your own buffs per rank. If the amount of values is not equal to the amount of ranks, the last value entered will be taken and then distribution will be created for all the ranks with the last value as the final ranks buff.

For Example :

With the default of 6 ranks you could enter

10,20,30,40,50,60

Which would result in a 10% buff at rank 1, 20% at rank 2, etc.

Or you could enter this

60

Which when spread across 6 ranks would give you the same distribution of the above example.

You can enter any number you want for each rank, but know that the highest percentage you can enter is 200. I tried higher, which worked in vanilla, but as soon as mods were added it bricked the game with some of the turrets entered which was not a good experience.

I do not recommend a buff percentage higher than 80 though as it kind of makes the game way to easy, however you can do whatever you want.

TLDR;

Big number in Rank Buff Modifier makes the buffs strong and the game much easier

How can I reset my turrets after changing any of the custom Rank Kills or damage?

Currently there isn't a good way to do that and it is honestly best if you have the custom kills / damage set when you start a new game or enable hero turrets for the first time on an existing save. If you must do so, I would recommend doing the following :

1. Set the startup "Kill Counter" setting to disabled
2. Load into your game
3. Place down any ranked turrets in inventory
4. Pick up all ranked turrets into inventory (this will reset them back to their original form)
5. Place back any necessary turrets
6. Save
7. Set the startup "Kill Counter" setting to back to whatever you had it as
8. Load back into the game

This is practically the same as just picking up and trashing your ranked turrets and replacing them with new ones.