Hello,

i like an play with your mod, i am in grave need of this, because i am under heavy attack sometimes...

As i understand each ranked turret is a turret on its own.

So far as i see when a ranked up turret is destroyed then it will be only replaced by a similar ranked turret; this leads to some problems when not available....
If no similar ranked turret is available it should be replaced by a new (or lower ranked, or maybe upper ranked; could be an option)
I don't know modding this far if its possible to place a 'false' ghost for a destroyed turret.

Also i have the suggestion ( just a shower thought, don't know the implications to the very end)
How about having a modul (or AI-Card) which will be inserted/added to a turret so that the turret is rankable
Maybe this will lead to a good clear replacement, because the turret is always a standart without AI and can be upgrade / modulinsert-able to have a smooth replacement.
This would even let room for some low-threat / dumb turrets in areas which needs some firepower, but just a little.
If a recipe to manufacture/copy a general-AI is viable and not OP i don't know, but this could be adjusted with option or a probability to successfull copy (even one could loss the original general-AI in the process, so that the build up is very meager)
One then could also think about different AI-Cards leading to different behaivor in terms of firepower / end-rank and also you can spread research for rankable turrets in the tech tree

I hear what you're saying the ghosts I could possibly replace with the base turret ghost as as option. May need to check sounds like an issue i heard before. As for new recipies based on ones requiring ai cores or somthing to that effect is a substantial change. I do like the concept though but it would ruin existing builds so may need be re captured as a modmash splinter

Looks like there is a setting allow ghost rank, it may have got broken along the way i will need to test

found it, the setting is in-game so you can enable disable during play.
enable ghost rank.

so I was thinking more on the AI module etc. the module would have to be something in recipe and just because of the way hero turrets currently works and it's quite likely to break existing games and or even have trouble detecting which turrets to create hero turret entities for.
I like the module idea but as your envisioning it I'm not sure its actually possible.
If it were though it wouldn't have to be part of hero turrets it could stand as its own mod if it is possible.

yes i also think it needs to be a recipe....

so recipe ingredients : turret & AI-Modul -> hero-turret
(obviously the AI-Modul needs to be manufactured beforehand, ie red-card + speed-module)
For ripping out a AI-Modul there could be a electric-furnace type as deassembler (ie. General Turret -> Turret & AI-General-Modul), so that one not need to select recipes for every turret
copying a AI-Modul in a lab or assembler with ie AI-Modul + AI-General-Moduls -> 2 AI-General moduls with probaility, with long manufacturing time)
Maybe all of the Hero-Turrets related recipes could be reduced to all being a similar type?

Thinking of such moduls, as you modify the behaivor of the turrets, on the run (so it seems to me) one could later think about different modultypes. * sniper modul (very slow) but super true aim so much more damage with one shot * metal storm type - super fast, not a very good aim, and troubles to keep the munition flowing
.....