Stardust kinda useless now

Yeah stardust is kinda useless rn.

Not very enticing to put one up, I agree.

It's really only an anti-chicken turret.

stardust used to be so op.. it was fun making terraform wall with stardust behind so if anything went past wall it died =D
fun but op

here is dps divided by cost:

this does not account for aoe

stardust: 2.04 (has aoe)
lotus: 0.83
stinger 0.42
picket 0.25
gauze 0.23 ((has aoe))
desolator 0.88 (has aoe)
luci 0.18

and you get 2 lotus for one stardust in cost
if dps is your goal stardusts are a great option
but i agree they are squishy and expencive.. since range is the most op stat in the game.. stardust like lotus are probably best used sparingly to prevent enemy raids at key locations and choke points

some maths:

[Spoiler]

TLDR:

[Spoiler]

STILL TOO LONG DIDNT READ:
stardust has better dps vs cost then lotus even when slowed
1 stardust is better then 2 lotus for 8.87 seconds

off topic but.. stingers are really good mix or range and dps vs cost

OP, I think there's agreement so the next and more interesting questions are: if you had to pick one thing that Stardust should be much better at, what would it be? And how?

My pie-in-the-sky take: make it slightly longer range while retaining its anti-raider ability. But to prevent its range from becoming overpowered on hills, make it fire fast unguided rockets instead (IIRC those have cylindrical range). This would also make it stronger at dealing with fast-moving units the closer they get, and weaker at max range. And to make it weaker at bigger targets while retaining anti-swarm, lower direct DPS while upping the splash damage. Call its projectiles fragmentation rockets or something.

quote: https://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/2077184

The funny thing about that stardust is it was actually a mistake, I meant to build a razor there LOL!

The stardust is good vs the things that would die to that explosion anyway. I'm not seeing it as much of a positive.

If the stinger exploded that way then you could make a point it takes out raiders as it dies, but stardust kills raiders so unless you jump one with a bunch of scythes, when is the explosion really coming into play in the defendor's favor?

GoogleFrog, If you don’t like the heat mechanics, can stardust work like a picket with 5 to 10 seconds of ammo with 10 to 15 seconds reload?

Even if you hate the mechanic, maybe we can play into it a little more?
Decreasing heat/shot but increasing the max slow is what I've been thinking about for a bit now.
It might be too much of a buff looking back up to SmokeDragon's math, but if decay is not touched maybe that helps keep it in check. Though on the other side it will feel worse to use, as it follows similar tracks to Amnykon's suggestion with the reload.

Also there is an interaction with stun (don't know about disarm)
where the heat won't go down even though the Stardust is not firing. Don't know if that is intentional or not.

What if you turned it into a heatray weapon? There aren't currently any defenses that have just a heatray, and it could work since most assaults have more range than raiders. Not sure if it makes sense, but it is an idea.