Science & Industry

Turret range is measured from the control tower and not the turret. Ammo affects range. EWAR range is measured from the module. Distances on modules controlled by a gunner are always shown as from the module. The 249 km target lock hard limit DOES NOT apply to POS modules. I've personally tested ranges.

Turrets and EWAR cycle targets every 30 seconds, except ECM on Caldari towers cycles targets every 7.5 second jam cycle.

All towers should be setup to defend against attacks at all ranges. Short range is often used for the primary attack, and long range is often used to incapacitate modules (sensor damps are effective at long range but are useless at short range).

Amarr < Sansha < Dark Blood = True Sansha
* Laser Bonus: 25% Damage + 50% Optimal.
* Lasers only do EM and thermal damage (more thermal the shorter range the crystal, more EM the longer).
* It is easy to haul crystals around, as they are low volume, and not many are needed.
* The active crystal is destroyed when un-anchoring or changing crystals, so not a good idea to use faction ammo if you move a lot.
Lasers are great on an Amarr tower. It can also fit LOTS of them. Mix with a few un-bonused projectiles for kinetic and explosive damage. Webifiers are especially useful with lasers.

Minmatar < Angel < Domination
* Projectile Bonus: 25% RoF + 50% optimal + 50% falloff.
* Projectiles can do all 4 types of damage (example: EMP + Phased Plasma).
* Projectiles have the longest falloff, which is not affected by ammo.
* Projectiles are the best all-around POS turret.
* AutoCannons hold a tonne of ammo, so using faction ammo isn't recommended except on artillery.
* AutoCannons hold a large volume of ammo.
* Small AutoCannon Battery (750 m3 / 0.0125): 60,000 rounds
* Small Artillery Battery (50 m3 / 0.0125): 4,000 rounds
* Medium AutoCannon Battery (1,000 m3 / 0.0250): 40,000 rounds
* Medium Artillery Battery (65 m3 / 0.0250): 2,600 rounds
Projectiles are amazing on a Minmatar tower, and is likely where the term deathstar originated for POSes. For AutoCannons on a RoF bonused tower, that's over 65 hours of shooting! Artillery lasts only about 13 hours though. Minmatar towers have the best balance of CPU and grid for defense, and the second most shield.

Gallente < Serpentis < Shadow
* Hybrid Bonus: +25% Damage.
* Only do two types of damage: kinetic and thermal.
* Hybrid blasters are useless, as turret range is measured from the control tower and not the turret.
* Hybrid rails are nothing special, and have poor tracking.
Gallente control towers are best armed with un-bonused projectiles: hybrids don't get a range bonus, and though they have a longer optimal than projectiles, hybrids have a much shorter falloff than projectiles, and optimal is affected by ammo.

Caldari < Gurista < Dread Gurista
* Missile Bonus: 25% RoF + 50% Velocity
* ECM Bonus: -75% bonus to Electronic Warfare Battery Target Cycling Speed (one cycle only).
* Missiles have an extremely low damage multiplier compared to turrets.
* Missiles have an extremely slow rate of fire, even when bonused.
* A single battleship can often tank all the missile batteries on a POS.
* Missile batteries go offline when reinforced.
Caldari control towers are best armed with lots and lots of EWAR, some un-bonused projectiles, and many shield hardeners. The ECM bonus is more of a penalty when auto-targeting and not using lots of ECM because of locking time; I personally like to use faction ECM to compensate a bit, as it locks faster and has a significantly higher jam strength (failing to jam is made more of a problem when you only get one chance).

Lasers have two compartments for ammo. Only the active crystal is destroyed (can't be removed). The extra crystals are not destroyed and can be removed. Changing crystals is also bad for the same reason.

Sometimes the turret doesn't load until fired. I suspect it has to do with whether the turret is online or not when loaded.

Most people only put one crystal in a laser. The jury is out on how long they last, but it is safe to say long enough until it is conclusively tested, as testing could take several days of continuous firing.

< pos guru to the rescue

When the gun is online, a crystal will go in the active storage. Always online your guns before loading them (Large Beam Battery : 1+1 crystal. Yes, you could miss half of your capacity !)

Small Beam battery : 27h
Medium Pulse Battery : 44h

No. You're wrong.
T1 crystals will decay, exactly like a faction lens (4000 shots).