"topdown turret"

Okay, I'm not familiar with these behavs (nor other commonly used behavs from the forge) and I failed to understand how they're supposed to do what you want to do.
So I made a little example (http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/23700). I hope this is what you're trying to achieve. If it is, you can find its code on StencylForge under the name "Cannon Shooting Example".

wth? that looks like exactly what I need. I'll check out the code. Thanks!

I think this is what I needed to study to get a grasp on how to use attributes. Thanks again for uploading this.

You're welcome. If you have any questions regarding the code, you find me.