Crossposting from the Discord:
Due to how tracking speed works, turrets that are slower than the ship are inherently useless.
This doesn't really make much sense since a turret rotating as the ship turns would have a faster overall tracking speed than one that's mounted to the hull.
I propose that turret tracking speed and ship tracking speed be additive values, not "instead of" values.
Proposed maths:
33% of ship speed is base tracking speed for non-fighters, 66% for fighters.
Turrets have their stated tracking speed.
Final weapon tracking speed would be the highest value plus 75% of the other.
Throwing some numbers out there:
A mag plas ship with 8000km/s movement and hull-mounted weapons would have 2666km/s tracking speed, or 33% base accuracy against itself.
Making the weapons turreted with a 6000km/s tracking speed would add 4500km/s to the final tracking speed, giving a total of 7166km/s.
Final numbers and equations would be up to Steve after playtesting, of course, but something along those lines.
This change would make turrets significantly more competitive in the beam ship world. Currently with speed being both offensive and defensive, combined with more guns per ton for hull-mounted weapons, and turrets adding literally nothing except wasted tonnage until they exceed the ship speed, makes turrets for anything other than PD significantly less effective than just mounting them to the hull. It would also provide a nice choice between spinals (harder hitting but inaccurate) versus turrets (more accurate but weaker), something that just doesn't compare with current weapons mechanics.
Thoughts appreciated.