3 is true. Yes, I do plan to exploit this odd turning mechanic (my next build is already planned in a way that facilitates this) however, there's a lot more to both core placement and turning. Both LIMIT good choices in ship design. Star Trek is overused, so I'll use Starship Andromeda as an example. Those big loops look cool, but they'd be hugely impractical on a medium weight starmade ship. The moment you add extra dimensions and empty spaces for slick style, the game mechanics swing the nerf bat. I hate that!
1 is also true. The ship you described will turn about a point far removed from its center of mass, which looks idiotic. If ships could turn approximately about the center of mass (within several blocks of it at least), I could put up with the stupid core.
1 is true if your focus is LOOKs. I didn't realize that appearance was your point. It sounds like you're talking about whether you can make ships LOOK like the ships you see in movies...
3 is still false. A cube of 1M mass extends farther in length and height than does a horizontal cylinder of 1M mass, and since extension into Length and Height are the only factors affecting optimal maneuverability a cube can NOT turn as quickly on either axis as can a horizontal bar. The accepted popular wisdom that "cubes are best" does not change the reality of the game engine. L100H100W100 DOES turn far slower on both axes than L50H50W400, and both are 1M blocks.
IRL every bit of decor and extra space you add to, say, a seagoing vessel or aircraft, also gets nerfed by physics. There aren't any tennis courts on the ISS. Battleships don't have big luxurious mess halls that just look awesome. Jets are not covered with bling and glowing panels and weird things sticking out that make them LOOK dangerous. They naturally look dangerous because they're designed around exploiting physics, and not star trek mock-ups with systems stuffed in after the fact. I don't see any military submarines out there built to look like frogs because someone thought it would LOOK cool. Subs look cool because we all know how powerful and dangerous they are, not because they were designed based on looks.
Your ship will naturally look cool as it vanquishes all your enemies with shields and power to spare because you only made a tiny cockpit for your toon. If no one has ever seen anything like it - all the better. Shock & awe.
If you lay down a 600-unit primary power core horizontally and wrap it with a few secondary generator cores, you'll have enough power to support not only a ton of firepower, but also a reasonably sized interior space (modest bridge, cramped crew quarters, and small engineering section). As long as you aren't trying to cloak it - you should be able to place plenty of stuff on it and not hurt your turn radius much as long as you cling to the horizontal axis as much as possible. You can pack a lot of material into a space roughly 600 wide and no farther than 20 or 30 blocks in any direction from the central power core.
Star Trek ships have a certain flavor to their design, so you can usually recognize one as belonging to ST even if you've never seen that model before. Eve ships also have a certain specific look and flair to them. Ships built to be effective and attractive in Starmade will also have a distinctive flair to them, influenced by the rules of the game. I'm like that - I don't think we need to fit every new game/show into the artistic boxes of what has gone before.
If flying a reproduction of a ship from a movie you watched is what's most important to you - I mean no disrespect. That's totally cool. There are games that let you do that already out there. I have just never seen any indication that Starmade was being designed to be a movie space ship simulator and don't understand why so many people get upset that their Millenium Falcon can't hold a candle to a ship designed based on knowledge of the game engine gained through testing, and a desire for excellent performance first and foremost. I've boarded a few reproduction ships and most of them are huge pointless wads of hull with a lot of non-functional interior space and decoration and few crammed-in systems. If those ill-considered hunks of metal could match well thought out, system-oriented craft I probably would have quit months ago.
