Since stabilizers currently don't need a physical connection to their reactor, you could make docked, hollow rotating rings around static rings of stabilizers that are part of the ship itself.
Also, this.
Non sequitur. As far as I'm aware the box dimensions of the parent entity no longer matter anyway except for making the ship a larger or smaller target. The docked parts would be a target, meaning the only cost is that the docked parts are not entirely covered by the mothership's shields. If anything, using docked stabilizers would be a disadvantage in that respect.
this isnt a non sequiter; its related to the topic and if correct would matter a lot to the proposal. as it stands, its at least partially correct. box dims do still matter, and docked entitys dims are not checked on the main ship right now.
If we take the commonly thrown around theory-crafting stabilizer pod distance from ship as 1km (just for klicks) and mount that as a rotating docked component where standard constant rotator period is approximately 3.25 seconds;
I wouldn't worry about that rotating one though. If it's small enough to not get hit, it won't hit you and more importantly, it's small enough to be useless. If it's big, it shouldn't be difficult to hit it or, to ignore the damned thing and take out the reactor blocks back on his main ship.
Having required distances for stabilizors is ridiculous. Limiting, and does not improve gameplay or building depth or ease of use.
This is why boxdim-related turning rates might be a feasible anti-exploit mechanic despite the undesirable tendency to make people cut their decorative antennas off to turn faster.
Can, yes. But as I understand it, having a hollow ring rotating around between layers of a static ship is hell on the collision checks. Don't wanna make a lag monster simply to look cool.
Nothing is ever ideal.
