Help me build more efficient barbettes

[Timrath]

Before the rail system, I always built my turrets partially recessed into the ship's hull. A minimal 7x7x7 turret would stand 3 metres above the hull, while extending 4 metres below it. I figured that it would make my turrets harder to hit, allow it to have more shields (since the lower layers would be out of sight and therefore wouldn't have to be dressed in armour), and it also looked much nicer than having a bulky thing sticking out of your ship.

Now, with the new system, a lot of a turret's interior space is lost, to allow the structure to rotate without hitting the inner walls of the ship. I estimate that about half of the potential volume must be sacrificed, in order to make the turret mobile. This makes traditional barbettes too inefficient.
Is the concept of recessed turrets doomed, or does someone know of an efficient way to build them?

 

[PartyAlarm]

Spherical would be the best way. See:

 

[Mork2]

Well with the new turret rotation system you can break it down a bit.

Since there is now to separate rotators there are some options. For this post the horizontal rotator will be the first turret part connected to the main body and the second part is the vertical rotation.

Since the weapon has to be completely in the vertical rotation the horizontal rotator is mostly decorative and can be mostly under armour you can even make a sandwich out of it with a layer of shields and power under the hull a small hole through the hull armour and then a decorative plate on top. But essentially the horizontal rotator can be mostly decorative. If your going to make a full size hole though the hull then go with a circle shape to maximise it. Turret sizes tend to be smaller since now you only have to put reserve shields on it in case the main shields drop under 50%.

The key part in the end is the vertical rotator which can now be a lot smaller since you don't need to put shields on it or can have the shields on the horizontal rotator under the main hull. To maximise useful volume and make it possible to make pop up turrets I hinge mine at the rear end up the turret up a little. The vertical rotation rail is completely surrounded by the turret weapon and is unseen. If you have ever seen an MLS missile launch system vehicle something like that. The trick the exact location of the vertical rotator. I usually put mine 2 blocks from the back edge and at least 2 blocks up from the base. This allows me to put some internal space around the rotators so they can swing around freely giving me full 90 degrees up or more and 360 around. When reset its laid out flat and doesn't stick to far out from the hull for its size. You just need to plan your clearances carefully.

Unless space was a factor I would actually build the turrets you want to use first. You could build a basic hull plate design and build your turret on that. Then save a template of the turret mount and a blueprint of the rest of the turret. Blueprints include all the docked sub items. So if you jump into the horizontal rotator and blueprint it, it will also include the vertical rotator but not the ship hull. Be careful of where the ship cores and bobby AIs end up cause you may want to access them.

One nice trick I do with the new system is build the horizontal rotator with a little bit of power and thrusters. Or if the turret is going to be a pop up turret I place the turret on a mounting base with the power and thrusters to move it. Since the vertical rotator has the bobby AI I can turn the AI on and then blueprint it from the horizontal or mounting plate core. This means spawned in turrets will have the bobby AIs turned on and setup and all I have to do is move and dock them up.

Hope this helps.

 

[Timrath]

Turret sizes tend to be smaller since now you only have to put reserve shields on it in case the main shields drop under 50%.
The key part in the end is the vertical rotator which can now be a lot smaller since you don't need to put shields on it or can have the shields on the horizontal rotator under the main hull.

Tturrets are now covered by the ship's shields?

 

[Thalanor]

Yes, they are covered - partially (as long as the mothership shields are above 50%).

This is how to build efficient recessed turrets, its easily explained in just an image, no need for videos of questionable quality.

360° turret base rotation and almost 180° barrel rotation, which is the most you will get if you want the turret to sit 2/3 into the hull.

 

[QuantumAnomaly]

The thing is, I feel, you get MORE flexibility with turrets now, its just that people haven't taken a few things in to consideration. For example, power and shields as chain mechanics, not just "mothership and turret"

Example 1: The turret base (horizontal rotation) can actually be recessed DEEPLY in to the ship, and carry a heavy power generation and shield recharge/capacity as well. The turret may be covered by the mothership's shields until the mothership hits 50% but then the turret STILL has some of its own shields. Also, since the gun draws power DOWN the chain, you can have a much bigger turret draw power from it's own base with little to no impact (or at the very least LESS impact) to your mothership's power.

Example 2: Chain the turret. Consider this scenario: Mothership --> Docked power supply --> turret base --> barrel in this way we can get 1mil e/s from the docked powersupply, base, AND barrel of the turret, without ever effecting the mothership's power supply. that's 3mil e/s for a turret! Even more so, most of this can all be fit inside the ship itself, tucked cleanly away, with only the rotators and barrell sticking out. You can go even further by having an intermediary entity that is just power capacity that draws its power from a series of chain-docked reactors without ever using powersupply or drain beams anywhere in the chain.

 

[Mork2]

Unfortunately a intermediate entity while drawing power from further down the chain if power is drawn from it will however only recharge its own power storage from on board power.

 

[QuantumAnomaly]

Unfortunately a intermediate entity while drawing power from further down the chain if power is drawn from it will however only recharge its own power storage from on board power.

Which is why you give it some capacity. Doesnt matter if it ends up drawing from down the chain, if the turret has 3 reactors docked to an entity below it it will draw from those reactors first (before they draw from the m-ship), thus giving you more power without needing powersupply beams, if i understand the mechanics correctly. Seemed to work pretty well when I tested it.

 

[PartyAlarm]

The bugfix for mass enhancers can't come fast enough