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The first step in creating a good ball turret is planning what weapon system(s) you are going to put into it. Very specifically decide in advance how much empty volume you will need inside the ball to contain the system. (Despite this, I will typically build the entire turret without actually installing the weapon system and then save the empty turret as a blueprint, so that I can later use the same turret for a different weapon system of similar size.)
For instance, a 4000 module weapon system is a decent sized weapon that can do good damage, so we'll use that as an example. I need a sphere that can contain 'at least' 4000 modules and have a little left over for wiggle room. I use a sphere calculator to find an appropriate size. I always punch in a 0.5 addition to the whole number to ensure that the resulting sphere is an odd number in diameter, this is crucially important. A sphere with an even numbered diameter will not work for a ball turret. In this case, punching in 11.5 for radius (for a diameter of 23) gives us a sphere volume of 6371 and a surface area of 1662. Subtract the surface area from the volume, as in Starmade that surface area will consist of blocks that will use up much of the volume. This leaves us with 4709 empty blocks. This is more than enough for our planned needs. (Note that if you are intending a very flat shape on the top that will lop off a good portion of your turret's volume, you might need to bump up the size scale a tad to account for this.)
Next I will build the sphere that will ultimately house the weapon. I will use Plotz to give me the exact blueprint of how to get a perfect sphere of whatever size. I will create a ship core (hit C while in pilot mode to orient it to galactic north, then mark the direction) and then decide where I want that core to be relative to the sphere. I do NOT want it in the middle. It needs to be accessible once the turret is finished. I will typically plan a roughly 3x3x2 open space at the top of the turret covered by a blast door which will contain the core, bobby AI, weapon computers, etc.. (If you plan for the top of your turret to be flat and not a round top, plan for that at this stage and make sure your intended control space will fit.) Place temporary blocks to create a couple of lines to where you want the center of your turret to be and put a temporary light block there.
Now, working from that light block, count the number of blocks to the top of your turret. Be judicious about this, place blocks to help count, you don't want to count wrong. Start at the top of your turret. Even if you plan to cut off the top of your ball to create a different shape, create the whole sphere anyway. The extra time it takes will save you time by not getting you confused as you place the blocks for the rest of the sphere. Build the whole sphere. Fly around it for a minute and admire how pretty it is all going to be when done.
Now we butcher a bit of our work. Lop off a plane of blocks from either side of the ball (or two, depending on how you want your final looks, one will make it look very much like a sphere riding in a housing, two will allow you to make it more gun like). Using our center light, build a temporary line of blocks to the side of the ball where we want our rail docker. Place the rail docker inside the ball so it lines up exactly flush with the edges of our now open side. Make sure you place the docker oriented in the direction you want your turret to fire.
Now go over the blocks of your ball. Wedge them so as to reduce how much they project externally. Do NOT add any blocks that extend outwards of the ball. Replace the existing blocks with wedges and heptas to reduce any projections. You 'may' add tetras inside the gaps as they do not add projection and they certainly make it look better. If you are building your turret with advanced armor, consider using basic hull for such tetras, as an armored turret can always use more AHP pool without too much extra mass. This rounding off phase is not just for looks, but will help the ball rotate more freely when added to it's base housing.
Next we start the base of the ball turret. We will need another sphere. This one we will build from the bottom as we will not need most of it's top. Go back to Plotz and set your sphere for a size four larger than the weapon ball. This is two extra blocks in all dimensions. Create a core, orient it to galactic north, and then visually in your mind plan how you will be building the hole in your hull to contain your turrets. You can use a simple cylindrical hole (I do often enough myself in designs where every smidgen of space isn't absolutely critical. Planning to use them that way creates less problems, but you could plan on using a more concave hole to contain the rotating sphere. If you do, your core will need to be close to flush to the blocks at the bottom of your base, but still accessible by a standing astronaut. Now knowing where you want your core to be, count blocks to find the center of your base. Put a rail docker there, oriented appropriately (pointing to galactic north). Build your sphere from that point.
You can stop building when the base sphere starts to curve inward towards the top. You can build up the two sides a bit as you'll want to place the rail turret axis and probably want to cover that area at least sufficient to come flush with the open sides of your weapon ball. Go back to your weapon ball. Count again just how wide it is with it's open sides. Go back to the base and make sure that the projecting sides of the base have precisely the right sized opening to permit the ball to fit flush. Place the rail turret axis on the correct side of the base, line up directly on the side's center. This center should be very visually apparent if you have extended the sides sufficient for the sides to curve slightly. If not, consult Plotz again to find the correct placement point. Obviously the rail turret axis needs to fit flush with where it will need to be to match up with the rail docker on the weapon ball. Make sure to point the rail turret axis in the correct direction. You can freely fill in these sides fore and aft to the edges of the base sphere at this point if you wish.
Now, wedge the interior of the base by replacing blocks with wedges and heptas. This has little to do with aesthetics and everything to do with removing any potential collision points between the base and the ball. Use wedges and heptas only as tetras will be mostly invisible.
Now you can maneuver your turret weapon ball to join up with the rail turret axis on the base. Add some power and thrust to the ball and a camera to it's nose (perhaps temporarily), move and point it to the rail turret access and fire your rail docker. Your ball is now adjoined to your base and if you've done everything correctly, points in the correct direction and rotates freely. Remove the thrusters and camera if they were external and test this. Correct any mistakes. It should be capable of rotating 360 degrees without any hiccups. (Note you will not be able to rotate sideways until you have mounted the base itself on a rail turret axis on a ship or base. This might be a good time to try this somewhere just to be sure.)
Check the block assemblage where the rotating ball meets the side projections of the turret base. Try to make them match up in an aesthetic fashion. Close up the fore and aft sides of the base where the projections meet the lip, if you have not already done so.
At the top of this turret base, extend a lip of blocks outwards at least two block in all directions. This is to cover the hole you will need in your hull for the turret to rotate. Feel free to add wedges, heptas and tetras to make this nicely beveled. You can try adding wedges to the interior of the hole to make it rounder, but test the rotation of your turret ball if you do, as you might create a collision.
At this point you now have a functioning ball turret, albeit it is still just a ball. It is still not quite ready necessarily to be stored as a blueprint for future turrets. You might want to consider adding power lines before saving it. At the very least add one power block to get the 50K of power storage, if you know what the weapon system is, try to give it at least as much power generation as is necessary to fill up that 50K of power storage in the time it takes to cycle the weapon. If you are planning a rapid fire weapon system such as cannon/cannon or cannon/beam, there is every reason to max out the power generation of both the turret ball and the base. You can easily get 40 to 50K worth of power generation in both.
Consider adding to the turret assembly any decorative or otherwise distinctive, meticulous construction that you intend to be ubiquitous for all your turrets, before saving the design as a blueprint. Decide whether you want to have projecting gun barrels (which both may look good and give you a bit more interior volume) and perhaps build them now, before the blueprint save, assuming you will use the same such barrels for different weapons. Myself, I often leave the turrets able to freely rotate with no projecting barrels, as this makes the turrets unable to get stuck on the hull. They can always point at their target (even if they can't hit it due to your ship being in the way).
Note, I tend to build the top side of the turret base with advanced armor and the bottom part with basic hull. There is also a portion of the weapon ball that is never exposed to enemy fire, and this too I will build out of basic hull. The extra mass is unnecessary but the extra AHP is useful.
My own decorative skills leave much to be desired. My turrets typically retain their dome like structure to some degree. This is not however necessary. I highly advise anyone wanting to build ball turrets to download Nuclearfun's Turret Exhibition to see how such ball turrets can be made to look very much like normal turrets, that just happen to have most of their mass hidden under your hull. He has for instance a very nice (also very nice for the systems/weapons in it) super flat turret that only sits two and a half blocks above the surface of your deck (it projects 14 blocks inside of it however, using the ball turret principle).
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