What if the mass of a block was modified by it's distance from the ship core? I thin that captures the idea of
spacie 's post.
When we place a block, we calculate it's distance from the ship core. We then multiply it's mass by that distance to get how much it affects the maneuverability. We then take the ship's total maneuverability and divide it by the total blocks in the ship.
This means that two ships of equal mass but different shape will have different turn speeds. A ship that concentrates heavy blocks around the core turns faster than one that has an empty heart but heavy skin. It also means that long antenae will only have large impacts on turn speed if the antenae offsets the concentrated weight of the ship. When a block is destroyed, it's maneuverability value is removed from the ship's equation (just like removing it's mass and block count). We can use the maneuverability to calculate turn speed based on thrust allocation for that axis (upcoming feature).
This is difficult for me to calculate with spreadsheets, so this is a very loose example:
Ship A:
A hollow box measuring roughly 9x9x10
Blocks are as close as 4.5 and as far as 5.6
Total Blocks: 521
Maneuverability: between 2344 and 2917
Average: 5261
Ship B:
Solid cube 8x8x8
Blocks are as close as 1 and as far away as 4
Total Blocks: 512
Maneuverability: between 560 and 2240
Average: 1400
Ship C:
Solid box 8x8x8 with an antenna 1x1x9
Body: Blocks are as close as 4.5 and as far as 5.6
Antenna: Blocks are as close as 5 and as far away as 14
Total blocks: 512 (body) + 9 (antenna)
Maneuverability: between 560 and 2240 (body) plus between 45 and 126 (antenna)
Average: 1485.5