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A few suggestions. Anyone with better ideas, I'd be happy to hear them.
I seem to have broken the spell check on this editor so please disregard spelling errors.
First turn speed.
A larger ship most certainly should turn slower than a smaller one. Vector thrusters, side mounted engines, turning engines, or whatever you want to call them, can be used to make a large ship turn faster. However even with these addons, the cost of making a huge capital ship as manueverable as a small fighter should be so high that if you pull it off, you've essentially sacrificed everything else. Large ships are typically manueverable as bricks. Addons to increase manueverability rea certainly an option, but there should be limitations in the execution to prevent highly agile capital ships.
However the turning speed shouldn't be done by demensions but by mass. Turning speed is effected by inertia which is derived from mass. A package of paper is going to take much less force to turn than a chunk of lead with the same dimensions. Also much like with forward and backward movement, there should be accelleration involved with turning.
Second turrets
There are a few issues with turrets, first being turning speed of turrets. As I said earlier, large capital ships that destroy things just by looking at it, are about as manueverable as bricks. However, such large ships typically make up for the lack of manueverability with turrets to take down more manueverable ships. Currently turrets turn a little slow for this task.
One possible way to fix this could be simply making turrets have a higher base turn rate. Alternatively turret docking enhancers could be used to increase the turning speed of an attached turret as well (or maybe a seperate block for this purpose).
Another thing with turrets is that from my experience it doesn't seem like they target other turrets (I've tried attacking pirate stations with turrets on my ship to make up for its lack of manueverability but always got killed without the turrets doing anything. If I'm just doing something wrong and turrets do target other turrets I'd appreciate someone telling me what I'm doing wrong).
The last issue is extending the docking zone. When you place a docking enhancer for the turret, it expands the docking zone in all directions and when you arrange multiple to extend range on a single axis, it expands in both directions on that axis. But what if I want to put a long turret in a reccessed gun bay? Because the extension is done in both directions on the horizontal axis I wish to expand, I'm limited by the distance from the turret mount to the ship. Perhaps instead of this symetrical extension of the docking area, there could be two types of docking enhancers. One that behaves just like they currently do and one that extends the docking zone based on the blocks orientation (for example a block of this type facing in the positive Z direction would extend the docking zone in that direction, while one pointing in the negative Z direction would extend the docking zone in the opposite direction)
Third stat scaling
As of now, slap more gun blocks together and your range, speed, and damage are all increased. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Typically a huge gun that destroys anything with a single hit will require more time between shots. With the current system, said gun would be a machine gun of instant destruction.
So maybe instead of just size increasing all stats, a longer gun would have more range, and a fatter gun would have more damage, and the larger the gun in general the slower it fires. But because there wouldn't be a whole lot of fun in making a Death Star cannon that could only shoot once every 5 days, perhaps there could be new blocks that would increase the fire rate when placed next to a gun.
Fourth docking.
Currently a ship uses its core to dock. Docking a ship is cool and convenient, but I don't like the idea of having my ship's core exposed. Instead of using the core to dock with another vessel or a station, there should be another block to use for docking. Or maybe you just have the docking module work both ways so you only need to put the docking module on both ships rather than have another block to keep track of. This would also allow for alternatives to useing the bottom of the ship to dock.
Fifth alternative entry points
Ideally I'd like to have the core in the center of the ship surrounded by several layers of armor plating to protect it from enemy fire. Sadly this isn't possible since you have to be able to access the core in order to enter it. On top of that I want to be able to control my ship from the bridge (I can't be the only one thinking that right?) but putting the core on the bridge makes it more vulnerable (less armor on the bridge compared to the center of the ship) and it also messes up the ships rotation since its center of rotation is now the bridge instead of the center of the ship. I propose that just like there are cockpit blocks to allow for other view points, there should be a special block to allow for multiple access points for the ships core.
Sixth manufacturing
Shops don't always have what you need, and it can be a pain to find another shop sometimes. While having recepies for blocks being easily accessable would completely break mechanics (for example you could just manufacture plex glass all day long and make millions without having to find a space station) but it shouldn't be ridiculously hard either. Currently recepies for blocks cost 5000 of that block. Good luck getting 5000 of anything other than what you can find on stations. Instead of making the recepie ridiculously expensive, maybe the total cost of manufacturing could go up so that you have to spend more time getting the resources required.
Seventh scale
while this isn't really a major issue, it is a little bit annoying. Ships travel at a maximum speed of 50 km/h. This equates to a little of 31 mph for any Americans reading this. Even with scaling time so that game time is considerablly faster than real time, this is about the speed you go when driving through town, not space. If this kind of speed is reasonable, the universe is too small. Also you should be able to see stars before planets. Even if its left so that you can see planets from far away so its easier to find planets and you don't spend a long time going to start to find there are no planets, it shouldn't look like a planet's really close when you have to fly to the opposite end of the system to find it.
Lastly here are just some cool ideas as a break from all the solutions to problems. Some of these I have ideas on how to implement while others I'm completely clueless about. Any better ideas are welcome
Perhaps if you made a double-barreled turret the weapons computer would be smart enough to fire them off sequencially rather than at the same time so that while one barrell is reloading the other one is firing. Or rather than having this be a default have an alternative weapons computer (or have a setting in an interface for the weapon computer) that does this function so that you can have both barrels fire at the same time if you so choose.
Why just forward mounted weapons? Why not have the ability to have rear mounted weapons so that as you realize you're outgunned and try to run, you can still do some damage as you make your retreat so you aren't as much of a target. Or sidemounted guns so you can pull up alongside the enemy and pummel them with a broadside. (On another note if my weapons are located below my viewpoint the weapons fire shouldn't originate from my viewpoint)
Perhaps the planets could be round and have things like oceans, rivers, and other bodies of water.
Rather than buying copies of ships from blueprints, you could build a shipyard that could manufature them. Of course you'd have to supply the required resources.
Perhaps you could have transporter systems like in Star Trek. This could work just like the teleport commands, but making it easy to use could be difficult.
Currently the square edge of a wedge corner can only be on the top or the bottom of the block. Perhaps it would be possible to have the square edge also on the front, back, left, or right.
Better missiles. Currently the missile just follows the target and will never hit it so long as the target is going at maximum speed and doesn't turn into the missile. Maybe the missile could try to intercept the target
Remote controlled doors. This could be used for a hangar bay that could be opened or closed whenever the ship's captain wants which would be useful for protecting docked fighters from enemy fire.
Being able to rotate the avatar while in space like you would rotate a ship. I've had times when I can't get back into my ship because the door is oriented one way, and I'm oriented perpindicular. Trying to fit a 2 block wide one block tall person through a two block tall one block wide door doesn't work.
I seem to have broken the spell check on this editor so please disregard spelling errors.
First turn speed.
A larger ship most certainly should turn slower than a smaller one. Vector thrusters, side mounted engines, turning engines, or whatever you want to call them, can be used to make a large ship turn faster. However even with these addons, the cost of making a huge capital ship as manueverable as a small fighter should be so high that if you pull it off, you've essentially sacrificed everything else. Large ships are typically manueverable as bricks. Addons to increase manueverability rea certainly an option, but there should be limitations in the execution to prevent highly agile capital ships.
However the turning speed shouldn't be done by demensions but by mass. Turning speed is effected by inertia which is derived from mass. A package of paper is going to take much less force to turn than a chunk of lead with the same dimensions. Also much like with forward and backward movement, there should be accelleration involved with turning.
Second turrets
There are a few issues with turrets, first being turning speed of turrets. As I said earlier, large capital ships that destroy things just by looking at it, are about as manueverable as bricks. However, such large ships typically make up for the lack of manueverability with turrets to take down more manueverable ships. Currently turrets turn a little slow for this task.
One possible way to fix this could be simply making turrets have a higher base turn rate. Alternatively turret docking enhancers could be used to increase the turning speed of an attached turret as well (or maybe a seperate block for this purpose).
Another thing with turrets is that from my experience it doesn't seem like they target other turrets (I've tried attacking pirate stations with turrets on my ship to make up for its lack of manueverability but always got killed without the turrets doing anything. If I'm just doing something wrong and turrets do target other turrets I'd appreciate someone telling me what I'm doing wrong).
The last issue is extending the docking zone. When you place a docking enhancer for the turret, it expands the docking zone in all directions and when you arrange multiple to extend range on a single axis, it expands in both directions on that axis. But what if I want to put a long turret in a reccessed gun bay? Because the extension is done in both directions on the horizontal axis I wish to expand, I'm limited by the distance from the turret mount to the ship. Perhaps instead of this symetrical extension of the docking area, there could be two types of docking enhancers. One that behaves just like they currently do and one that extends the docking zone based on the blocks orientation (for example a block of this type facing in the positive Z direction would extend the docking zone in that direction, while one pointing in the negative Z direction would extend the docking zone in the opposite direction)
Third stat scaling
As of now, slap more gun blocks together and your range, speed, and damage are all increased. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Typically a huge gun that destroys anything with a single hit will require more time between shots. With the current system, said gun would be a machine gun of instant destruction.
So maybe instead of just size increasing all stats, a longer gun would have more range, and a fatter gun would have more damage, and the larger the gun in general the slower it fires. But because there wouldn't be a whole lot of fun in making a Death Star cannon that could only shoot once every 5 days, perhaps there could be new blocks that would increase the fire rate when placed next to a gun.
Fourth docking.
Currently a ship uses its core to dock. Docking a ship is cool and convenient, but I don't like the idea of having my ship's core exposed. Instead of using the core to dock with another vessel or a station, there should be another block to use for docking. Or maybe you just have the docking module work both ways so you only need to put the docking module on both ships rather than have another block to keep track of. This would also allow for alternatives to useing the bottom of the ship to dock.
Fifth alternative entry points
Ideally I'd like to have the core in the center of the ship surrounded by several layers of armor plating to protect it from enemy fire. Sadly this isn't possible since you have to be able to access the core in order to enter it. On top of that I want to be able to control my ship from the bridge (I can't be the only one thinking that right?) but putting the core on the bridge makes it more vulnerable (less armor on the bridge compared to the center of the ship) and it also messes up the ships rotation since its center of rotation is now the bridge instead of the center of the ship. I propose that just like there are cockpit blocks to allow for other view points, there should be a special block to allow for multiple access points for the ships core.
Sixth manufacturing
Shops don't always have what you need, and it can be a pain to find another shop sometimes. While having recepies for blocks being easily accessable would completely break mechanics (for example you could just manufacture plex glass all day long and make millions without having to find a space station) but it shouldn't be ridiculously hard either. Currently recepies for blocks cost 5000 of that block. Good luck getting 5000 of anything other than what you can find on stations. Instead of making the recepie ridiculously expensive, maybe the total cost of manufacturing could go up so that you have to spend more time getting the resources required.
Seventh scale
while this isn't really a major issue, it is a little bit annoying. Ships travel at a maximum speed of 50 km/h. This equates to a little of 31 mph for any Americans reading this. Even with scaling time so that game time is considerablly faster than real time, this is about the speed you go when driving through town, not space. If this kind of speed is reasonable, the universe is too small. Also you should be able to see stars before planets. Even if its left so that you can see planets from far away so its easier to find planets and you don't spend a long time going to start to find there are no planets, it shouldn't look like a planet's really close when you have to fly to the opposite end of the system to find it.
Lastly here are just some cool ideas as a break from all the solutions to problems. Some of these I have ideas on how to implement while others I'm completely clueless about. Any better ideas are welcome
Perhaps if you made a double-barreled turret the weapons computer would be smart enough to fire them off sequencially rather than at the same time so that while one barrell is reloading the other one is firing. Or rather than having this be a default have an alternative weapons computer (or have a setting in an interface for the weapon computer) that does this function so that you can have both barrels fire at the same time if you so choose.
Why just forward mounted weapons? Why not have the ability to have rear mounted weapons so that as you realize you're outgunned and try to run, you can still do some damage as you make your retreat so you aren't as much of a target. Or sidemounted guns so you can pull up alongside the enemy and pummel them with a broadside. (On another note if my weapons are located below my viewpoint the weapons fire shouldn't originate from my viewpoint)
Perhaps the planets could be round and have things like oceans, rivers, and other bodies of water.
Rather than buying copies of ships from blueprints, you could build a shipyard that could manufature them. Of course you'd have to supply the required resources.
Perhaps you could have transporter systems like in Star Trek. This could work just like the teleport commands, but making it easy to use could be difficult.
Currently the square edge of a wedge corner can only be on the top or the bottom of the block. Perhaps it would be possible to have the square edge also on the front, back, left, or right.
Better missiles. Currently the missile just follows the target and will never hit it so long as the target is going at maximum speed and doesn't turn into the missile. Maybe the missile could try to intercept the target
Remote controlled doors. This could be used for a hangar bay that could be opened or closed whenever the ship's captain wants which would be useful for protecting docked fighters from enemy fire.
Being able to rotate the avatar while in space like you would rotate a ship. I've had times when I can't get back into my ship because the door is oriented one way, and I'm oriented perpindicular. Trying to fit a 2 block wide one block tall person through a two block tall one block wide door doesn't work.