Turn speed- Why not gyroscopes? Directional thrusters?

[Optapodamus]

The current meta requires large ships to have either predominately long Y axis or long X axis for turning speed, this limits creative freedom. The vast majority of space building games do not impose turn speed limitations like this and I think it's one of this games greatest weakness.

Gyroscopic turning- The larger it is + the closer it is to your center of mass - total mass = turning force
(Space engineers has these, but no requirement on placement)

Directional thrusters- The larger group in a given direction + the farther from the center of gravity - mass = turning force for specific direction

I honestly don't care how it's done so long as I can make ships that look cool and don't handle like a potato.

 

[Nebulon-B_Frigate_FTW]

Turn rate should have nothing to do with ship dimensions to me, just mass vs systems. I do think it makes sense to have thrusters do it as well, without a separate turning-only system block, and apportion things in a GUI, but I would like it if thrusters had some placement rules in how they work so that they aren't just crammed in the back always to get whatever you need out of them.

 

[EricBlank]

I would also prefer to keep it simple regarding additional blocks, we already have a chamber effect and the option to redirect part of our thrusters output towards turn speed.

I totally agree that the dimensions-based turn speed is garbage for gameplay, though. I also felt it was inverted, as you pointed out, maneuvering thrusters farther from the center of mass have greater relative leverage to rotating that object.

 

[nulitor]

Turn rate should have nothing to do with ship dimensions to me, just mass vs systems. I do think it makes sense to have thrusters do it as well, without a separate turning-only system block, and apportion things in a GUI, but I would like it if thrusters had some placement rules in how they work so that they aren't just crammed in the back always to get whatever you need out of them.

If you make turn rate entirely independent from ship dimensions it favours ships that are extremely spread (they take less hits due to how shooting works).