A part of chatlogs, an idea

[Thyrzul]

[16:36:14] Thyr'zul - [C]: ramming frigate might be a trollish idea to implement, but what I had in mind for a new type of cap was the full broadside one
[16:36:24] Thyr'zul - [C]: you know, we got charging and kiting caps, isn't that boring?
[16:36:37] Thyr'zul - [C]: let's try something new, the full broadside
[16:36:52] Thyr'zul - [C]: (dunno if that's a good name for it or not tho)
[16:37:18] Thyr'zul - [C]: point is, you got concentrated fire towards the two sides
[16:37:37] Thyr'zul - [C]: like how charging caps got their fire concentrated forward, you got it to the sides
[16:38:32] Thyr'zul - [C]: 3-3 cerbs with radically fixed arcs (like 5° max rotation)
[16:38:39] Thyr'zul - [C]: firing sideways
[16:38:57] Prarabdh Thakur: that's actually a fun idea
[16:39:03] Prarabdh Thakur: like you have forward guns which are fixed
[16:39:08] Prarabdh Thakur: have a ship with broadside fixed guns.
[16:39:31] Joseph 'Gammon' Cox: Allow small movement so you can aim to an extent...
[16:40:23] Thyr'zul - [C]: small movement is the 5° I had in mind, could be extended to 10
[16:40:50] Thyr'zul - [C]: dunno how much it is actually, need to see to judge and it's not in front of me right now
[16:41:25] Thyr'zul - [C]: so basically it got the most heavy slots, but arranged in a way it won't really be able to use more than a charger
[16:42:19] Thyr'zul - [C]: in fact I imagine it getting a bit weaker to a charger, if it gets caught by one, it shouldn't just fire back but also evade
[16:43:15] Thyr'zul - [C]: slightly slim profile from the sides/front/back so it's most effective when showing that, huge profile from top/bottom
[16:45:26] Thyr'zul - [C]: light turret points scattered around equally, medium turrets firing mostly forward and to the sides, maybe adding slightly to the defense backwards (like from 6, 4 is at the front firing forward, 2-2 to each side and 2 are at the front firing backwards and 1-1 to each side).
[16:46:28] Thyr'zul - [C]: so basically main firepower directed sidewards with moderate firepower directed forward, mostly vulnerable from top, moderately vulnerable from behind

Discuss.

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[Coin]

will be too easy to hit, die very quickly, and usually to the caps that have a thinner attacking profile. the only way to balance this is to give it a bunch of cap mortars, or line the side with forward cannons, and then it'd need an enormous powercore...

ship design moved away from the broadside concept in the age of sail, as the cannons required a lot of space to dissipate the recoil (fixing them onto the deck just rolled the ship over). now the guns point foward/aft and are firmly secured to the deck, and the ship itself absorbs the recoil.

the change in propulsion from sails to steam-driven propellers allowed for the change in gun orientation, as the wind dictates the direction of travel in a sail-boat, meaning that forward facing guns would be rarely lined up on target, and would lose to the broadside ship.

now we have space-boats that can even barrel roll, we can point them in any direction we choose, and so the broadside configuration becomes a disadvantage

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A Day in the Life of an NPC | Coin | The Journal of Caius Oakley | Build Your Dream Boat

[Captain]

I think broad side guns are usefull imho in contrast to what is said in the post above,

not for every cap ship, more like for carriers, those ship carry "a lot" of fighter ships, some shoot out of the side,
some on the aft/fwd. so if you go broadside with the threat you can launch those ships while giving a wide radius of artillery shots.

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[Thyrzul]

will be too easy to hit, die very quickly, and usually to the caps that have a thinner attacking profile. the only way to balance this is to give it a bunch of cap mortars, or line the side with forward cannons, and then it'd need an enormous powercore...

It's bigger target profile was meant to be compensated with better evasion capabilities. Think of a Valor with five times as wide front as it has now, but like ten times better strafe capabilities to it's sides (rough guess about the ratio between strafe speed and impulse speed, but I hope you get my point).

ship design moved away from the broadside concept in the age of sail, as the cannons required a lot of space to dissipate the recoil (fixing them onto the deck just rolled the ship over). now the guns point foward/aft and are firmly secured to the deck, and the ship itself absorbs the recoil.

the change in propulsion from sails to steam-driven propellers allowed for the change in gun orientation, as the wind dictates the direction of travel in a sail-boat, meaning that forward facing guns would be rarely lined up on target, and would lose to the broadside ship.

now we have space-boats that can even barrel roll, we can point them in any direction we choose, and so the broadside configuration becomes a disadvantage

space boat game. realism doesn't apply.

realism does apply to the broadside boats, as they won't be fictional - the boats will exist and they will die, very very fast, and the effort in their inclusion to the mod will be wasted. Broadside-firing boats only did so as they lacked manoeuvrability due to the fact that they used sails. (but lets make a space version of sid meier's pirates, cos that would be awesome)

The boats exist in-game, flies by game mechanics, what makes you think it works like real life physics? If you go and joust with a charger, once you are past your target, you won't be able to shoot it until you turn 180, and that can take long in a big cap. Instead of this, with a broadside, you'll be able to fly in a 3k radius circle (requires less turn rate) and still be able to shoot your target continuously.

And honestly, it wouldn't be the first sci-fi entity (and I bet neither the last) to have broadside caps.

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[Durandal]

Could just remove strafe from caps and we'll get the same effect. Charging and kiting is indeed pretty boring.