Question/Request:
One thing I really like on old sins are its "realistic" combat mechanics regarding ships not being able to fire any weapon in any direction the wanted without (or instant) rotation (like its in many other rts games (Starcraft II)). What means that the counter system was at least partially based on "real" design of the ship rather than just some multipliers. That way the design of the ships can help to define their roles in combat.
To bring up some examples:
-) Marza has nearly all of its (large) weapons pointing forward - what gives it a very good single target damage since it can fire them all at one single target simultaneously
-) While Garda frigates has four (light) turrets initially pointing in different directions, in addition to their rotation capability, making it superior to fight within enemy formation
-) Akkan and Sova have their majority of weapons on the broadside, meaning to apply its highest firepower the ships have to turn to the side before and so "losing" the damage of the few frontal weapons, if there is no additional target available
-) Kol has some weapons pointing forward but also some to the side - giving it a kinda multi-role, with primary frontal but still some broadside capabilities.
All this aspects are affecting how useful a ship is against what other type of ship and situation (like Garda vs otherwise out-maneuvering strikecraft, or Marza vs capital ships).
In case of Kol's frontal beam weapons, the respective technology only increases its "frontal" damage output, since its lacks such weapons on other sides.
The some of the new Kol's weapons placement however, looks to me like its meant to be able to rotate 360 degree on z-axis...
So all I want to say about this is: Please don't do this too much and stick to the system of Fore/Port/Starboard-weapons not being able to always shoot simultaneously on the same target.
Don't get me wrong - if its only a special feature of the Kol or so its fine but please preserve that system.
Suggestion:
What about allowing some kind of "ship design". -Not meaning any kind of complex and time consuming 3D drag and drop ship designer (like in stellaris), rather a slim menu where you can quickliest choose what kind of weapons (Laser, Auto-Cannon, Beam, Missiles, Hangar) and maybe even size? you want a ship to specialize in (with some limitations). Similar like you can choose when leveling the titan between different aspects: [Weapons/Support/Durability/...] The ships could retain their weapon distribution
So in the end you could build fast firing auto-cannon, or slow but powerful railgun equipped -Cobalts, while using laser-Javelin and missile-Kodiak - but quickest switch back to standard or other variations! (at least for newly build ones)
