Pah. That’s just a picture. This madness is (was) real:
Ah yes, the Surcouf. [-deep sigh-] Leave it to the French to explore the wide-open spaces of sheer military impracticality, right??? 
I wanted to share a wonderful little video that ties-in most closely to the “OMFG look at those TURRETS!” theme of this thread. It’s here. Have fun with the awesomeness that is Space Battleship Yamato, aka Star Blazers. There’s a new SB movie coming out in December, but only in Japan [-sigh-]. 
This video is from a promotional feature made for pre-release publicity about this movie. GSB is pretty much the first thing it makes me think of.
I want big spinal mounts like the weapon at ~1:00 - 1:10 
Its a good idea cliff, definitely would add more vareity and dimensions to the game.
Right now its pretty much all missle type ordnance or energy weapons. Having weapon batteries with conventional cannon could be a balance between the two. Shells would be faster than missles but slower than lasers, offering players more options with regards to weaponry.
Also its a great opportunity to implement powerful close range weapons. Other than cruiser lasers and ion cannon spam, there arent really any designs or weapons (non fighter ones) that encourage you to get in the opponents face and broadside away. Having something like the below perhaps:
Heavy Cannon Battery
Cost - 180
Power - 8
Crew - 20
Damage - 50
Max Range - 400
Min Range - 75
Shield Pen - 35
Armour Pen- 30
Optimum Range - 300
Fire Interval - 900
Something along those lines. Alternatively you could have a long range cannon akin to the railgun you see in Transformers 2, basically a high energy kinetic slug flying at a million clicks an hour.
Cost - 220
Power-9
Crew- 14
Damage- 75
Shield Pen- 45
Armour Pen - 55
Max Range - 950
Optimum Range - 700
Fire Interval- 3000
Obviously the above stats are unbalanced and sketchy but just some ideas for an update down the road.
The planned expansion pack currently adds 3 new weapons, 2 for cruisers and 1 for frigates, all restricted to the new race. They are a new type of ‘kinetic weapon’. basically fast firing shortish range space cannons 
Oh my gawd a new race!? You just said the magic word.
A new race and more hulls. That’s great! Now the ship design screen will be even more cluttered with ship hulls. Make the ship design screen only show hulls from the currently selected race. And add a race change button to that screen. Otherwise this problem is really going to get out of hand as time goes on.
Here’s a concept of how I would like the hull chooser to look (ignoring that I’ve used all locked hull graphics):
Oh my god I know I didnt even mess around with the new races I un-locked in the game for the longest time cause I got so frustrated with scrolling (i’m using a touch pad, I know my fault but still!!) Seriously a race selector would make life wonderful. Oh and on topic with this thread, I was kinda disappointed by the lack of “guns”. Lasers are cool and all but nothing, and I mean nothing survives gratuitous amounts of lead. Plus I’ve always been way more partial to shell/ Bullet than either the missile or the laser. I mean they are just cooler.