Spinning in Circles - Turn Rate
 

Flying my cruiser with an amazing turn rate of 6.

I tell my engineer chief .. "here install this prototype Gravitic engine with flight turn of 6.4. Oh yeah when you are done with that pull out that EPS console and put in the nice blue RCS console which will add 30% to turn rate."

Her response "Sure will take just a few clicks to get it done."

Then I add .. "So what will my turn rate be?"

She looks like an e'phoff cause in the headlights.

So what would the turn rate be? Add the base ship+engine then multiple buy the console? Will RCS console stack? I would like to better be able to perform a broadsides without having to tractor beam the target as much or if I build a tactical captain I can take better advantage of forward cannons. Thank you in advance.

RCS, as far as I remember, adds the percentage of your turn rate -3 (I don't remember if it's base turn rate or engine-modified turn rate, but I presume the former).

Don't bother with cannons on a cruiser unless it has a turn rate of at least 7, preferably 8.

Pfffft. You mean 30, right ?

I'm not sure what the turn modifier is on that gravatic engine but the amount of power you allocate to the engine has a great effect on turn whether your going half or full impulse. As a mission reward engine it costs nothing to obtain it to test, and if you are dissatisfied with it, dump it.

...I recommend getting the breen engine instead.

I meant single cannons, which are the only ones (besides turrets) that most cruisers can equip. With a 180 degree firing arc, 7-8 base turn is plenty. Dual cannons, though, do require a higher turn rate than what Federation cruisers can provide (in PvP, at least).

Ok more power to engines the more you turn but often it moves you further away as you execute the turn. Besides evasive manuevuers is there ways to execute tighter turns?

If you can spare a Lieutenant or Lieutenant Commander ranked BOFF power slot, the ability "Auxiliary to Dampeners" is useful--it gives you a boost to speed, turn rate, kinetic resistance, crew resistance, and immunity to disable, and lasts 15 seconds with a 30 second cooldown.

http://www.stowiki.org/Ability:_Auxiliary_to_Dampeners

Your turn rate will be boosted by 133%, and your speed by 67% for fifteen seconds. I would consider this ability a must-have for any ship with a turn rate slower than 8.

Reduce speed to quarter-impulse when making tight maneuvers. Your turn rate will remain the same, but your turn radius will decrease.

Everything goes off of base and is then modified by engine power.

So if base is 6 and your consoles add 30%, engine adds 10%, and skills add 20% your turn rate would become 6 * 1.6 or 9.6 which is then modified by current engine power. To make a long story short a whale is a whale no matter what you do, just learn to powerslide for giggles and make the best of it is my suggestion.

I just trained my borg BOFF commander in this (rank 2 of it) and I cannot find it in the skills window to drag onto my HUD... not sure why , i have two free spaces and my borg is trained in it..

Rank 2 of Aux2Damp? So IF the BOff is in an engineering station that is Lieutenant or higher, you should see it. So make sure you didn't assign it to the Ensign station on your ship instead. If you're using the Galaxy/Dreanought class cruiser then you might have a known bug. Set the relevant boff station to 'NONE', quit the game and when you come back in, putting the BOFF back should fix the problem.

PS Forget the consoles and Aux2Damp, try the Saucer Separation ability instead. Base turn rate of 6? Galaxy or Odyssey? Both ships can use this type of console.