Let me be a retro, for a moment. I see Brad's concerns about WCU possibly veering too far from WC, and fans of WC saying "this game is crap" because they might see too many details that contradict what they've seen before.
I'd like to make a further point on his behalf, or rather expand a point he made, about liking to go from sol to Kilrah, but in the universe he knows and loves. I'm definitely an AWACS, and I want to see a lot of new things in the game, such as leading autotracking in turrets, an expanded set of escort commands as someone was suggesting in another thread, more sophisticated rules for faction sympathy/antipathy, re-designed ships, ship interiors and bases, better mission generation algorithms, trade and economics that make sense, ship upgrades such as Forlarren was suggesting a few posts earlier, etc. There are things in WCU right now that I think make the game better already, and do not "contradict" cannon, and therefore should stay, such as docking with larger ships, more informative screens for commodities and upgrades, etc.
However, things like the ability to travel to other sectors, even though it was my dream while playing Privateer, I think they need to be moderated, though not elliminated. The reason it is so cool and novel *for me* to visit sol, is precisely because when I played Privateer I couldn't. If I was playing the game for the first time, it really would make little difference, UNLESS it is something that comes much later in the game. If sol was somewhat of a legend in the game, and at some point the door to it is opened, that's cool. Same thing with Kilrah. It's like in Asimov's Empire series, where you have 2 or 3 books with stories about the Foundation, and Trantor, and the Second Foundation... and you keep wondering, where's home?, where's Earth?, then, finally, in like the fourth book in the series, the main character decides to start looking for the Original planet, until he finds it. There was a build up to it, which made it enthralling.
The way WCU is now, where the Vega sector is opened from the start and a lot of cargo missions want to send you there, it's like orgasm without foreplay. Furthermore, the map becomes unmanageably complex.
The Gemini and Vega sectors should perhaps be two clusters, separated by some greater distance. If we want to model reality somewhat, I'd say that the trip between Vega and Gemini should be very long, take a full fuel load of jumps through uninhabited systems full of rocks, perhaps nebulas, and the occasional Kilrathi; or perhaps even two fuel loads, requiring one to stop at a refueling station at midpoint; and when you are in either sector, only the map of the sector in which you are should show. Cargo missions between sectors should be few, very highly paid, and only deliver colonists or secret documents (military or government documents). It would not make sense to make such a long trip to deliver food or iron.
And there's something to be said for keeping the player discovering new stuff throughout the game. Some ships, perhaps Vintage Draymans, could appear VERY seldom in the game, and some ships could be restricted to particular areas, say there could be just one Confed Carrier in the game, which might make a routine round trip between Perry, Tri-Pak, and back around that loop, where the time it takes to cross each system is roughly 5 times as long as the player takes to cross a system. This way, there's a remote chance the player will see the carrier by visiting Perry, but a greater chance if traveling to Tri-Pak.
As far as new features, and added turrets; I think that if we are careful not to *contradict* the cannon, we certainly have every right to expand on it. Just as you can mount a machine gun on the roof of a jeep, there's no reason why an able mechanic could not modify a Drayman to add turrets. I think that this should be hard to get done, however; perhaps one has to meet the right person at a pirate base or something.
Let me first argue as an AWACS about leading autotracking in turrets: Yes for two reasons: a) It doesn't contradict cannon, in fact reaffirms it! Large ships, which cannot turn fast, need turrets. Those turrets are manned/womanned by gunners, who, unless they are on brilliance, would definitely lead their targets. b) In the case of automatic turrets in small ships, they would certainly have autotracking. Why? Because autotracking is standard already in the 21st century, so unless humanity regresses between now and the 27th century, it is a given.
Okay, now let me argue as a Retro: a) Leading autotracking was not there in other WC games, and b) It would make the game either too easy or too hard, and overall less left to chance, IOW more predictable, and therefore less interesting.
Well, there is a way to reconcile all these concerns: If having leading autotracking takes say 30K credits for the turret, 100K credits for the ITTS radar, 50K credits for computer and software (or 150K for a good computer, 75K for kickass software that predicts when pilots will turn, from their own pre-programmed and growing experience), then we're talking nearly half a million credits per turret. IOW, the money you have to sink on those turrets exceeds many times the price of the ship and all the other ship upgrades put together. A capship with all its turrets fully upgraded might cost 20 million, say, versus 8 million with just the basic turrets. This avoids contradicting cannon by providing an explanation for why we don't see this feature in other WC games.
And as I was saying before, these upgrades wouldn't be available at the start of the game. Technology should evolve throughout the length of gameplay, and therefore it would be premature to have all technologies available at the beginning.
Also keep in mind that although there is ECM available from the start, later there may be missiles available with ECCM, at which point at least one turret may need to be converted for point defense.