My players are curious how they would go about increasing the firing arcs of the port/starboard-mounted turrets on the Citadel light freighter.

As written, these only fire Forward. One of the players has pointed out that the mounts should be capable of firing into the same arcs as the side mounted turrets on the YZ-775 (from Dangerous Covenants). This would give the turrets "Forward, Port, and Aft" and "Forward, Starboard, and Aft" (for the port and starboard turrets respectively).

I'm tempted to just edit the entry for the Citadel and allow this to be the 'normal' arcs for these turrets. Of course, I'd require the turrets to be manned by gunners when not fixed to fire Forward (as they are listed in the book). I'm not too worried about game balance here, as having multiple arcs of coverage on a Silhouette 4 ship isn't really all that significant (yet... I'm hoping for more detailed vehicular combat rules in the future).

However, for other ships and other weapons, is there a good ruling for adjusting the firing arcs of a weapon already installed?

I think you just switch the mount type to turret.

Not that there are hard rules for doing so; the mount type seems to mostly be fluff/handwaived, lacking an upgrade cost IIRC.

And I would do the same for the Citadel (and had a GM do the same for me when I played with one).

Aside from GM fiat, which I think is fine, if you wanted to make it part of your adventure that the players wanted to widen the movement range of a given turret as a mechanics check, I'd treat it the same as a mod. It's more a mechanical issue than anything else, turret movement ranges are supposed to be restricted for the safety of the ship in question, so they don't accidentally fire and hit themselves. Mechanically that's probably managed through a limiter in the gears. Remove the limiter, and you have a broader range of movement... but with the risk of actually shooting up the rear-end of the ship like Indiana Jones' Father does in the Last Crusade.

An Easy/Average Mechanics check could remove this and extend the swivel range, but any shots to the rear of the ship would have the difficulty upgraded by 1, and a despair could mean raking your own ship with friendly fire.

I'm more or less with Agatheron. I'd do "Mounting refit: The weapon may be relocated on the vehicle, or refitted in a different manner then it currently is. 1/4 the cost of the weapon and average mechanics check, or 1/3rd if being done by a third party. What the new arcs and mountings are exactly should be worked out with your GM."

any shots to the rear of the ship would have the difficulty upgraded by 1, and a despair could mean raking your own ship with friendly fire.

Probably wouldn't do that. Under that rule you can never modify, say, a fixed mount to be as good as the basic turrets a YT-1300 gets for free. I think it's largely a matter of fluff, since there's no cost associated with turret vs fixed. So there shouldn't be a huge setback for if you DO convert it to a turret, and that whole "upgrade + can hit yourself" is a pretty huge setback.

When I did my character generator, I couldn't find anything about how much it cost to just change secondary attributes of vehicle weapons, such as firing arc, mount type, or location. In fact, I don't think there's a hard definition of what exactly a "turret" is, for example, so the apps allow you to create a turret weapon with a single firing arc, if you want to. As someone else mentioned, mount type and location have been relegated to "fluff", since there's no rules governing them (I do have them displayed on the sheet, however). When you change out a weapon, it allows you to change any of those attributes along with the weapon at no extra cost. But that seems like an expensive way of getting one more firing arc, or moving a mount from starboard to aft.

Is this the correct way of doing it? I have no idea. Maybe they'll expand upon weapon upgrades in AoR.

Modern weapons have digital controls. It's a fairly easy to create software limiters that would prevent one from shooting the ship. Software could even allow the gun to track across problem areas and just not fire when it would be bad.

It's probably not necessary to model this in-game, but provides a nice justification for letting players have some freedom.

Aim higher. Increase the height of the precipice and the arc increases with it. Up to a certain point, that is. Aim too high and the projectile falls back with a closer radius. Aim straight up; run like hell.

Aim higher. Increase the height of the precipice and the arc increases with it. Up to a certain point, that is. Aim too high and the projectile falls back with a closer radius. Aim straight up; run like hell.

Not really a factor with massless, light-speed energy attacks.

Aim higher. Increase the height of the precipice and the arc increases with it. Up to a certain point, that is. Aim too high and the projectile falls back with a closer radius. Aim straight up; run like hell.

Not really a factor with massless, light-speed energy attacks.

I was answering his initial question.

I didn't say the answer would be correct.

I think you just switch the mount type to turret.

For clarity, the entry for the Citadel already lists them as being mounted in turrets, but they are listed as only having a Forward firing arc.

I'd say just handwave the cost, particularly if the PCs are the ones doing the "modification" themselves. Just make it a Mechanics check (Hard?) to install the refitted weapon mount and get on with the story.