Is it possible to upgrade a ships laser cannon into a turret?
ship gun to turret
Existing weapons can be switched out, but the mount they have is unchangeable. You can't put a TIE Fighters cannons on a turret.
BUT you can switch the ion cannons on the turret of a Y-Wing out to use Laser Cannons.
If you want to mount an extra weapon, then you can make it turret mounted, but you need hard points for that, and as far as I know you can't use a turreted gun without an extra gunner.
SO I cant take an existing gun out, and put a turret mount on in its place?
was hoping to take the g9 riggers dorsal gun out and slot a turret up there.
SO I cant take an existing gun out, and put a turret mount on in its place?
was hoping to take the g9 riggers dorsal gun out and slot a turret up there.
Ultimately up to your GM, but generally speaking: No.
so it just be better to equip a new weapon onto the starboard side then to try and swap the existing gun out for a turret
at this stage it's a GM's call, there are no guidelines ('yet' I hope). Possibly in the Tech book or Engineers book we will see an attachment or guidelines for a price and HP cost.
Personally I would say it costs 1 Hard Point (for all the extra hydraulic and electronic systems) and 2-3000 credits to upgrade any weapon (new or existing) to a turret mount. But that's an untested House Rule. Others may have something they have actually put on the table.
The other method you could go with is asking the group to buy a certain amount of parts, say 2-3000cr worth, then have them make a Mechanics check (Formidable with a couple of upgrades? RRPP maybe) to build/install/modify the things they have. Basically no Hard Point cost but the chance for some funky results from a check.
Failing means a poor quality turret, 2 setback to use it.
Success means a functioning turret.
Fail with Despair is a broken weapons system and wasted parts...
Success with Triumph adds a Boost Die any time the turret is used.
Use Advantage and Threat to increase and decrease the parts cost.
Barring the above mechanics roll idea, from my understanding it would always take a hardpoint to install a turret, but you can certainly always do so. So in your example, assuming you have the hardpoint available to use, you would be best off leaving the existing gun and adding the new weapon with a turret, taking up the same hardpoint you would have to spend to add a gun in the first place.
The only time it would ever really take more hardpoints than normal is if you replace the existing non-turreted gun. Since swapping say a medium laser for a large laser takes no hardpoints. But swapping a medium laser for a large laser turret would take one. You basically swap the housing in the process (It may cost say an extra 10% or so on GM's discretion?). On the other hand swapping a medium laser turret with a large laser turret would cost 0, because the housing is already there.
Also remember not every turret needs a bubble to sit in like the Falcon's, they can certainly be controlled via remote, and as such any turret that can fire forward can be locked forward and fired by the pilot. At GM's discretion the turret may be in a very strange location compared to the pilot, so maybe they take black dice because of that, but it'd still be technically possible. Otherwise camera feeds and a viewscreen would be used. There was a pretty good scene in of the KoTOR games where you did this.
Also you could technically Link multiple turrets, not that I can think of a good reason to, but it'd be similar to the 4 guns an Xwing has, they're mounted in pairs but still linked as 4. I guess you could argue that a YT-1300 with only a pilot could link the two turrets so the pilot could fire them both locked in the forward position, but that assumes adding the Linked quality would be cheaper than moving the lower gun and adding it to the upper. So idk.
to be honest im looking at ships that me and a smuggler wants to buy, im a mechanic/pilot. But i want to have other people making checks during space combat too. main reason that i want to switch it out. That and not being able to shoot of the starboard side is giving me a nervous tick.
That is easily remedied with putting a turret mount there. A new one. It costs 1 or 2 hardpoints, depending on the type of gun you wanna put there.
But to be honest, I suggest a YT- freighter, because of dual turrets.
I used to hate YT's, I've grown to love them as a mechanic. They are the answer to all life's problems.
I'd say use common sense. If you're replacing a gun on the front of a fighter, probably not going to make it a turret. If it's a top mounted cannon on your freighter then you can probably swap in a turret without much issue.