Starting with the basics here, but:
A. Capital class vessels have turrets.
B. Turrets are mostly ineffective(or should be) in Capital class battles.
C. Turrets should be used as a sort of anti-fighter and missile defense system.

The problem I have now is mainly with point C, since Capital turrets seem to be largely ineffective against fighters. This, perhaps fortunately, only has to do with loadout of the current turrets- the super painful guass blast. Which, while super painful, and(as pointed out to me by Nerde Verde, even though they don't seem that way when you're shooting them) decently fast, are nearly entirely made useless against fighters because of their horrendous refire rate. Personally, I think it would be best to either mix turret loadouts(rear facing turrets having guass-styled weaponry to take advantage of the generally straight line of a chase) or move entirely back to the old S16 style [NPC] Gentu turrets. For those who are newer, they were AGT-styled turrets doing ~1k damage per hit. Quite the impressive anti-fighter screen, while not being useful for anything too far away.

Also, I mentioned that Capital class turrets should also be anti-missile- meaning such: it would be nice if the turrets had an optional "Projectile Targetting Mode" whereby the closest projectile to the center of the screen(prioritized on distance from the ship, i.e. closer to the ship, high priority) is automajikally targetted by the turret AI, and also in player turrets. This would, possibly, allow projectiles to be shot down before they reached the ship(That is, if it's still possible. I could swear a Teradon managed to blow up my sunflares earlier today).

More when I be less wobbly from tired.

I think these turrets are actually more difficult to dodge than the old ones. IMO, their slow refire is made up for by the sheer number of turrets firing at you at a time. Although I think the HAC should have a combo like the teradons, which is very effective. The GT and Super Gauss mixed together make it near impossible to get close, as it should be. Don't forget that the super gauss have superb tracking in terms of aa as well.

As for turrets shooting down projectiles, I'm all for it. I think it's been mentioned before that caps need an anti-missile system and I still agree.

..oh, and it'd be nice if they were considered heavy weapons instead of light :D