Perhaps im just being pedantic about the lack of air resistance in space,
and I realise that the turbo feature is obviously essential to get around at any decent rate,
and that its a relatively fundamental feature of the games flight model,
but in 'physics mode',
where the craft supposedly doesent use directional breaking,
shouldnt the craft keep going at pretty much the same rate when you let go of the turbo, instead of suddenly slowing down?
I realise it would be unfair if players could maintain inertia-driven turbo velocities without thrust, but perhaps it could be re-named, and portrayed more as some sort of quasi-warp-drive?

My first thought of this if it were to be considered would go as follows. The player turbos to their max speed, upon letting go of the turbo button or running out of energy, the ship would slow down to a cruising speed less than turbo but higher than non-turbo speeds. For example, an EC-89 is boosting at 150m/s, it runs out of energy, and starts to slow down but not to its 50m/s speed but to 100m/s. The EC-89 would continue at this speed until the player or external force changes the direction of the ship reducing them to the normal 50m/s max non-turbo speed.

If this were applied to the stats of ships it could look something like this:

EC-89
Essential Details
Max Speed: 50m/s
Cruising Speed: 100m/s
Turbo Speed: 150m/s

Warthog Mk II
Essential Details
Max Speed: 65m/s
Cruising Speed: 137m/s
Turbo Speed: 220m/s

Behemoth Mk I
Essential Details
Max Speed: 65m/s
Cruising Speed: 105m/s
Turbo Speed: 160m/s

Valkyrie Vigilant
Essential Details
Max Speed: 65m/s
Cruising Speed: 140m/s
Turbo Speed: 225m/s

These are just numbers picked at random with cruising speed set below the lowest turbo speed of current player bought ships.

This idea by Xiron is a good idea to fill a 'gap' with max speed and turbo speed. New players that constantly run out of energy would benefit from this but the arena of PvP would see a new tactic with ships traveling faster than 100m/s without turbo. Of course this tactic should have limits to avoid great abuse with fully functional movement at 140m/s with little consequence.

I think it should stay the way it is except the rate at which you slow down after releasing turbo should decrease. The "rubber band" effect needs to be reduced. Try cutting it in half and see how that feels. You can adjust it from there. It's been suggested countless times before, and devs have even chimed in and said it might be a good idea, but they never do it. Right now that rubber band feeling is severe and takes away from the realism of the game. Reducing it would not negatively affect gameplay in any way, but would make the physics feel much more real. A gradual decrease in speed is much more believable and realistic than the drastic and sudden decrease we have now.

I am not the first to say this, but even so, it is wrong to expect a space combat game to be realistic. It probably wouldn't be that much fun, for reasons already given by others in more or less eloquent ways.

That said, in my opinion as well, the rubber band effect could do with some toning-down.

There is no place, even in space, that is completely empty. There will always be a speed that will generate resistance.

This is definitely something I would want. Obviously, I'd rather it be cut to 1/8 or 1/4 of its current effect. But by half is better than nothing.

you could have 'realistic' no-deceleration of ships. combat range would increase drastically. targets would be small dots and you'd be firing at these dots using missiles and radar. twitch based pvp would stop.

sound like a another game you know?