Ability to Downgrade Primary and Secondary Guns

[Verdant]

I've noticed while tooling around with the hulls and various Mk variants of guns, that when you get to the higher tech versions, the physical size of them change. This can lead to incompatibility issues with certain placements and certain guns. While this isn't an exact example, it will illustrate what I mean. On some of the Battlecruiser  hulls that have the half moon cutouts for wing guns, it might allow a 13" Mk3 emplacement, but a Mk4 or Mk5 won't fit in this spot. While I know that it would be disadvantageous to down-tech your guns for a primary battery, why not have a 16" Mk4 primaries and get the option of 13" Mk3s as a pseudo secondary? I think it's a neat option to be considered.

[RAMJB]

I do not see why this option shouldn't be there. Why not.

Said that, given the pretty significant improvements each new generation of guns bring to the table (particularily so, but not only, in the areas of rate of fire and penetration values), if you have access to mark 3 weapons yet can't fit a ,say, 14'' mark 3 turret in a hull, but you can do so with a 14'' Mark 2, you'd still be better off going for the 13'' Mark 3. You'd not only end up with a much faster firing turret with almost the same hitting punch and penetration (being of a higher mark the 13'' performance will be at least comparable if not better than the 14'' Mark 2), but it'll also be lighter aswell (allowing for more armor, or heavier equipment to be added to the ship).

Said that and once again, I can't see why this option shouldn't be there, even if objectivelly is not the most efficient way of doing things.

Edited December 2, 2019 by RAMJB

[Verdant]

While I understand the validity of better techs being the better gun, Some of the battle cruiser hulls that have the half moons cut out in the raised superstructure limit what you can place, and I'd rather go with a lower tech 9" than a current tech 7" in a situation like that.