This is where the fun begins.
Up to twenty slots aboard a warship may be assigned to one of four types of armament, and one particular type of armament can be assigned to any of these four types of spaces. The four types are: broadside guns, spinal guns, turrets and torpedo tubes.
The total number of individual guns or torpedo tubes any ship can carry may not exceed its Linear Value. Beyond that limit, you've punched too many holes in the ship's hull for it to maintain structural integrity.
One space given over to broadside guns will allow you to install any number of weapons whose total volume does not exceed 90% the Slot Volume assigned to Broadside Guns. The 10% of the space's volume that is lost is given over to compartmentalization around the weapons, the powered rams needed to “run out” the guns, and the on-mount local controls. Weapons may be installed in one of two broadsides, port or starboard. Most ships have identical broadsides, but this is not a hard and fast rule.
No single weapon installed in a broadside may have a volume higher than 25% the Slot Volume of the vessel. Weapons larger than this simply won't fit across the ship's beam.
These are massive cannons installed along the length of the ship. They are fixed forward, with very limited ability to aim without turning the entire ship. However, the benefit of spinal weapons is that they have a very, very high volume limit.
You may install any number of guns in spinal mounts whose volume does not exceed the total Slot Volume assigned to Spinal Guns. No single gun may exceed 20% the volume of the entire ship.
These are much smaller guns, mounted in rotating superstructures. Any single turret may have between one and four guns. The volume of a turret is equal to the volume of one gun mounted within it, multiplied by the Mount Factor found on the table below.
| Mounts | Factor |
|---|---|
| 1 | ×4 |
| 2 | ×6 |
| 3 | ×8 |
| 4 | ×10 |
As an example, a 500MW neutron cannon occupies 0.5m³. A turret carrying three of these would occupy 4m³.
No single gun mounted in a turret may have a volume higher than 10% the Slot Volume of the ship, and no single turret may have a volume higher than the ship's Slot Volume. The exception for this is blasters. These new, high-tech weapons may have a volume as high as 20% the Slot Volume of the ship, and a blaster turret may be up to twice the volume of the ship's Slot Volume.
Torpedoes are the primary long-range weapon used in the Shattered Worlds. Aside from the launchers themselves, each torpedo requires a certain amount of volume of storage—not just for the weapon itself, but also for auxiliary handling equipment. Torpedoes are far too large for even a gang of crewmembers to move by muscle power alone.
Torpedo tubes may be mounted fore and aft. A ship may carry a number of torpedo tubes or torpedo storage whose volume does not exceed the Slot Volume assigned to torpedoes.
These small turrets each mount four 250MW lasers, but lack the on-mount controls found on proper turrets. For this reason, the entire turret occupies only 2m³, rather than the 2.5m³ normally required. However, these turrets can only engage incoming torpedoes, and then only when controlled by a Combat Information Center.
Point Defence Laser Turrets may be installed in any space set aside for armaments, regardless of the type of space in question. In addition, each Point Defence Laser Turret counts as a single weapon, not four, for purposes of total weapon limits.