The way the game currently works I find it very hard to make good use of non-turreted weapons like proton beams and torpedos.

I think some sort of secondary lock on button that aligns your ship or a certain facing of your ship (for broadside type designs) to an enemy ship would be a neat feature.

Other things that could be handy/fun!

- A 'Self-Destruct Button' for when you get stuck on asteroids!
- An 'Eject' button that blows off pre-designated sections of your ship.
- A 'Maintain Distance' button to try to keep the current distance between your ship and the locked target. (Sort of like the 'Match Target Speed' button in Wing Commander')

Any other ideas are welcome!

Did you know that you have different flying schemes? You can change them by pressing R, the one you'd probably want is absolute controls.

I'm usually playing on a gamepad so I think it is always on absolute controls? I tried pressing R and it didn't seem to make any difference.

R does nothing for the gamepad. It changes how the mouse and keyboard work together.