Subsystems more susceptible, hulls stronger

posted on March 23rd, 2011, 11:39 pm

In response to a post about shield damage I started thinking about these ideas:
I think it would be cool if subsystems should be damaged gradually during battles. This idea would make it more realistic IMO. All hulls across the board should be stronger but the subsystems more susceptible to damage from attacks. So, for instance, a ship is quite likely to lose engines before being destroyed. The most resilient should be life support I suppose.
On that matter, with this idea I suggest the Borg should have a very sturdy life support subsystem since drones can survive in empty space. Obviously this idea should be tailored to each race's characteristics.

I realise there might be a coding problem with the engine or something but what do you think?

[Tryptic]

posted on March 24th, 2011, 2:08 am

Last edited by Tryptic on March 24th, 2011, 2:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think there should be racial differences.  For example Romulans get subsystems that are easily broken but repair in half the time, Federation get sturdy subsystems but if their shields go down the ship has to avoid damage for longer before the shields go back up.

Or it would be cool to have higher crew losses when subsystems go down, perhaps only for Dominion.  In exchange, if you get the crew level back up it can repair its subsystems faster than other races.

I don't know how it would affect balance but I kind of want to see the shield subsystem get destroyed when the shields go down, so the ship won't get shields back until it goes to a yard or waits for the repair.

...those are some ideas anyway.  The current system allows for a LOT of possibilities that would be easy to implement.  It's the testing and balancing that's a bit more work.

posted on March 29th, 2011, 1:10 am

Subsystem failure is a PAIN in the arse, especially if it is weapon (cloak) or engines. I prefer weaker hull any time.

[dragonmalice]

posted on March 31st, 2011, 7:39 pm

Last edited by dragonmalice on March 31st, 2011, 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Actually, once the shields fall it does make sense for systems to go offline pretty quickly.  Shield failure in the ST universe usually is the end of the fight.  I think it would make sense to weaken the subsystems AND the hulls, with greater damage distribution to the subsystems.

The ability to target individual systems while leaving others intact would be even better.