"target their engines!"

posted on August 21st, 2012, 9:17 pm

thought id make a stand alone thread for this, inspired by destroy92's idea

On another note, is it possible to have a commend inserted so you can target specific sections of either a model or its hardpoints? I was thinking that a Star Fleet captain would usually target the engines or weapons to disable the ship he's attacking.

now that idea i love! similar the the special weapons autonomy,

you could select one of the following (1 at a time only),
sensors
shields
life support
engines
weapons
allround targeting (default)

and your ship will do extra damage to that system to knock it off line (but slight decrease to all the other systems, this means the same amount of damage is done to the ship but you select where it goes to)

if none are selected the weapons do all round damage (like it is at the moment)

if you want to try capture a ship you can take the life support offline, or take a ship out of the fight by hiting its weapons. target the shields and they go down faster but the other systems arnt taken down


a slight alternate of this would be without selecting a target the default would be shields out of the yard targeting, (not a alround targeting button)

this doesnt alter the stats of any ship, only what its already existing weapon power can be aimed at for sub systems

posted on August 21st, 2012, 9:27 pm

i would also add that the ability to designate a ship so that you ships will only take the shields down but not sestroy the target.

how many times i wanted to capture a specific ship. in particular a construction ship to get mixed tech and my fleet wipe it out rather than shoot the enemy fleet once iv taken down its shields

you could switch to no targeting autonomy but that looses critical time and damage to the enemy fleet

posted on August 21st, 2012, 9:52 pm

I like this To target a specific sub system is a very useful thing and can change the dynamics of the game, specially if those sub system get damaged at different rates son you can incapacitate the engine of a freighter quickly instead of destroying it, which would take longer, so raiding could get a lot better and even have less losses to the attacked party, but still giving tactical advantage.

And yes capture ships would be more easy.

posted on August 21st, 2012, 10:03 pm

Yes, having several hard points be designated for a particular subsystem sounds like a good idea. Maybe 8 hard points for engines, 2 hard points for sensors, 4 hard points for weapons, 2 points for life-support, and 12 points for 'shields'.

Or whatever is reasonable. If you have 1 hard point on either side, will be easier for ships to target it. Maybe causes your vessel to manoeuvre around a little to get a targeting lock.

I mean, we can manage it however we like, but making certain subsystems easier/harder to disable.

Hopefully devs like the idea, or community keeps discussion going.

posted on August 21st, 2012, 10:57 pm

its actually a very canon idea to the show. how many times do you see a captain (be it federation or klingon or whatever) say to
"target their shield emmiters"
"target their engines"
"target their weapons"
"target their bridge"

etc etc

its done in every series, probably every season.. if not every few episodes

posted on August 21st, 2012, 11:01 pm

Should be fine as long as the Borg are immune, the bigger ships at least. Targetting decentralized systems shouldn't be possible.

posted on August 21st, 2012, 11:04 pm

It should.
Difficult? Yes.
Impossible? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck no!

posted on August 21st, 2012, 11:10 pm

gameplay wise it can make a good player have alot more options with a few ships

eg

you have 5 ships, your enemy has 10
they have targeting to damage shields, you have targeting to weapons, you could snipe some of their ships weapons to even the odds of who can fight

so it pays to use your ships abilities and not just build and send them in.


as a result of this, perhaps you could reintroduce the armada vulcan research institute (if i recall correctly) you could research to upgrade and improve each subsystems strength/durability (this would be seperate to the upgrades at the moment wich upgrade power of weapons or strength of shields etc etc)

posted on August 21st, 2012, 11:48 pm

You took my idea, and improved upon it. This all sounds great.

I think there should also be a voice set for when you target a subsystem. (*selects sensors* "Lieutenant, blind them.")

Maybe there should be one where they randomly target one and stick with it until they target another ship. ("Tactical, target at your digression.") (Not sure if I spelled that right)

As for the Borg, I'm in agreement with Tyler; some Borg ships should make it harder to target their systems, (like the Cube) but Nutter is right too; the decentralized Borg Cubes shouldn't make it impossible to disable a system, just harder.

All in all, very good.

posted on August 22nd, 2012, 1:41 am

It still should be possible to at least target Borg weapons. On several occasions we see the Enterprise targeting a specific emitter on a Cube and able to neutralise it.

posted on August 22nd, 2012, 1:51 am

Wasn't that Voyager, when they reduced the Cube to just another dime-a-dozen alien ship? I don't think the Enterprise ever disabled a Cube without blowing massive holes in it first.

Which reminds me, the TNG ones (Command Cube) should probably be much harder to hurt than the regular Cubes; that one's the true fleet-killer.

posted on August 22nd, 2012, 10:21 am

Not disable. Just knock down a single emitter. With a decent fleet concentrating on weapons, you should be able to take out a subsystem, given enough time. Sure, it'd take longer to actually destroy the thing but when their teeth are out, it is, pretty much a turkey shoot.
Especially if you can take down the engines as well before it retreats but it's probably better just going for the hull at that point.

posted on August 22nd, 2012, 11:12 am

According to TNG, Borg Cube can be damaged by 78% and still operate efficiently due to many redundant systems, aka all of them have many dupes all around the ship. Systems aren`t centralized, so concentrating fire on one spot would do significant damage but would not cripple the cube for good.

posted on August 22nd, 2012, 11:15 am

Wasn't that Voyager, when they reduced the Cube to just another dime-a-dozen alien ship? I don't think the Enterprise ever disabled a Cube without blowing massive holes in it first.

it's worse, the delta flyer could do it too. granted that ship was run by the borglings, and already predamaged, but it appeared to be mostly intact. while they said in tng that borg ships are very redundant.