FD, please remove power plant and thrusters headshots !!!

[Yank31]

Yesterday, I picked an assassination mission.

I found the target, Elite Anaconda. I quicky dropped his shields down and began to drill his hull. We were basically facing, or "face tanking" each other. He also got my shields quite fast, and instantly killed my thrusters right after my shield went down... ??!

So I lost control and could only watch him slowly finish my hull... as my 140M Python with Reinforced Alloy was twitching into the void... what?

***

This is not Counterstrike. The Headshot mechanic is fun and rewarding, in that game. You respawn the next turn anyway, for free. It is not fun when you consider a 140M ship, that was meant to take hit on the hull with Reinforced Alloy.

It's not fun to risk hours worth of rebuy cost credit over a "headshot" mechanic. It makes the whole fight, after shields are down, suicidal. It defeats the purpose of armour value, armour components (and they are not cheap in credits nor weight), and hull reinforcement !!!

Please, remove the power plant or thrusters headshots. The whole module targeting is fine and rewarding, but keep it for interesting modules, like weapons, cargo hatch, life support, maybe even sensors... annoying functions to lose during a fight, and not instant death via power plant or instant disable via thrusters, no matter the post shield investment you made on your ship.

***

Quick suggestion on top of my head : when you hit the power plant, instead of blowing the whole thing up and the WHOLE ship with it, you could make it so that it only damages the power plant, and DEPRIVE the ship from SOME power. That would :
- make things more interesting for the victim : "Phew, I'm not instantly dead, but I need to re-affect power priority, quick !"
- create another coding nightmare for our favourite AI dev coder.

Same thing with the thrusters. Instead of having your ship basically being 100% crippled and not able to move whatsoever, you could make it so that the thrusters are only strongly damaged, giving a small fraction of their nominal value...

Well, I don't know, but please, remove this headshot nonsense, or at least give some proper way to protect from it (besides the shield area). I want to put hull reinforcement on top of my modules, I'd go and hammer them down myself If I could, I can handle a slighter worth heat dissipation, too... :s

 

[kellakind]

isn't it possible to reboot the systems ?!

and u where on a assassination mission. there could happen everything and u have to expect everything. u don't want to get grilled? don't try to grill others.

 

[Roybe]

You can also do the same thing to the Anaconda. Face tanking an Elite Annie is not a viable path to success. Target it's powerplant and win by outmaneuvering it.

 

[Kiblams]

I agree, but with some caveats;

Having this mechanic of targetting and destroying sub systems is all well and good, but I personally think there needs to be more depth in the ship systems to take it from; 'blow up thrusters/power plant and you're dead' to ' blow up thrusters so you are at a great disadvantage'.

Destroying the thrusters should only affect the main rear thrusters, the lateral thrusters should still work so a player can still manouver their ship to fight, albeait at a much decreased and awkward manner.

Similarly, destroying the power plant should remove the recharge of the power distributor, but the power 'pip' levels should stay until used up by shooting or maneuvering.

I just think the simplistic nature of it harms the intended affect of the mechanic, and without more depth and thought into it; it should be removed.

 

[Morbad]

I completely disagree with everything the OP is suggesting and were this a democracy I'd use my vote to nullify his vote.

It is not fun when you consider a 140M ship, that was meant to take hit on the hull with Reinforced Alloy.

So don't expose your PP to enemy fire. Your Python actually has a pretty well placed and well protected PP and it's not hard to protect it with maneuvering.

It makes the whole fight, after shields are down, suicidal. It defeats the purpose of armour value, armour components (and they are not cheap in credits nor weight), and hull reinforcement !!!

Only if you don't know what you are doing. Not that you should be relying on armor anyway, it's an emergency sort of thing.

you could make it so that it only damages the power plant, and DEPRIVE the ship from SOME power

I don't think you know what a power plant does.

Well, I don't know, but please, remove this headshot nonsense, or at least give some proper way to protect from it (besides the shield area).

Already exists.

 

[DidierDrbois]

Don't let your shields go down. Stay on his six. Also, don't let your shields go down.

 

[Magic Man]

It was an Elite Anaconda, you used the wrong tactics and got burnt.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

-- Deleted --

 

[Morbad]

Destroying the thrusters should only affect the main rear thrusters, the lateral thrusters should still work so a player can still manouver their ship to fight, albeait at a much decreased and awkward manner.

It's part of a system. When your transmission goes, none of the wheels turn.

Similarly, destroying the power plant should remove the recharge of the power distributor, but the power 'pip' levels should stay until used up by shooting or maneuvering.

The ENG capacitor doesn't power thrusters, it powers boost.

The WEP capacitor doesn't power your weapons, it powers the coolant system.

Even shields aren't powered by the SYS capacitor, just (re)charged.

You still need the PP.

I just think the simplistic nature of it harms the intended affect of the mechanic, and without more depth and thought into it; it should be removed.

I think you are overlooking the depth that is there.

IMHO in most fights, you wouldn't survive the Reboot phase.

I have survived two reboot repairs during PvP. Never had to use one outside of PvP.

Drifting while very cold as your systems try to fix themselves can make you hard to find.

 

[Kiblams]

I think you are overlooking the depth that is there.

Am I though? Destroy Power Plant and ship blows up, destroy thruster and it stops until you reboot your systems. Am I missing anything beyond maneuvering to keep them out of your opponents reach?

 

[Intents]

Module damage promotes accuracy over brute force and applies equally to NPC's and Players. Certainly modules that are damaged should have reduced effectiveness and higher 'glitch' rates but any module reduced to zero should stop working. As it is FD removed FSD's from the critical list leaving only the power plant as the pop to blow component and added the reboot function. I think there is a definite case to look at hull reinforcement and armour values better protecting the modules though

 

[Epicurean Dream]

Face tanking an Elite Annie is not a viable path to success.

So much this.

You wouldn't see an F16 pilot attempting to "face tank" an MiG 29.

"So what's the course of action ground control?"

"Just fly at his face and keep shooting"

"...er, are you sure?"

"Yes, whatever you do, stay directly in front of his bow."

[tiny sound of explosion]

The sub target mechanic is fine imo. You can reboot systems, and play the game under the knowledge that this is part of it. Don't put yourself into a position that exposes your sensitive modules to fire. Also, be very wary of Cannons/Rails, they have 'huge' hardness piercing values and chew your internals. Large mounts don't have gimballed rails/cannons, so don't put yourself in the firing line by face tanking big ships.

And for that matter, you should never ever be inside the forward arc of an Anaconda, that is absolutely not a good idea in any situation.

 

[Yank31]

I don't think you know what a power plant does.

What I know is not relevant. It's a game. Instead of destroying it, you could chose to only damage it. It's only a gameplay decision. Same for the thrusters.

And yes, shields. I know. I still find it quite bad that everything revolves around shield, and that when shields are down, you better just run away, no matter the amount of stock armour, armour component of hull reinforcement you bought. These do not matter. And it's bad. That's my point, in a nuttshell.

I know this whole "remove headshot" idea will not please many. You could still get an advantage with your superior maneuvrability, not just instant death. Oh well.

 

[Perseus]

Sorry OP, I completely disagree.
My advice to you is never fly with a sense of invincibility, no matter which ship you're commanding, and especially if your shields are down.

 

[Tacheel]

I completely disagree with everything the OP is suggesting and were this a democracy I'd use my vote to nullify his vote.



So don't expose your PP to enemy fire. Your Python actually has a pretty well placed and well protected PP and it's not hard to protect it with maneuvering.



Only if you don't know what you are doing. Not that you should be relying on armor anyway, it's an emergency sort of thing.



I don't think you know what a power plant does.



Already exists.

Pretty much in agreement with this..

 

[jgm]

Destroying the thrusters should only affect the main rear thrusters, the lateral thrusters should still work so a player can still manouver their ship to fight, albeait at a much decreased and awkward manner.

Totally pointless; if you are in a fight where your opponent has taken out your main thrusters there's nothing you're going to be able to do with the manoeuvring thrusters that's going to keep you in the fight.

FD have stated that they like the idea of malfunctions, and there had been discussion before about both the strength of the submodule shielding as well as the impact of both partial damage and total destruction of modules. FD haven't commented on them, so I suspect that this isn't part of 1.3 and we won't hear anything on it for a while.

In the meantime: use B-grade components for critical systems if you're going up against competent players (or NPCs) as they provide more shielding.

 

[Morbad]

Destroy Power Generator and ship blows up, destroy thruster and it stops until you reboot your systems.

Yes.

Am I missing anything beyond maneuvering to keep them out of your opponents reach?

Personally I find quite a bit of depth in knowing what angles components on each ship are and are not vulnerable from, positioning my ship/weapons to strike my opponent's, while making sure my vulnerable spots are oriented away.

In the case of the Python, it's PP is very hard to hit from below, hit or miss from directly above, and most vulnerable from the side, through the radiator vents.

 

[Privata]

I think its a very good gameplay component it ads depth and a feeling of danger.
Plus 90% of game today are simple and remove any form of dares and risk. IMO you fly an expensive ship , well its a risk thats why the cheaper ships are still an option.

Elite D is not just a ''game'' but a simulator , the game needs more depth , and I am hoping one day to be able to kill pilots in there ships with a well placed shot in mid space

 

[figola]

Its ridiculous that you can even target a power plant outside of the ship.

 

[Kiblams]

Totally pointless; if you are in a fight where your opponent has taken out your main thrusters there's nothing you're going to be able to do with the manoeuvring thrusters that's going to keep you in the fight.

FD have stated that they like the idea of malfunctions, and there had been discussion before about both the strength of the submodule shielding as well as the impact of both partial damage and total destruction of modules. FD haven't commented on them, so I suspect that this isn't part of 1.3 and we won't hear anything on it for a while.

In the meantime: use B-grade components for critical systems if you're going up against competent players (or NPCs) as they provide more shielding.

That's very interesting! thanks for posting as i was not aware of that (does the outfitting part of the game reflect this in any way?)

I would like to re-iterate that I am not against the destruction of components, but there needs to be more depth to it as it's very black and white currenty. Is there a warning in the ship which tells you when a component is less than 50% during combat? That would go a big way to helping a commander to keep his ship going