Is Targeting The Power Distributor Pointless?

So I was bounty hunting in a HazRES in my Imp Courier. Happened upon an Anaconda with a 300k+ bounty. Started to engage him and, as would be expected, it was a long and tough fight. Pretty fun actually, but I digress.

I decided I should focus down one of his modules to make the fight easier and thought to myself, Hmm the Power Distributor might be an interesting choice. If that's powered off/destroyed, you cant boost anymore, you cant regenerate shields anymore, and you cant fire weapons anymore once you've drained the capacitor of all the energy that might have been stored before your PD went down.

I managed to destroy it and get it down to 0%. But the fight went on for at least another 5 minutes and this joker just kept on firing all his weapons, happy as a clam. I saw him boost several times afterwards, and he even managed to regenerate his shields too. I got him down to 5% hull before his shields came back and I was all out of Chaff/SCB by that point, so I had to jump out.

But what gives? How did he manage to keep running all his systems without problem with a blown up PD?
 
I'd bet that a destroyed power distributor simply resets the PIPS from the game's point of view and that's it.
 
In my vulture, my power distributor is set to a lower priority so that it switches off when I deploy hardpoints. This is needed due to the Vulture's power constraints and my loadout.
As long as I make sure my pips are all in the right places before i deploy hardpoints, everything works the same. I just can't move the pips around.
 
In my vulture, my power distributor is set to a lower priority so that it switches off when I deploy hardpoints. This is needed due to the Vulture's power constraints and my loadout.
As long as I make sure my pips are all in the right places before i deploy hardpoints, everything works the same. I just can't move the pips around.

But surely during combat you change your pip settings??? I do, in a long battle i'll do this literally tens of countless times??? Am i missing something?

Thanks
 
But surely during combat you change your pip settings??? I do, in a long battle i'll do this literally tens of countless times??? Am i missing something?

Thanks

Not without your power distributor switched on/functioning you won't :)
 
But surely during combat you change your pip settings??? I do, in a long battle i'll do this literally tens of countless times??? Am i missing something?

Thanks

I think I would have died a lot more if I couldn't change pips around. God knows how he manages.

Funny, I started targeting PD yesterday thinking it would stop the recharge and was disappointed too. Oh well, back to blind shooting
 
But surely during combat you change your pip settings??? I do, in a long battle i'll do this literally tens of countless times??? Am i missing something?

Thanks

Maybe it's more forgiving in a Viper, but unless the fight gets particularly ugly, I can generally get by with simply adding two to weapons and leaving it.
 
But surely during combat you change your pip settings??? I do, in a long battle i'll do this literally tens of countless times??? Am i missing something?

Thanks

When my shields get low, I boost out, retract hardpoints, add pips to sys and let them regenerate. Works for me (PVE). I'm not much good at PVP. Could that be one of the reasons? :S
 
I think I would have died a lot more if I couldn't change pips around. God knows how he manages.

Funny, I started targeting PD yesterday thinking it would stop the recharge and was disappointed too. Oh well, back to blind shooting

When one's in a Vulture the target dies too fast to become an issue caused by lack of pips management :D
 
In my vulture, my power distributor is set to a lower priority so that it switches off when I deploy hardpoints. This is needed due to the Vulture's power constraints and my loadout.
As long as I make sure my pips are all in the right places before i deploy hardpoints, everything works the same. I just can't move the pips around.

I can't decide if this is genius or suicidal. The pips are needed to affect manoeverability, charge shields faster, keep your guns charging or not... there's a reason there's not one sweet setting for a fight. My initial reaction to the above would be 'change your loadout', unless you're on to something super beneficial.

I assume you're doing all the right stuff with power management already, like lowering the priority on the systems you only need with the hardpoints rettracted like the FSD and the Fuel scoop?
 
When my shields get low, I boost out, retract hardpoints, add pips to sys and let them regenerate. Works for me (PVE). I'm not much good at PVP. Could that be one of the reasons? :S


YES !!! (Certainly one of the reasons)

When one's in a Vulture the target dies too fast to become an issue caused by lack of pips management :D

I combat almost exclusively in a Vulture, (god bless her!), certainly until the FDL has it's makeover!!, But even when maneuvering to get in the best firing position, i pip change constantly, i pip change if i need more shields if i have been careless and taken a few cheap shots!! I simply could not fight without pip changes.

Is this just me? Perhaps i am wrong?????
 
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You want to attack the powerplant on Anacondas. It's their weak spot. Also fairly easy to target.

Yeah, tried that so many times but the hull usually ends up at 5% by the time I kill off the power plant which defeats the object for me except to fly up to the window and blow a raspberry
 
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YES !!! (Certainly one of the reasons)



I combat almost exclusively in a Vulture, (god bless her!), certainly until the FDL has it's makeover!!, But even when maneuvering to get in the best firing position, i pip change constantly, i pip change if i need more shields if i have been careless and taken a few cheap shots!! I simply could not fight without pip changes.

Is this just me? Perhaps i am wrong?????

I somehow doubt you are wrong :)
 
.......................................................................... to fly up to the window and blow a raspberry

OMG the ultimate weapon a "C6 Raspberry"!!!! Loving this idea, FD get this in 1.5 if it not to late Still rolling over holding my sides at this suggestion, Love it Love it!!!
 
Yeah, tried that so many times but the hull usually ends up at 5% by the time I kill off the power plant which defeats the object for me except to fly up to the window and blow a raspberry

What weapons are you using?

On my FAS (2 large pulse lasers, 2 medium multicannons) I can kill a power plant on an NPC anaconda and it'll have ~20% hull left. I think positioning is also important to actually get hits on the power plant.

On a side note - anyone else thinks this is a bit silly? I'd imagine that a destroyed / disabled distributor shouldn't, well, distribute power (alternative, less drastic solution, lower power redistribution by 50%). I'm not saying that the current implementation isn't balanced (I lack PvP experience), but it just doesn't feel "right" - you know what I mean.
 
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I think it would be quite entertaining if distributor would malfunction while being damaged. Redistributing pips randomly every few seconds :D
 
I admit the Vulture makes you lazy. I usually set pips a certain way and rarely change them until I leave the fight. Other ships require more hands-on pip management though.

On topic, sort of: what other modules kill the ship when targeted besides the powerplant? I've killed a few condas with hull and pp still intact.
 
What weapons are you using?

On my FAS (2 large pulse lasers, 2 medium multicannons) I can kill a power plant on an NPC anaconda and it'll have ~20% hull left. I think positioning is also important to actually get hits on the power plant.

FAS with 2x Pulse 2x PA. Probably doesn't help when NPC's start getting involved

I think it would be quite entertaining if distributor would malfunction while being damaged. Redistributing pips randomly every few seconds :D

I like it!
 
On topic, sort of: what other modules kill the ship when targeted besides the powerplant? I've killed a few condas with hull and pp still intact.

I THINK there's something wrong with NPC Anacondas hull percentage. I've seem to destroy many of them when they were at 1% hull, even when shooting at things like engines or such.

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FAS with 2x Pulse 2x PA. Probably doesn't help when NPC's start getting involved

Just out of curiosity - don't the side harpoints bug out sometimes and prevent you from firing? It's not a problem with the multicannons, but I'd get pretty angry if I was lining up a PA shot and it stopped charging in the middle...
 
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