Destroying the Power Distibutor does not disable the ship. [1.3]

Parmo

Parmo
Hi Commanders.
In the past few days I've been targeting the Power Distributor of my erstwhile adversaries.
Getting the PD down to 0% does not seem to disable the ship.
On one occasion I clearly achieved this on a Federal Dropship and was quite surprised to see it still flying around, firing weapons and such like as 'normal' able bodied behaviour.
I did the same to an Anaconda but it blew up very quickly after seeing the PD at zero as it it's hull was very low, below 10%, so I am not too sure of my visual timing here.; it was still firing to the very end in the best traditions of it's service. Come to think of it most ships are still firing when the hull indicates 0%! But I'll have to double check this now.
I have not been able to this with small ships as their hulls usually give up the ghost before any module does.
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Now it seems reasonable that if the Power Distributor is destroyed then the ship would be immediately disabled.
As the ED Wiki says:
<
The Power Distributor takes power from the Power Plant, and distributes it to the ship's three main onboard areas: Systems [SYS], Engine [ENG], and Weapons [WEP]. It also includes a capacitor bank for each of the three systems, plus a three-way recharge capability ...>
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Power_Distributor
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Can any of you combat experts confirm or repudiate my claim?
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Destroying the Shield Generator does just that in that I've never seen the shield come back. Same with the drives.
Thanks in advance Commanders.:)
 

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
Try turning your own power distributor off.

All it currently does is to allocate pips, without power your pips are still saved yet you cannot change the allocation. So if you destroyed the distributor with all pips in systems and thrusters their weapons would run dry quickly, NPC's however often run 2x2x2 distributions so destroying it will not limit their effectiveness at all.
 

Parmo

Parmo
Alex Brentnall said:
Try turning your own power distributor off.

All it currently does is to allocate pips, without power your pips are still saved yet you cannot change the allocation. So if you destroyed the distributor with all pips in systems and thrusters their weapons would run dry quickly, NPC's however often run 2x2x2 distributions so destroying it will not limit their effectiveness at all.
Click to expand...
Hm, I'll try that, turning off my PD.
But what you are saying is the ED wiki is incorrect. It says the PD includes the capacitor banks; if they're destroyed then there is no power for anything. It matters not what state the pips are in.
Curious, how does one know that the NPCs run their PDs at such 'n' such a pip state?
 

Faybs

Faybs
Just confirmed in beta 1.4 (just in case :)) - turning off the power distributor just removes your ability to change the pips. I can empty out the eng or wep capacitors and they'll recharge at the same rate they were before turning it off. So shooting it out is just an inconvenience for your opponent. I can see how disabling the distributor could leave your opponent adrift, making it the one and only thing you'd want to target. But they should do *something* like they did with the powerplant, and maybe cause the pips to change at random when it reaches 0% health, or cause random module damage when a capacitor empties (so you can still fly and defend yourself, but you have to be super-careful).
 
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Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
Parmo said:
Hm, I'll try that, turning off my PD.
But what you are saying is the ED wiki is incorrect. It says the PD includes the capacitor banks; if they're destroyed then there is no power for anything. It matters not what state the pips are in.
Curious, how does one know that the NPCs run their PDs at such 'n' such a pip state?
Click to expand...

Not sure why it is the way it is but I've based my NPC estimates from testing and Dev comments (Using same ship you can play with your pips in thrusters to see at what point you outmanoeuvre them) that means you can be pretty certain of what thruster pips they have and then make an estimate of what shields they are running based on what damage you do to them.
It's by no means an exact science and since 1.3 NPC's do vary their pip usage a lot more but you can generally make a guestimate.

I think maybe it could be extended so a blown distributor lowers the capacitor charge but having one module loose your boost, weapons and defence capabilities all in one seems overpowered... Although thrusters and powerplant fans would disagree :p
 

-Pv-

P
Affecting the ability to change pips does not sound like you are damaging the power DISTRIBUTOR (the power remains distributed) but rather the power CONTROL (cannot change the distribution.)
This seems a re-thinking of this mechanism is reasonable.

-Pv-
 

Parmo

Parmo
Faybs said:
Just confirmed in beta 1.4 (just in case :)) - turning off the power distributor just removes your ability to change the pips. I can empty out the eng or wep capacitors and they'll recharge at the same rate they were before turning it off. So shooting it out is just an inconvenience for your opponent. I can see how disabling the distributor could leave your opponent adrift, making it the one and only thing you'd want to target. But they should do *something* like they did with the powerplant, and maybe cause the pips to change at random when it reaches 0% health, or cause random module damage when a capacitor empties (so you can still fly and defend yourself, but you have to be super-careful).
Click to expand...



[===]
Alex Brentnall said:
Not sure why it is the way it is but I've based my NPC estimates from testing and Dev comments (Using same ship you can play with your pips in thrusters to see at what point you outmanoeuvre them) that means you can be pretty certain of what thruster pips they have and then make an estimate of what shields they are running based on what damage you do to them.
It's by no means an exact science and since 1.3 NPC's do vary their pip usage a lot more but you can generally make a guestimate.

I think maybe it could be extended so a blown distributor lowers the capacitor charge but having one module loose your boost, weapons and defence capabilities all in one seems overpowered... Although thrusters and powerplant fans would disagree :p
Click to expand...
Thanks chaps.
I only base my argument and reasoning on what the manual 'says' and what other sources of information there are available plus my steps of 'logic'.
It seems that your 'experiments' contradict what I have read from the above mentioned sources.
The official ED manual states in the Mandatory Modules section:
<Power Distributor: This module draws energy from the power plant to fill three capacitors:
SYS, ENG and WEP capacitors. These capacitors are used exclusively to power activation
costs of specific operations
>
From this it is logical - Mr Spock where are you? - to reason that if the PD is destroyed then the capacitors will not recharge.
So the developers of ED have made a liar out of the manual, the official pilots' manual.
I'm being nitpicky but I have an excuse: my profession is software engineering using C++.
You have to get these things right.
A destroyed power plant giving 50% power just grates.
The whole ship module and damage modelling is nonsense and the official manual just compounds the issue.
Still love the game though. Playing just switches off the sense of disbelief!:)
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Faybs said:
Just confirmed in beta 1.4 (just in case :)) - turning off the power distributor just removes your ability to change the pips. I can empty out the eng or wep capacitors and they'll recharge at the same rate they were before turning it off. So shooting it out is just an inconvenience for your opponent. I can see how disabling the distributor could leave your opponent adrift, making it the one and only thing you'd want to target. But they should do *something* like they did with the powerplant, and maybe cause the pips to change at random when it reaches 0% health, or cause random module damage when a capacitor empties (so you can still fly and defend yourself, but you have to be super-careful).
Click to expand...

A damaged PD causes random fluctuation when it malfunctions.
 

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
Parmo said:
[===]

Thanks chaps.
I only base my argument and reasoning on what the manual 'says' and what other sources of information there are available plus my steps of 'logic'.
It seems that your 'experiments' contradict what I have read from the above mentioned sources.
The official ED manual states in the Mandatory Modules section:
<Power Distributor: This module draws energy from the power plant to fill three capacitors:
SYS, ENG and WEP capacitors. These capacitors are used exclusively to power activation
costs of specific operations
>
From this it is logical - Mr Spock where are you? - to reason that if the PD is destroyed then the capacitors will not recharge.
So the developers of ED have made a liar out of the manual, the official pilots' manual.
I'm being nitpicky but I have an excuse: my profession is software engineering using C++.
You have to get these things right.
A destroyed power plant giving 50% power just grates.
The whole ship module and damage modelling is nonsense and the official manual just compounds the issue.
Still love the game though. Playing just switches off the sense of disbelief!:)
Click to expand...

The only reasonable answer I can give to that is gameplay.
Yeah the manual may be a bit borked in places but then again it's hardly the only thing that is :p

I mean Elite caters to RPG/Arcade/Simulator/MMO/Nostalgia and a ton of other audiences, naturally each suffers a bit to allow for the others. I had a vision that with an unlimited budget and time they'd make 3 very different games using the same universe and framework.
One story driven hero of space adventure.
One true simulator.
One MMO and nostalgia game.
 

Parmo

Parmo
Alex Brentnall said:
The only reasonable answer I can give to that is gameplay.
Yeah the manual may be a bit borked in places but then again it's hardly the only thing that is :p

I mean Elite caters to RPG/Arcade/Simulator/MMO/Nostalgia and a ton of other audiences, naturally each suffers a bit to allow for the others. I had a vision that with an unlimited budget and time they'd make 3 very different games using the same universe and framework.
One story driven hero of space adventure.
One true simulator.
One MMO and nostalgia game.
Click to expand...
Yeah, reasonable answer.
Unlimited budget? Well, is $80M a reasonable go at unlimited? I hope their manual reflects their game mechanic!:)
 

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
Parmo said:
Yeah, reasonable answer.
Unlimited budget? Well, is $80M a reasonable go at unlimited? I hope their manual reflects their game mechanic!:)
Click to expand...

Just on the side Destiny's budget was $500 million so you'd be looking at about $800 mil + to make those 3 games I envisaged perfect. Instead we are making do with a middle ground jack of all trades. I still hope when I am 40 years older and Elite is a memory they may look and say, you know what. Lets do that again and go full on into X direction instead of a mixture. Although DB and others will be getting on by then and probably retiring instead of creating games :)
Yeah things like the manual do need a tweak here and there. Maybe link this thread to a bug report. I'm not even sure if bug reporting on the forums covers the manual but I'm sure someone over at FDev Quality Support will take a look eventually.
 
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