Does destroying the Power Plant not destroy ships anymore?

[Anarky]

The last time I went hunting ships was back in May or June. Back then you could target a Power plant, destroy it, and it would then blow up. At the time there was also an Anaconda sale on, so I sold everything and bought one but only had enough CR for some small upgrades and a few cargo racks. I've basically just been trading on and off ever since. I recently started going to RESs and hunting again, but I noticed if I targeted and destroyed enemy Power Plants the ships no longer blew up, but kept fighting. Is this intentional? And if so, is there a better target to shoot now?

Thanks.

 

[Sandro Sammarco]

Hello Commander Anarky!

Popping powerplants no longer instantly boils ships (messes power availability up instead), though repeated attacks on a zero health power plant do have a chance of causing catastrophic detonation.

 

[RhymeRhyme]

I hunt a lot. The Power Plant is still the best way to blow up big ships. Even Cutters crack if they still have lots of hull left. After the PP got shot down to 0%, the ship normally stops and is unable to shoot or move. That gives you plenty of time to fire at the PP and it will blow off after a while.

 

[Red Anders]

I hunt a lot. The Power Plant is still the best way to blow up big ships. Even Cutters crack if they still have lots of hull left. After the PP got shot down to 0%, the ship normally stops and is unable to shoot or move. That gives you plenty of time to fire at the PP and it will blow off after a while.

Exactly that. I only started playing after power plants were no longer an instant kill but they are still invariably my target on larger ships because taking them out effectively disables the ship, making for an easy kill. You can take out wings of FAS etc by just shooting each one until the power plant dies then moving onto the next one, before finishing them all off at your leisure - minimises the amount of time you have other ships shooting at you.

Also love that Sandro was presumably browsing and ducked in to answer that, there's some proper engagement between the developers and community on here which is always nice to see.

 

[Anarky]

Thanks, all good to know