Does firing on 0% subsystem not dmg ship anymore?

[jacozilla]

Not quite sure, because first NPC ship I've fought so far that was a lot bigger than my Asp and seemed to have a ton of hull hp, I mean a huge amount it seemed.

Using 4 c1 lasers, and 2 c2 multi cannons.

Anyway - targeted power distributor, got shields down really quick, burned down power distributor reasonably ok- not quick, not slow. Expected that for what was so far my toughest npc opponent.

After 0% power distributor though, I kept pouring in MC and laser and it seemed to do absolutely nothing - that or his overall ship hull has such a huge HP amount that it seemed like little progress. As this was my first big, more competent NPC pirate, not really sure.

So two questions:

1. If the subsystem you target goes to 0%, does the rest of your fire not spread out overall as if you hadn't targeted a subsystem?

2. If the above isn't the case, kinda curious what kind of ship it might have been - was so busy didn't get chance to examine much, and even with all 6 weapons just pouring in to the helpless NPC - after his power distributor went out, was just sitting duck so I literally could throttle down to 0 thrust, park next to him and just fire and reload over and over. It took quite awhile.

Was only after I realized I hadn't switched over from the destroyed subsystem, hence my question here

 

[Siddius]

if you are targeting the power distributor, drop shields, and see the 100% go down to 0%, i believe that's the hull, not the component you are targeting. If he hits 0% after shields are down he's going to pop, no matter what subsystem you are targeting. That's been my experience anyhow; i've not targeted any subsystem but the power distributor so far thou (have popped anaconda's at 42% by targeting power dist. I'm not an overly experienced combat pilot though.)

 

[Aleksej]

If you continuously shoot at the same area of the ship, the hull damage you inflict reduces over time to very small values, this is especially noticeable on Anaconda.

 

[Morbad]

Firing at a destroyed subsystem will keep splitting damage between the subsystem and the hull, the exact split dependent on weapon armor penetration, as well as other factors.

You were almost certainly damaging the hull, but very slowly, as small lasers have a ~67% damage penalty to the hulls of large ships, not including any armor protection, and cannon have very good armor penetration, so were probably dealing the bulk of their damage to the module, not the hull.

Anyway, to sum it up:

- Hitting subsystems reduces the damage you do to the hull, irrespective of the condition of the subsystem.
- Big ships can have a lot of hull strength.
- Smaller weapons do less hull damage to big ships.

If you continuously shoot at the same area of the ship, the hull damage you inflict reduces over time to very small values, this is especially noticeable on Anaconda.

I can't say I've noticed this myself, but then again I haven't really tested it.

Is there a dev comment on the damage model that states this somewhere?

 

[jacozilla]

if you are targeting the power distributor, drop shields, and see the 100% go down to 0%, i believe that's the hull, not the component you are targeting. If he hits 0% after shields are down he's going to pop, no matter what subsystem you are targeting. That's been my experience anyhow; i've not targeted any subsystem but the power distributor so far thou (have popped anaconda's at 42% by targeting power dist. I'm not an overly experienced combat pilot though.)

I'm not sure what the heck kind of ship I fought then - I for sure targeted power distributor only, did not take long at all to have lasers bring down shields and saw dmg to his power distributor subsystem go fro 100% to 0%

That point, he became floating sitting duck dead in space - I coasted to a stop, pointed ship at him and literally for ~2 min poured non stop fire into him, 4 C1 lasers and 2 C2 multi cannon.

Could be off 20 seconds either way, but I have never sat there pouring on fire into a target for that long before. He finally blew up and hence my question here - I guess next time I find a tough opponent I can try switching to another subsystem after first goes down if it seems like he's not taking much dmg afterwards but surely this would have been reported if it was an issue.

So I guess it must have been some absolute monster huge HP ship, not sure.

 

[Frenotx]

My guess is that your weapons were penetrating his hull (doing little damage), and dumping the majority of their damage into the already-destroyed power distributor. As far as I know the first module hit take all of the penetrated damage. There doesn't seem to be any spillover if that module is destroyed, so the damage is effectively wasted.

The penetration system can be pretty obnoxious, sometimes. Nothing quite as frustrating as watching plasma accelerator shot after plasma accelerator shot do next to 0 hull damage to a small ship, due to you inadvertently piercing the hull, and dumping all your damage into some random subsystem.

 

[jacozilla]

Great info to know, and thanks all.

Last question then - once I'm done hitting the subsystem - how do I target back out to just regular no-subsystem, e.g. hit the overall hull?

Cycling subsystems doesn't do it, and all i can think of right now is just switch ship target to something else, and then switch back. Is there some easier 'deselect all subsystems and go back to normal hull target' key bind or command?