Is turning off life support in combat to run more hardpoints a valid tactic?

[Eagle Eye]

Of course you can retract one or two hardpoints. Just make another weapon group that doesn't include them.

They are still consuming power even if the weapon group does not include them. So there is no power benefit for not including weapons in a group. Of course if you manually power it off in the power panel it does turn off, but not something I want to do in the heat of battle (oops, I accidentally turned off my shield...).

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

Of course it is, whack an A rated on and set it to off on HP deployment. You have 25mins to kill your target or bust.

 

[Morbad]

I don't do it (except on stealth ships, for heat signature reasons), as I tend to see way more than 25 minutes of combat between launches and don't want the weight of an A class life support module, but I don't see how it could be considered an "invalid" tactic.

 

[jou84]

Yes, I do it with my vulture and eagle.

At about 1 minute in I switch on my shield cell bank which switches off my life support and cannon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkaUW9omuXE

 

[jou84]

Uhhh... if you think you can beat the bad guy before your timer runs out, I don't see why not. I usually just run with a D-grade life support and set my cargo hatch, fuel scoop, interdictor (if I have one), shield cells (if I have them), and distributor to shut off when my weapons are out.

Your distributor?!? really does that work, I seem to need to manage those pips.

 

[Ydiss]

Way I see it is if you like it then do it. It doesn't matter if anyone else thinks it's stupid

 

[Ice30]

They are still consuming power even if the weapon group does not include them. So there is no power benefit for not including weapons in a group. Of course if you manually power it off in the power panel it does turn off, but not something I want to do in the heat of battle (oops, I accidentally turned off my shield...).

Undeployed hardpoints consume less power than deployed hardpoints.

 

[Karakhian]

Sounds dangerous. Does anyone know catergorically what happens if your canopy breaches and your life support is off? Is it instant death?

Regarding in-lore explanation - the way I see it is that your life support is basically a recycling system, and the tech is now good enough that it can keep you alive indefinitely while it is working normally.

When the canopy breaches (or you turn life support off), it basically goes into emergency mode - it's the recycling system being damaged or shut down... at which point depending on the class of life support, it only has a finite amount of reserves to keep you alive. You can switch it on and off, but until you return to a station or outpost it won't be refilled (which is what the 'Atmosphere Restored' message in stations is for - to tell you your oxygen reserves have been replenished).

- - - Updated - - -

Actually, thinking about it - canopy breach won't make a difference. If you have life support off, you're already breathing your emergency reserve. The canopy blowing out makes no immediate difference. It just means you can't turn life support back on.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[Chevy66]

Uhhh... if you think you can beat the bad guy before your timer runs out, I don't see why not. I usually just run with a D-grade life support and set my cargo hatch, fuel scoop, interdictor (if I have one), shield cells (if I have them), and distributor to shut off when my weapons are out.

You can't turn the distributer off can you? I thought you needed it for stuff to work, you can turn the FSD off though, you only need it if you decide to run, in which case retract the hardpoints so it comes back on and run

 

[deathmagnet]

I think it's fine. I have done it many many times. Most engagements do not last anywhere near 25 minutes. I have even had my canopy blown out and still had plenty of time to finish the engagement and get to a pad and repair safely.

 

[Ice30]

Just for clarification did a short Test :

Spoiler

All Weapons assigned Fire Group and Hardpoints deployed
http://www.falconfly.de/temp/ELITE-Hardpoints1.jpg

http://www.falconfly.de/temp/ELITE-Hardpoints2.jpg

http://www.falconfly.de/temp/ELITE-Hardpoints3.jpg

NO Weapons assigned Fire Group and Hardpoints deployed
http://www.falconfly.de/temp/ELITE-Hardpoints4.jpg

http://www.falconfly.de/temp/ELITE-Hardpoints5.jpg

http://www.falconfly.de/temp/ELITE-Hardpoints6.jpg

As I said : difference in Power Consumption = Zero.
As soon as Hardpoints are deployed (all Weapons will deploy regardless of Fire Group or any other setting) and the Power use rises as expected for the deployed condition.
Thus, taking any Weapon off a Fire Group doesn't do anything, neither is it possible to deploy/retract individual Hardpoints. They all deploy or all retract, nothing inbetween...
The only way to remove the Deployed Power usage of any Weapon when Hardpoints are depoyed... is to physically disable it in the Modules page.
Even that disabled Weapon will deploy with the rest of the Hardpoints but simply be unusable until re-enabled.l

Oh wow. Thanks for this I had it wrong! Kind of stupid and counter intuitive that a weapon that is not currently used in your fire group still uses the same power...

 

[Morbad]

The only way to remove the Deployed Power usage of any Weapon when Hardpoints are depoyed... is to physically disable it in the Modules page.
Even that disabled Weapon will deploy with the rest of the Hardpoints but simply be unusable until re-enabled.

Yep, this is correct.

You can't turn the distributer off can you? I thought you needed it for stuff to work, you can turn the FSD off though, you only need it if you decide to run, in which case retract the hardpoints so it comes back on and run

You can disable the distributor and doing so saves power at the cost of not allowing PIP settings to be adjusted. Current PIP settings are saved.

I never disable the distributor in combat except for stealth ships that have no shields and very low heat weapons. Being able to adjust PIPs on the fly is critical in most combats.

Oh wow. Thanks for this I had it wrong! Kind of stupid and counter intuitive that a weapon that is not currently used in your fire group still uses the same power...

It makes sense that they would be deployed and that power would be reserved for them unless they were disabled. I often have 3-5 fire groups that I switch between rapidly, as necessary, and having the weapons retract themselves or otherwise not be active and ready would make them useless.

 

[Harker]

Turning off life support gives you a few minutes of air. If I had a slot or two I wanted to use, perhaps until I get the shields down on an enemy and then retract those one or two hardpoints and turn life support back on again, would that be advisable? Does anyone else do this?

If you have a decent life support it can easily be done.

I had my canopy blown out the other day, but the A rated life support gave me 25 minutes to finish him off, then while heading to the nearest spaceport for repairs I was interdicted by a wing of 3 and I still had time to wipe them all out and get on with my journey. Back home in time for medals and tea! ( and a new canopy)

 

[Petersen]

• Your life support reserves are finite, so once you use some of your reserve, it's gone. Turning the module on does not recharge that reserve. (I personally find this one a little illogical tbh, but it's a fact of the game).

When you are on the surface after a dive, do you just open your air tank to fill it with ambient atmosphere and go back down into the briny depths?

EDIT:

I do think, however,that it's silly your life support reserve is immediately tapped-into when you turn off life support. When your canopy explosively decompresses, totally makes sense, but just flicking a switch doesn't empty your ship of the atmosphere that's present.

 

[Xeonyx]

It is certainly a valid tactic to re-route power from your life-support to power additional modules when you need them. Making a build that relies on always having the life-support disabled is a bit silly however, as it basically put a timer on your sorties. IMO you'd be better off shutting down some other power-hungry modules that you don't need to be permanently switched on in order to power your life-support most of the time. I often do this with SCBs. They are toggled off most of the time but when I need to use one, it toggle it back on and thanks to the magic of priority groups it automatically disables my life-support and sometimes a few power hungry weapons. The shield cell recharges my shield, I toggle it back on and the "sacrificed" modules come back online.