Because the WANT it to be power output. Though, if they want to shut down a ship, shoot the drives out, nothing can be done from that ship, maybe a glancing blow as it spins in the black but it's not going anywhere unless you impart momentum on it.
Why is this a thing?
- Thread starter Narvarian
- Start date
Don't you personally find it a bit idiotic that virtually destroyed module, with 0% integrity has any power output at all? Explanations like these don't really make it any more plausible. No other module work by this rule. If it's at 0, it's off. Same should be true for PP.
Not sure, when exactly this was changed, but in the past 0% PP meant instant destruction. But since many players and the devs felt that PP-sniping was too powerful, it has been changed to what we have now.
Consider yourself lucky... you would probably be killed a lot more by other players, if this hadn't been changed.
I do understand the frustration of this, I was fighting a Vette yesterday and even though its hull and PP were at 0% it still continued fighting for some time. Much longer than I expected. This isn't a one off. It happens repeatedly.
The AI isn't affected differently than the player.
PP damage, malfunctions, and ability to remain intact and provide 50% power at 0% integrity is something CMDRs have.
CMDRs can easily shrug off as much thermal cascade or thermal shock you care to hit them with. These effects have each been nerfed several times and heat damage was reduced to a fraction of what it originally was on top of this (as part of a bad fix for heat damage being multiplied by the players in an instance).
They changed it way back in October 5th, 2015, with the CQC 1.4 update:
Patch Notes - Update - CQC Update 1.4
Greetings Commanders, here is the CQC 1.4 update change log! NEW CONTENT/FEATURES: - CQC Added! - Imperial Eagle added - Federal Gunship added - Federal Assault Ship added - Hazardous resource extraction sites added - Compromised nav beacons added - Legal salvage missions added - Added...
Currently, the Power Plant is the only module that can't be field-repaired. But Reboot and Repair Sequence restores it to full capacity at 1% health.
It's a balancing thing, in my opinion. A change would probably have quite a big impact, especially on long distance exploration.
I wouldn't mind the requirement of an Autonomous Field Repair Unit if it had some backup battery to repair the Power Plant to reasonable operating condition.
But for exploration this could also incur a requirement to synthesize AFMU ammo and possibly a way to gather materials for synthesis in the black.
Have you actually tried fighting any player ships? (Ones built for high-end combat, that is, not someone's Freewinder)
Go to the San Tu or Shinrarta system and ask for a duel there. Then you can see just how little strength the NPCs have compared with a properly built and flown player ship.
Not quite - the Power Distributor will continue to send power to subsystems at 0% integrity, you just can't change the distribution proportions.
Arguably Life Support allows partial performance at 0%, too - it won't regenerate oxygen itself, but it will still supply the emergency oxygen and allow refilling of that from other sources.
I did hear that you can actually keep increasing percentage of the PP by doing reboot/repair, which draws health from other components, then use the AFMU to repair the other components to 100% and do reboot/repair again until it is near 100%, but I may be mistaken since this isn't something I've ever needed to try.
Its even worse when you take down an NPCs Drives.
If you are in a wing and your team m8 enters the instance area with the NPC with downed drives, the NPC will now be able to move with 0% drives and will escape.
If anyone else joins the instance area with the NPC that has the 0% drives its the same result, it starts moving again.
Its not a reboot repair, its a bug to do with instances.
Pretty sure Its been reported as a bug for at least 4 years.
If you are in a wing and your team m8 enters the instance area with the NPC with downed drives, the NPC will now be able to move with 0% drives and will escape.
If anyone else joins the instance area with the NPC that has the 0% drives its the same result, it starts moving again.
Its not a reboot repair, its a bug to do with instances.
Pretty sure Its been reported as a bug for at least 4 years.
Think of it like this:
- 100% is not 100% intact, 0% does not mean destroyed
- 100% means the PP is fully functional, with all the protections and redundancies in top shape.
- 79% -> 1% means the PP is gradually losing redundancies and subsequent hits might temporarily send it into malfunctioning mode where power is limited to 40%
- 0% means the PP is functionally crippled, all protections and redundancies are down so the PP is able to provide only 50% power and any further damage can cause a critical malfunction that will blow up the reactor (and the ship)
What you're asking for is battles against a matched NPC of 15 -20 minutes against optimised load outs where stalling your ship could lead to your powerplant being one-shotted.
Add to this potentially having elite NPCs which can effectively avoid being shot at all unless you're using FA off to its full capabilities. Battles against large ships would also potentially see you needing to resynth ammo after running out mid fight.
Yeah, if you think player ships are weak, you do have some build issues. All these things are fixable however and I'm sure there's something we can do to help you out if you'd take a moment to ask for some advice in that area.
You can't have a situation where things like super penetrator rail guns exist and power plants at 0% cause an instant ship explosion though.
I just might try this.
Deleted member 182079
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I'm with you there but it seems the OP wasn't as much asking a genuine question but merely ranting because things are different to what they expect (without remembering we're discussing a game here, not a sim like MSFS or DCS).
I for one am glad that they're not working at FDev at least, as a game designed by the OP would most likely suck.
Deleted member 182079
D
I mean, Sonic the Hedgehog is complete garbage - hedgehogs can't jump that high!
Good point!
It doesn't affect the differently. It isn't instaboom for the player. Engineered NPCs in CZs usually DO lose shields due to being on 50% power, but unengineered manage power better than most players, so keep them.
I am fully trained theoretical physicist. That doesn't mean FTL has to be taken out of the game for being unbelievable. It's fiction.
You can just say "Oh, is that how it works? Thanks, now I know!" There's a lot in the game and no-one starts with all the knowledge.
I'm still struggling to understand why a POWER PLANT in the year 3307 has anything in resemblance to a 21st century GENERATOR putting out 110v/230v @50Hz by spinning copper windings round an iron core?
I think they may have made some progress in a few centuries
I think they may have made some progress in a few centuries
My sidewinder still features a thermos flask, a sandwich box, and gaffer tape as an alternative to actual repairs. It just feels like my bike made it to the 34th century.
Way I head cannoned this away is that once the main powerplant is destroyed the backup power plants kick in. When you upgrade the powerplant you upgrade the entire ship's power supply system. Also I'm so paranoid about my ship turning off I have multiple different stages of things to turn off so in the event my powerplant gets shot out I still have my FSD, scanners, engines, and life support to limp on out of there.