Now, I have heard some complaints on the subject of critical hits. They are kind of iffy, do they even exist, etc. So, here is my suggestion.

If you score a critical hit, you deal a bunch of extra damage. (Duh.) However, a message pops up that says, "You scored a critical hit on (Name of Ship or player here)" That way you know that you scored a critical hit, and now you are totally aware that its happened.

Furthermore, if you hit the soft and squishy parts of an opponent's vessel, then you would do more than deal damage. If you succeed in a critical hit, then you also cause an immediate negative effect to your enemy, such as...

Damaged Weapons Arrays: Enemy deals 10% less damage for 1 minute.
Damaged Shield Arrays: Enemy's defense is 10% less for 1 minute.
Destroyed Power Linkage: Enemy cannot damage you for 30 seconds.
Hull Breach: Enemy takes additional damage every 10 seconds for one minute.

So, this happens on a critical hit. It'll tell you what effect happens, and the effects happen.

Any feedback? Suggestions? Insults?

I like it, provided there is a similar mechanic for critical fails on attacking too, i.e. the same effects but against yourself instead of the ship you're attacking.

Destroyed power linkage seems a little over the top. Nothing should be able to do that.

The statue ailments are ehh

The alert telling you about the critical hit part I do like.

Well, it makes sense that critical hits can happen to you too, just like critical raid and hack failures. The effects could use some tweaking, but I think that this could be easily implemented, and would be appreciated by some players.

Agreed. Crits are something of a myth...