In an effort to bring more strategy to the combat side of the game, how about the ability to target various "subsystems" of a target ship with the intent of disabling it (temporarily speaking).

Similar in concept to many space MMO/RPG's, where by targeting weapons you can reduce/eliminate hostile fire while they make repairs. Targeting engines/power results in the enemy no longer moving, and becoming easier to hit. Hit their shield generators temporarily knocks out their shields. And so on, and so forth.

Rather importantly, so this doesn't give even more of an edge to the online player, you should be able to set a priority list of targeting so when you are offline, your ship will follow a list of subsystems to fire at defensively. Another extension would be to extend this to planet defenses & weapons. Try to attack a planet, and the planet may try and knock your guns offline. Don't notice in time, and you just failed your invasion because your attack dropped to nothing; because the planet guns knocked yours offline and no longer contribute to your attack.

Durations may need to be adjusted, but personally I think it should be severe enough to actually affect a fight, not just like right now where if you can cleanse just about every debuff and finish any kill (except someone who uses Halcyon traps or Calming Amps)

Target shields = no shields for a time (possibly until you have a forced refresh of Galaxy Legion, so you would have to find that enemy again to have shields during the fight)
Target Weapons = target loses most/all of their offensive firepower
Target Thrusters = target loses most/all of their mobility, and takes more critical hits
Target bridge = target loses their organized targeting, so a massive loss in hit ratio (guns would go to local mounts, firing without organized fire plans)
Target Cloak = similar to thrusters, since cloak has a low effect on critical hits
Target sensors = similar to hitting bridge, target loses hit accuracy because they are now blind

Thoughts, opinions, suggestions?


Edit 1: reason I suggest cloak/sensors playing a role is due to fights like in Star Trek Nemesis, the Scimitar warbird fires disrupters while cloaked. And they utilized strategic decloaking and combat braking to gain a tactical advantage. Fight scene relevant

Edit 2: Now, also for balance purposes, we'd need 2 changes to combat:
1) the ability to outright miss a target, not guaranteed damage every single time you click
2) because you are focusing firepower on specific subsystems, your ships overall attack damage will become lowered (you aren't blasting away at any shot you can take, thus all guns are not cycling as fast as possible

+1 Adds a new element of fighting to the game. I am all for it

In short, if this gonna do a module damage, it's a no-no A ship that got LA-ed can lose all his modules because ships shooting down on its weapon, thruster, and so on (300b repair! yay!)

I would like this be implemented in form of arti (remember Bypass) or ability. Or, even better, in form of new research tier (Tactical Computer is what springs into my mind) that grants module with the said ability

When the module installed, you can use 3 abilities with 20 minutes cooldown.
Target Weapons : 10% reduction per level, 5 minutes duration
Target Thrusters : 10% defense reduction per level, 5 minutes duration
Target Generators : when attacking shield, grants 10% more damage (not attack) per level. Shield recharge is slowed for 5 minutes

Initially it should only be 5 tiers (max 50%)

For cloak and sensors ... I would like this in some sort of 'hacking'

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Beware, some people might hate this suggestion :
"Just use EMPs and Disarms"

For balance, no actual module damage/uninstall would occur. This would just give temporary effects, similar to that of artifacts. Because really this helps a player who isn't online actually give a "challenge". Currently any idiot can disable a player who is offline, or afk. There's no challenge, you artifact barrage the snot out of them, and take your kill.

And at high ranks, imagine how easily you could get a kill when a player loses over 50% of their attack/defense (when crews are giving you more bonus than actual modules) it'd start getting real easy to get kills again no? Assuming you used a megaton of Havoc coils (upto 100% increased weapon performance) you could have 7k attack from just 8 Heavy Quasi blasters alone. Additional attack from other gun systems that I'm too lazy to go and calculate, so lets be generous and say players can gain something like a maximum of 15k attack from modules.

I'm sure there's players somewhere who have nearly that much attack from strictly tactical officers. Even arty barraging them would take considerable effort, and time to kill.



Now, also for balance purposes, we'd need 2 changes to combat:
1) the ability to outright miss a target, not guaranteed damage every single time you click
2) because you are focusing firepower on specific subsystems, your ships overall attack damage will become lowered (you aren't blasting away at any shot you can take, thus all guns are not cycling as fast as possible)


Overall, this is basically asking for "skill" in our pvp combat, rather than just a matter of timing (to try and catch offline/afk players) and/or massive slugging matches. I hit you, you hit me. I hit you, you hit me. I hit you, and you are now dead.

critical hits -> critical miss

I would love to see crit miss implemented (1/2 dmg)

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As a side note, I think it will be fun if you can attack modules, but only 1 at a time. If you do sufficient damage (the HP of each modules is different) the modules will be offline (same as Bypass)

However, I'm concerned about how it will be shown on the news feed

well really, imo a critical miss should mean your opponent's next attack is an automatic crit. Right now, critical hits don't seem to have much influence, and/or rarely happen (at least what I see in the 300-500 rank bracket). Between module disables (which like you said should act similar to that of a bypass, without being required to hack first) true "missed" attacks, and some form of meaningful criticals (combat wise), pvp could totally change.

Although perhaps a restriction of 2 disables, if my whole list is accepted. I'm sure higher ranks would appreciate the ability to do shields & defenses, or guns & defenses, or other combinations. The big question would become.... should the module disabling be strictly for 1v1, or if you get legion alerted, could the whole legion gangbang your modules, and each player gets the benefits.

I lean towards this form of combat should be strictly in the 1v1. If I disabled your thrusters squal, only I get the benefit of removing your defenses. Anyone else who attacks you (even at exactly the same time), your ship would act as if your thrusters are still intact.