In "Project Freedom" (well, modern - 2004 but it's a space sim similar to FS), you had to do exactly that - blow up the sections of capships to destroy them. However, the game didn't had any "big" weapons like FS, the biggest "bomb" had a small impact. I think the best FS ship you can use when thinking through new damage models is the Hecate. If a Sath fires all 4 main guns on one of the "Wings" the ship would be destroyed, while logic tells you that only the wing would be totally gone, the rest of the ship would be working fine. On the other hand, if the central corridor of the ship would be hit with a BGreen, it could be damaged to the point it'd break into 2 pieces while, say, trying to jump out, destroying the entire ship. Also, the Hecate has several other pieces that could be split of before the ship would be totally destroyed. I think of them as hardened (also, different armor type) "shields" that prevent the main frame from being hit with beam weapons (somewhat).