[haloboy100]

There are some questions, that, after more than a decade of playing this game, I havn't  thought about, until now. 

So, what exactly is the effect of destroying subsystems on capital ships? engines is obvious; the others aren't specific. I searched and learned that destroying the weapons system decreases the accuracy of weapons - what's the value of that, exactly? Half? 33%? and the other subsystems don't do anything if destroyed, right?
How does the destruction of the weapon subsystem affect beams, particularly anti-capital ship ones?

Does this apply to AI controlled fighters, too? Can they still fire without a weapons subsystem? Will a bomber's turret still fire if the weapon subsystem is destroyed (albeit with reduced accuracy)?

I also read that a beam cannon can't fire without a sensors subsystem - is that true?

Also, does AWACS actually do anything by default? Does it increase sensor effectiveness in a nebula? If so, how much? Does it do anything against stealthed craft?

and another one - do AI fighters repair subsystems that aren't destroyed, like the player's craft does?

[headdie]

* Engines - damage slows ships movement - destroyed stops it from moving
* Communications - heavy damage to players com breaks up messages IIRC - destroyed stops ship transmitting low and medium priority messages (as dictated in FRED) I believe High priority are still sent, on players ship stops messages from being received and stops player sending orders.
* Sensors - I believe damage to player's interferes with sensor use - destroyed player sensors kills the radar and targeting, no effect on AI to my knowledge
* Weapons - destroyed on AI fighters and player kills weapon usage, on AI capships makes non beams less accurate
* Navigation - stops ships from departing
* AWACS used with SEXP features to improve player detection range

[Aardwolf]

No, navigation doesn't actually do anything.

[NGTM-1R]

* Engines - damage slows ships movement - destroyed stops it from moving
* Communications - heavy damage to players com breaks up messages IIRC - destroyed stops ship transmitting low and medium priority messages (as dictated in FRED) I believe High priority are still sent, on players ship stops messages from being received and stops player sending orders.
* Sensors - I believe damage to player's interferes with sensor use - destroyed player sensors kills the radar and targeting, no effect on AI to my knowledge
* Weapons - destroyed on AI fighters and player kills weapon usage, on AI capships makes non beams less accurate
* Navigation - stops ships from departing
* AWACS used with SEXP features to improve player detection range

Engine damage as opposed to destruction and I think communications are both AI-profile or flag-based.

[Droid803]

Navigation is the one that's ai-profile based (it does nothing by default on AI ships)
With an optional setting it can prevent ships from jumping out when it's integrity is <30%

[niffiwan]

AWACS affects detection/radar ranges in nebula, and detection ranges for stealth fighters anywhere.

[Megawolf492]

I know that the bomber turret is a separate subsystem than the weapons. I don't know how low it needs to be before it stops firing, but I've been in situations where the turret has been destroyed yet I still can fire my regular weapons.

I would think that the AI subsystems would repair automatically. I remember in "Enter the Dragon" that Arjuna 1 didn't automatically repair anything: engines, weapons, even shields. That was a special flag set in FRED, so that would tell me that normally subsystems would repair.

[NGTM-1R]

Navigation is the one that's ai-profile based (it does nothing by default on AI ships)
With an optional setting it can prevent ships from jumping out when it's integrity is <30%

I know the engine thing isn't retail behavior because I've watched the Iceni run for it on one badly damaged engine in The Place of Chariots a few times when I've tried to break the mission, and it cruises at 25m/s like it doesn't give a damn, so.

[Qent]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=81610.0 has some similar questions and might help you.

NGTM-1R, that's pretty serious. My test was run with no mods enabled. If it's not retail then it could be potentially mission breaking. Unless I did something wrong somehow...?

[NGTM-1R]

Depends. Unless you built it in retail FRED it's possible it's using not-retail sexps that could be affected by that behavior, and not break any retail missions.

Alternately it might relate to the damage flags on the Iceni, or other corvette and destroyer-sized ships where I've actually tried this out; there's not many places in most campaigns where you'd have a reason to go after a cruiser to disable rather than destroy, whereas you can't actually whack a destroyer to death with Subach and Tempest fire, so I've spent most of my time trying it out on ships that have huge damage flags.

Or I was accidentally using an SCP build that broke things rather than retail when I was trying to screw up the missions and I'm talking out of my ass.

[Goober5000]

Are you sure that's the correct mission?  In the Place of Chariots, all the Iceni does is enter subspace, for which one badly damaged engine may still be sufficient.  (And in that mission, the Iceni uses the NTF Boadicea model anyway.)

Both the Iceni and the Boadicea have a top speed of 35 m/s, so 25 m/s would still be achievable if a damaged engine slowed it down a bit.

[NGTM-1R]

Are you sure that's the correct mission?  In the Place of Chariots, all the Iceni does is enter subspace, for which one badly damaged engine may still be sufficient.  (And in that mission, the Iceni uses the NTF Boadicea model anyway.)

Both the Iceni and the Boadicea have a top speed of 35 m/s, so 25 m/s would still be achievable if a damaged engine slowed it down a bit.

Not entirely, no. But I've also tested it on SOC Loop 1; and the Iceni has multiple engine arrays (three I think). Even with only one left and it badly damaged, it can still cruise along without varying its speed from the one it starts with.

[Qent]

It starts capped at 25m/s in that mission.

[haloboy100]

These are good replies, but it seems that they are mostly speculations. Is it not easy to look into the game's files and find the effects?
Then again, if it was that easy, I would have done it myself.

There has to be a reasonably easy way to find the numerical values associated with these facts - like, what's the value that weapons accuracy is lowered by? How many metres does an AWACS increase your radar range in nebula conditions?

It's not terribly important, but it's enough to nag me that I don't know this after a decade of playing.

[Qent]

Well, if it comes to that then I'm probably no better than you at finding it out. So, if you do, tell us what you find!

Oh one though:

Also, does AWACS actually do anything by default? Does it increase sensor effectiveness in a nebula? If so, how much? Does it do anything against stealthed craft?

Anything in friendly AWACS range appears on all friendly radars, even those who are out of range (in a nebula). So you can have an AWACS spot for beams as discussed in the thread I linked. I think it also detects stealth ships, though I'm not sure on that one.

[niffiwan]

Also, does AWACS actually do anything by default? Does it increase sensor effectiveness in a nebula? If so, how much? Does it do anything against stealthed craft?

Anything in friendly AWACS range appears on all friendly radars, even those who are out of range (in a nebula). So you can have an AWACS spot for beams as discussed in the thread I linked. I think it also detects stealth ships, though I'm not sure on that one.

I've been looking at the code for the AWACs stuff, ship/awacs.cpp.

I think Qent is correct about the AWACs in a nebula.

For steath ships it looks like:
1) in a nebula within friendly AWACs range they are MARGINALLY_TARGETABLE
2) outside a nebula within friendly AWACs range they are FULLY_TARGETABLE

I've traced it a little further, but it started getting too complicated for a 5 min look, I suspect what happens here is that FULLY_TARGETABLE means normal targeting, whereas MARGINALLY_TARGETABLE gives stuff like "fuzzy" radar dots and no direct target lock.  There's a bit of magic number usage going on as well

Also, I believe you can specify the default nebula visibility distance in the species table, and the AWACs range in the ships table (but I haven't checked that in the code).  So to get some hard numbers on the AWACs stuff, you'll need to consult the tables

[haloboy100]

Like i said, these issues aren't important, but perhaps the AWACS one is more relevant - what if you wanted to put an object just outside of AWACS range? I'm sure the purposes of that could be achieved with FRED scripts, but it would sure be convieniant to know the approximate numerical value of the AWACS effect.

[niffiwan]

As I said - it's in the ship tables

As I'm now at home & can check - here are the retail values:

GTA Charybdis: 2500m
GVA Setekh: 1700m
SJ Sathanas: 2500m

Other mods can give ships the AWAC ability, e.g. the Vassago in Vassago's Dirge.