I've also heard that knocking out sensors can hinder a ship's targeting capabilities, but the engines are the only realy useful subsystem to disable, unless scripted into a mission. A rogue coder had proposed a means to make subsystem status more consequential to a cap-ship's capabilities, outside of mission scripting. One had each cap-ship requiring a reactor subsystem, which would provide a table-defied energy quantity to a ship. Each subsequent subsystem would be assigned an energy drain figure, to possibly even allow higher AI to shut down unneeded or disabled subsustems to further the capabilities of the others. In addition, a ship's total available power, would dictate which types of beam weapons can be fired, and at what rate. For example, if the Colossus engages the Sathanas, it diverts all power to the main guns. On the other hand, if a cluster of cruisers engage it, power can be deverted to the lower power cannons, which can fire more rapidly than the same weapon mounted on a Hecate or Orion. Incidently, I would reccommend this method be made implimentable for the proposed Fe2 SCP project.
Later!