Critical Damage

[Crayon]

I would like to suggest a feature called critical damage or a revamp to the current damage system.

Similar to how a rudder, or pump would go out, or a permanent leak from losing the bow armor occurs, I would like to see permanent leaks caused by critical damage sustained by multiple hits in the same area of the hull. Another option perhaps is to condense these features into a single classification known as critical damage, a standalone threshold similar to hull armor now, but only repairable by moving crew to survival mode. 

Realistically speaking, if balls were to hit the same area of a ship repeatedly, the integrity of the hull in that particular area  would become weaker and weaker compared to other portions of the hull. It would also require captains to focus their fire, and wait for opportune moments to fire more often than they do now. As it stands, firing an entire broadside when the opportunity arises is always preferable than firing single shots, which in my opinion is not exactly a skill based mechanic other than aim as low as possible, whenever possible, for maximum effect.  Various things would be factored in to make this a reality, which are already in place, such as weight of the ball that impacts the hull which causes trauma to it (even bounces), as well as the range, and penetrating force.

Leaks are a form of critical damage but the time it takes to repair leaks, rarely impacts overall outcome of a battle, same with fires, or module damage, and they really do not compound with each other because they simply never happen at the same time, and if they do, a simple emergency repair fixes most of these critical damage systems in place now, except fires and leaks.

These forms of damage need more importance, and ships should take awhile longer than they do now to repair those types of things, along with more of a bonus for impacting the same portion of hull over and over again, would go along way in utilizing hull strength and armor bonuses, as well as make some of the larger ships, more vunerable to their currently obsolete counterparts (namely, Connie v Aggie). 

 

Happy Holidays!