Certain pieces of equipment can be damaged, decreasing its effectiveness and causing the piece to lose value. The effectiveness of a damaged module can be partially recovered through jury-rigging, trading one form of damage for another. Each equipment can take damage from three different sources. Equipment take different types of damage and have different penalties depending on their class. Within a given class, different pieces of equipment may offer greater resistances to certain types of damage.
Damage Sources
There are five types of damage:
Kinetic
Caused by impacts. This can include high-mass ringroid impacts as well as high-velocity ones from mass drivers or pulsed lasers.
Acceleration
Caused by sudden changes in velocity. This is typically caused by collisions, but can also accumulate from excessively powerful thrusters relative to ship mass.
Thermal
Caused by rapid heating. Typically from thrust exhaust, microwaves, and proximity supercritical materials.
Wear
Accumulated by using the equipment. The rate of wear can be extensively tuned. Accumulates at a slow rate on many equipment.
Electromagnetic
Caused by EMPs and electrically charged objects. Rare to encounter.
Vulnerable Equipment
Thrusters
Main thrusters, RCS, EINAT Kzinti Lesson Mk II, NANI, and Tetsuo HMX-2000I can suffer from the same types of damage:
- Misalignment, caused by heavy impacts nearby the device, causes thrusters to fire at an angle. Typically caused by ringroid impacts.
- Wear, caused by usage, causes thrusters to fire erratically, reducing effective thrust. Different thruster designs provide substantial resistances or vulnerabilities to this damage type.
- Choke, caused by high-velocity impacts on or next to the device, reduces thrust output.
The best way to jury-rig damaged thrusters depends on personal playstyle as well as one's autopilot selection. Advanced autopilots can account for bad thruster misalignment, while those relying on manual controls can find even minor misalignment extremely detrimental to handling.
Hardpoint-Attached Equipment
Mass Drivers
Kinetic weapons can suffer from the following types of damage:
- Misalignment, caused by impacts near the device, causes the weapon to point off-center.
- Wear, caused by general usage, reduces muzzle velocity of projectiles.
- Warped Barrel, caused by rapid heating, reduces accuracy of fire.
An optimal jury-rig largely depends on the presence of the NDCI Autopilot, which provides firing solutions. This reveals the misalignment and firing spread of the weapon, giving a captain the information they need to effectively jury rig their mass driver.
Wear damage takes a very long time to accumulate.
Mining Lasers
Mining Lasers can suffer from the following types of damage:
- Misalignment, caused by impacts near the device, causes the weapon to point off-center.
- Wear, caused by general usage, causes the weapon to output less heat.
- Pump Failure, caused by electromagnetic damage, causes the weapon to fire erratically.
A laser with total pump failure becomes effectively useless, making it a priority to address.
Wear damage takes a very long time to accumulate on lower-power lasers.
Microwave Emitters
Microwave emitters can suffer from the following types of damage:
- Misalignment, caused by impacts, causes the weapon to point off-center.
- Wear, caused by general usage, causes microwaves to fire erratically.
- Warped Dish, caused by rapid heating, causes the beam to be spread over a wider area.
Wear damage takes a very long time to accumulate.
Particle Accelerators
SPC Gungnir currently lacks a damage model and accumulates no damage.
AR-1500 Manipulator
ARM can suffer from the following types of damage:
- Misalignment, caused by impacts to the arm, causes manipulator to miss open excavators.
- Wear, caused by general usage, causes manipulator actuators to act choppy.
- Overheat, caused by thermal damage to the arm, reduces manipulator strength.
Misalignment of the arm can be very detrimental if not dealt with.
Computers
Computers can suffer from the following types of damage:
- Faulty Connection, caused by impacts near the cabin, cause sensors to briefly provide empty readouts.
- Short Circuit, caused by electromagnetic damage, cause sensors to provide false information.
- Overheat, caused by heat near cabin, slows down the computer.
Computer damage means that astrogation plot progress may not visually update while the astrogation system is functioning nominally. Maintaining desired velocity without tripping proximity alerts will allow astrogation jumps to be performed normally.
Rebooting the computer may reduce the effects of damage.
Reactors
Reactors can suffer from the following types of damage:
- Jammed rods, caused by high acceleration, cause larger temperature fluctuations, which can contribute to meltdown.
- Reactor leaks, caused by impacts, cause constant propellant loss as well as reduces the temperature the reactor can reach before going critical.
- Turbine Galling, caused by overheating, forces the reactor to run hotter for the same power generation, which can contribute to meltdown.
Reactor Leaks are typically the most dangerous damage type, as the constant propellant loss effectively places a time limit on your dive.
More powerful reactors are more prone to overheating.
Fusion Reactors
Fusion reactors will suffer different damage types from standard fission reactors, which go as follows:
- Coil misalignment, caused by high acceleration, reduces the power that can be drawn from the reactor. Rapid acceleration changes can cause emergency reactor shutdowns.
- Coolant loop choke, caused by impacts, causes reactor to heat up faster. Overheating will cause reactor shutdowns.
- Ignition laser warping, caused by overheating, makes starting the reactor require more power.
Emergency reactor shutdowns will cause the entire ship to powerwash, and on occasion not reboot the computer, where you have to manually do so on the mechanic tab in OMS.
Damage Resistances
Certain types of damage can be mitigated.
- Acceleration and some types of Kinetic damage can be reduced through use of External Impact Absorbers.
- Wear accumulation can be reduced by lowering equipment power in Tuning.
- Electromagnetic damage can be significantly reduced in ships with EMP shielding or by turning off the vulnerable equipment prior to taking electromagnetic damage.
Certain designs of equipment provide damage resistances. For example, cheaper or inefficient thrusters are typically considered more reliable, and are more resilient to damage.
Fusion reactors are much harder to undergo meltdown due to their extremely efficient radiators, however the meltdown threshold is lower. Mass driver ammunition will not cause impact damage to fusion reactors.
Damage Vulnerabilities
Certain designs of equipment are more vulnerable to damage. For example, highly efficient and/or powerful thrusters typically accumulate wear at an accelerated rate and are more fragile.