Question on Computer Virus and Energy Dampeners

[Enigma]

Both the computer virus and Energy Dampeners attack specific things. Do they have to penetrate shields and armor before they are effective?

Do they contribute to the damage of shields and armor if they have to first penetrate them?

Thanks

[Fyron]

They skip shielding and armor. Most, but not all, of the special damage weapons do so. Engine destroyers skip armor, but must get through shielding first. I believe that the security station/boarding party damaging types might need to penetrate shields first too. These are only available in mods.

[Alneyan]

On the topic of Energy Dampeners: those cannot be stopped by anything (except destruction of the component or lack of supplies), unlike the Psychic equivalent, so they will work against Master Computers.

[Enigma]

OK I did up a sample design with computer virus against a ship with a Master Computer. In the first round it destroyed the Master Computer, but the enemy ship still fought pretty effectively. It did not have an auxilliary bridge. What is the effect on combat of losing the Master Computer?

[Alneyan]

A Master Computer acts as a Bridge/Life Support/Crew Quarter combination; losing those components (or the Master Computer, if there is no Bridge/Life Support/Crew Quarter) result in a loss of speed, but nothing else. There will not be any penalty to hit chances, weaker weapons or anything.

A vessel with a Master Computer and one set of Bridge/Life Support/Crew Quarter will also not suffer from losing the Computer: regardless of how many Life Support/Crew Quarter components are needed when designing the ship, you only need one of each to operate your vessel at full speed (and one Bridge).

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Or you could just create a mod where the basic to-hit chances are terrible as defined in the VehicleSize.txt file, and the B/LS/CQ and MC have big + to hit, increasing per level. That way, enemy ships will have the minimum (1%) to-hit after losing their control components.