Damage type question

[Fyron]

That works for some damage types, yes. Shields Only and similar ones (not specific component types, just changes to how the hit is affected by shields, like skips shields, 4x to shields, etc) will not be affected, as they work against the shield points, not components.

[KnidVermicious]

My idea is some kind of Deathwand device that only kills crews. I'm hoping that if I add a "0" Boarding Defense ability to Crew Quarters and Bridge than it will destroy the "crew" parts of the ship. It will also have the bonus of killing Security Stations.

[Suicide Junkie]

Or a toxin injector missile, perhaps.

But I wouldn't worry about adding one point of boarding defense to a few components.
The attackers can always just include one more boarding party.

BTW, you will probably want to add the defense ability to boarding parties as well. They currently will provide defense just like the crew quarters without being hit by Boarding-defense-only weapons.
You can comment on the "Home turf advantage" of the boarding parties to explain it if you want.

[KnidVermicious]

Tested the Death Ray device. It doesn't work with an ability of "0' so I tested it with "1" and it worked fine. Skips armor, but hits shields.

How many "marines" does 1 point of Boarding Defense give? I could just bump up boarding parties by a few points to compensate. I intend to have Bridge, Crew Quarters, Boarding Paries, and Auxiliary Bridges have the ability. That way the Death Ray (I have to think of a better name) kills all the lifeforms on the ship. I'd thought about adding it cargo bays, too, to simulate slaughtering passengers, but it would also destroy sats, mines, etc, so I won't.

I suppose I could also leave Boarding Parties alone. They would get a minor boost to Boarding Defense, and I doubt having 3 extra points of Boarding Defense on their victim is going to change much.

Of course, this lead me to think of Shielded Bridge, Crew, etc. that doesn't have that ability (is immune to Death Ray) and possibly generates shields or something. And a Huge Death Ray for bLasting planets (Population Only).

[Loser]

Originally posted by KnidVermicious:
That way the Death Ray (I have to think of a better name) kills all the lifeforms on the ship.

Perhaps you should add the ability to Organic Components as well.

[oleg]

Add this ability to Colonization module. Now you can irradiate colonists

Also, some mods - Proportions and AIC - use very large population mass and have special modules specifically designed for population transports. That would be a good target as well !

[KnidVermicious]

Excellent ideas.

I was intending to add this to the Bio-Psych Mod. A new tech area like Xenobiology lets you understand alien physiology so you can make things that screw it up. I originally was going to make it a niche weapon like shield depleters, but with so many uses (kills Organics/Bugs dead!) maybe it needs a 5-10 level field.

Also, how is Death Ray as a name? The idea was inspired by the Deathwand weapons from the Hyperion books, but I think Death Ray is pretty generic and Sci-Fi at the same time. Neural Shredder would have been good, but they've already got one. Synaptic Scrambler? Neural Whip/Lance?