Question about Module Malfunctions

[BaseKillerWolf]

Bit of a backstory for this one: I was out bounty hunting in a RES (High), got cocky and tried to take on a 3-strong NPC wing in my Fed Dropship (fitted for a trader/combat hybrid role), and had to FSD out since my hull started getting shredded. I've almost cleared the mass-lock when my luck goes south, and I get a 'MODULE MALFUNCTION' message. My ship stalls out like a brick, boost fails, capacitors all drop to zero pips, and I'm stuck sitting there like a big ol' target out in space. I think my power plant was the module in question, as several seconds later, everything comes back to life and I slam the boost button to try and escape. My luck must've taken the day off, because I got another module malfunction. Its the power plant again, and I'm dead in the water. Again. I pop open the Modules panel to see what's busted, but everything has a 'slash' through the status icon. I never got a chance to scroll through and see what else was going on, since I was greeted by the famed rebuy screen about 2 seconds later.

I know that there are lasers that cause module malfunctions, but those are PP faction specific weapons. Did I just get unlucky and have 3 NPCs with these lasers? Is my power plant just a piece of junk? Or did my ship get slammed so hard that stuff started going haywire, and the only thing to blame here is a bad turn of events?

And before I forget, here's the loadout I'm using.

[Loriath]

Not sure in these circumstances, but sounds like your power plant was damaged.

It used to be that when your power plant was taken out (at 0%) you would blow up. They changed that a while ago that if your Power Plant reaches 0% then its capacity is reduced to 40 (or was it 50)%. That is why priorities are very important now. Your link to your loadout shows that your priority 1 modules where more than 50% so that would cause other issues and leave you dead in the water.

If your power plant did get hit that bad, then other modules would start behaving weird, and probably had taken hits as well. I would think that the NPC's don't use these weapons, at least not that I remember from the reading I have done, but I have been wrong before.

[varbex]

BaseKillerWolf, I Had that happen to me like 3 times so far... but I managed to quickly open the modules tab and just turn everything down (Lazers and shield boosters first) so the ship would turn on and give me enought time to boost away.

But like Loriath said, having the modules priorities really sorted out is a must now.
Something like this... Thusters 1, FSD 2, Shield 3, Lasers 4, cargo hatch 199 , etc...

[Gorf]

I had FSD malfunctions which got progressively more frequent when exploring, each time I dropped out of SC near the star and did damage.

I suspect that it's a simple algorithm: the more damaged a component, the more often it stops working, and the longer those periods of inaction last.

[Nethaufer]

There was a really good dev post a long while back, that I can't seem to find anymore that explains the basic premise of module malfunctions. It went into some detail about what certain modules would do when they malfunction, as well as other malfunctions that happen on the ship. I remember seeing fuel leakage, stuff like that. However, it seems like most stuff has been streamlined since then.
Power distributor malfunction causes pips to be assigned randomly, engine malfunction causes your thrusters to cut out, cargo hatch malfunctions cause your ship to jettison cargo, FSD malfunctions causes your jump to fail (in the document, they said that you could also mis-jump into deep space in the system you were trying to go to, don't know if that's true), and hardpoint malfunctions cause them to shoot on their own. Beyond that, AI don't really hit other modules enough to cause problem. Some modules may just not have a malfunction, and usually in combat against AI, it's hard to test what each module will do, since they don't specifically target a module on your ship.
The power plant, which as far as I know, doesn't malfunction, but when damaged to 0% causes power to be halved (dunno the exact), and it will have a chance to fail catastrophically, which causes ship death. This chance increases the more someone fires upon it when at 0%.

[Black Rose]

The old saying comes to mind "don't bring a knife to a gun fight"

Or in this case a "brick to a rock crusher"

I know how, when money is tight, we create a hybrid ship that does a little bit of everything, sort of ok.

Here is a build to try if you want to break things with your 'brick' instead of the other way around

http://coriolis.io/outfit/federal_dropship/26A6A5A5D6A4C4C1f1b1b1b1b000k0404B12d2d2b2t6i53.AwRj4yrI.EwBhEYy6eyg=?bn=FDS%20Combat%20Build

[BaseKillerWolf]

Reprioritized my modules so no more power problems. I've mulled it over, and I think I'll chalk all this up to a learning experience (be strict as hell with module priority, nonessential junk turned OFF, scan ships' subtargets, don't underestimate contents of a wing and pick fights accordingly).

I kinda had my eye on the FDS as a trader-craft with enough guns and armor to take a stand in case of interdiction or ambush. I'll be bookmarking the build that Black Rose sent for future reference, but I think I'll look into an FAS for a full combat role since I've been hearing good things about it lately.

[Black Rose]

Reprioritized my modules so no more power problems. I've mulled it over, and I think I'll chalk all this up to a learning experience (be strict as hell with module priority, nonessential junk turned OFF, scan ships' subtargets, don't underestimate contents of a wing and pick fights accordingly).

I kinda had my eye on the FDS as a trader-craft with enough guns and armor to take a stand in case of interdiction or ambush. I'll be bookmarking the build that Black Rose sent for future reference, but I think I'll look into an FAS for a full combat role since I've been hearing good things about it lately.

Yes it is a learning experience, that's for sure.

Here is a hint: After you fit your ship and go to modules. The 1st line is what is happening with your hard points retracted. The bottom line is with them deployed. The bottom line should never exceed about 106% I run all of my ships at around 103% but all will function, most of the time, at 106%

Next Hint: If you have "deployed" power issues, look at what is not needed when in combat and put it on priority 2. Such as your cargo hatch, FSD interdictor and only if you HAVE to, the FSD itself. WHY? Well when its offline and you are in deep and are running for your life and retract your weapons, tell me if you want to wait for it to power up even before you can start to charge?

Next Hint: Not all is at it appears! Many times you will passive scan something and it shows as a single ship. You do your warrant scan, choose a sub system ( I always choose the FDL on smaller ships so they can't run and the power system on larger ships ) and let fly and all of a sudden you are in the middle of 3+ ships firing at you and you have that "WTF" look on your face Watch the NPCs, you will often see them flying in a V formation or and echelon. Scan them all, take your time. LOOK at each one....example Two eagles at expert and one FAS at deadly! Follow them and see if they engage with other NPCs. If they do, take out the Eagles 1st, then go after the FAS.

Prior to getting my FAS, going to a Hazardous Resource site was a nightmare and the HIGH was even worse as I almost always killed a cop

Now I stay at the site until my multi cannons go dry and even if my hull is only 30% I stay and if I have full shields I will ram an Anaconda to kill it