Starship Corporation

I think it would be interesting if the ship design incorporated some sort of damage control system (i.e. fire extinguishing agent) like modern warships and aircraft do. This could be accomplished with standalone units that are attachable to each room, but I think the more interesting option would be to stage a reservoir somewhere and have piping connecting it to rooms of the player's choosing (similar to the generator and cooling unit functions). The larger the room, the more agent is needed.

This would allow for the player to prioritize the protection of certain rooms or mitigate a design that does not allow for easy access by crew members for damage control. And, similar to the other systems, the reservoir and piping should be vulnerable to damage which would add an interesting factor to the combat mechanics.

Another options is a system that seals and vents rooms to outer space, which would extinguish a fire, but also kill any person inside. This would create interesting game play decisions where you might need to sacrifice a crew member to save the ship. Or possibly clear an enemy boarding team.

Just a thought...

omg, even more pipes!
very neat idea, could be interesting to balance between the costs of "sprinkler system" or more crew members to be able to deal with fire. This could also provide a possibility to apply nerve gas to combat intruders - hmm, gas coming out of showerheads - where did I hear that before...

In modern data centers (or any electronics heavy area), they use a heavier than air gas called Halon, which removes the O2 from the area. I think this would be a better way to approach fire control aboard ship.

We have pipes for power, water, cooling, and we need at last one more for air conditioning. Ah and dont forget, that at last missile launchers need magazines and way to transfer ammunition to launchers:) Ship is already to accessible to intruders thanks to pipes, so we need some way to secure them (airlock, force field, laser grid), or make them unaccessible.

And I have two ideas for cooling/power system mechanics:

First: This mechanic all space sims use, power distribution, so I can set maximum power to shields and weapons and cut engines, to compensate

Example: I can set generators to 110% power and cut life support to 50% and power one more cannon, Generator at 110% generate much more heat...

Second:

We can use Capacitor/battery to store power, so some systems, we don't use 100% (airlocks, weapons, ... ) can be powered from batteries.
Weapons like lasers needs capacitor to charge up (capacitor can be built into weapon)

Same way we can use some room to store excess heat, so we need fewer cooling units.