Topic: Anyone care to talk tactics?

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

If you want to really learn how to play a Klink, fly some of the early/mid era ships.  These ships are known as "Glass Arses" because they have almost bare min shielding on the rear half of the shields. 

About the best situation to be in, is flying in circles with another ship.  You will find that 90% of you weapons (including your heavy weapons) will hit him, while only 50-70% of you opponents weapons can hit you (and often times NOT his heavy weapons).

Feds.. Easy to learn.. easy to be good.. Almost impossible to master
Klinks.. Hard to learn.. hard to be good.. if you made it this far, there aren't many who can stand against you!

Thanks. This sounds interesting. So the weak rear shields of the F5/D6/D7 force you to be aggressive? I guess this could work because in early era, there are no ships with those nasty swivel-mounted plasma-S pointing that could be a real threat to a chasing Klingon.

One concern -- what is keeping the other player from HETing and smacking me with overloaded photons or fusions? Let's just say the F-CA/K-D7 matchup.... does the Klink try to stay at range 15 while circling the opponent's rear, or get within range 8?

[Nemesis]

It isn't about being more aggressive but about using more finesse.  You have to use your advantage in maneuvering to keep the opponent from making a powerful attack on you while allowing your best attacks to hit him (the F5 and D6/7 hulls do their best along the 60^o right and left line).  Also you would not be closing in to his powerful photon/plasma ranges until his facing shields are worn to a frazzle. 

On that 60^o angle the D7 can fire all disruptor's, drones and 7 of the 9 phasers and as you turn away you can fire the remaining 2 aft phasers as well.  If you have maneuvered correctly against an F-CA you are hitting his 3, 4 or 5 shield and he can only fire some of his phasers and none of his photons. 

Maybe someone can point you to a more complete writeup of how the sabre dance is done. 

[_Rondo_GE The OutLaw]

I have a question about Klingons: How to be more aggressive?

In a duel environment, most of the time I do the standard saber dance, and sometimes get an oblique phaser strike at range 8 or 4 -- like when the other player fires off proxies and is empty. But when the enemy chases, I usually turn off the dizzies and run at 31, putting power into the rear shield, phasers, and ECM. Then I try to fire ph1 at their front until it goes and they stop chasing.

However, I have a feeling that there is a more aggressive way to fly Klink, but I just don't know how. I would like to be a less conservative/passive pilot, with Klinks at least. Any suggestions?

If you want to really learn how to play a Klink, fly some of the early/mid era ships.  These ships are known as "Glass Arses" because they have almost bare min shielding on the rear half of the shields. 

About the best situation to be in, is flying in circles with another ship.  You will find that 90% of you weapons (including your heavy weapons) will hit him, while only 50-70% of you opponents weapons can hit you (and often times NOT his heavy weapons).

Feds.. Easy to learn.. easy to be good.. Almost impossible to master
Klinks.. Hard to learn.. hard to be good.. if you made it this far, there aren't many who can stand against you!

Klinks.  If you fly old school yeah hard to learn hard to be good.  But the drone anchor made Klinks very popular and made them fairly esy to fly when piloting ships able to fire more than than two drones.

Fortunately for me my last fleet (I was Gorn and Fed mostly in my dlyng days) was a decent Klink fleet and I learned how to sabre dance. It a very satisfying feeling to do it right.

[MrBad151]

It isn't about being more aggressive but about using more finesse.  You have to use your advantage in maneuvering to keep the opponent from making a powerful attack on you while allowing your best attacks to hit him (the F5 and D6/7 hulls do their best along the 60^o right and left line).  Also you would not be closing in to his powerful photon/plasma ranges until his facing shields are worn to a frazzle. 

On that 60^o angle the D7 can fire all disruptor's, drones and 7 of the 9 phasers and as you turn away you can fire the remaining 2 aft phasers as well.  If you have maneuvered correctly against an F-CA you are hitting his 3, 4 or 5 shield and he can only fire some of his phasers and none of his photons. 

Maybe someone can point you to a more complete writeup of how the sabre dance is done.

While I agree with 99% of what you said, I don't think you have to wait until his shield are worn to a frazzle.  That seems to imply that you must stay at range 15 until most of his shield are already gone.  Most decent players won't let you hang out at that range for that long. 

Remember the Disrupter might seem like a weaker weapon compared to the photon, but it isn't.  While the 9-15 range is probably the best for Klingons, even at 5-9 range the disrupters out do photons.  Yes, he can get lucky and nail you will 4 overloaded photons, but odds are that he won't, he will probably only hit you with 2 maybe 3.  While each turn you are hitting him with 3 to 4 of your disrupters.

On Klingon ships drones are more for tying up phasers than for anything else... I know, I can already hear the Klinks protesting.. but really thats about all they are good for.  While they newer ships have more drone racks, the extra drone racks are really just there to off set the new anti drone defenses ships have i.e. AMDs.

While the drone anchor seems like a really good tactic, it isn't all that great.  A good pilot can live through it and make the klink pay for trying it.

If a Fed or Hydran HETs, launch drones, drop a scatter pack if you have one, and hit Erratic Maneuvers.. and try not to let them get closer than range 5.  Hopefully you are keeping points in ECM.. his HET probably just cost him his points in ECCM.. so unless he get fairly lucky you will probably still give better than you receive.

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

I think it all comes down to what our personal version of the Saber Dance is. If there are cautious and aggressive players, I am the cautious one, so instead of circling and hitting the rear shields, I like to hang around range 15-22 and keep firing at their forward shield. My key strategy is to take that shield down so that they have to expose their hull to phaser and disruptor fire in order to point at me. It's natural for them to want to get to range 8 or closer, but if their #1 shield is gone, that makes it hard for them to keep up a chase when the Klingon can easily turn off the disruptors, fly at 31, and fire phasers backwards all day through that burned shield.

Since Klinks have great arcs and can fire almost all ph-1 through all six shields and disruptors through five shields (if D5, C7, etc), it actually means that Klingons have stronger shields because we can spread the damage across every shield -- the long-range battle is between their one forward shield and the Klingon's five shields, so the odds look pretty good. The lack of awesome Klingon arcs are actually why I think Lyrans are so hard to fly. While a Klink can fire most phasers in most directions, the Lyrans have so few pointing to the back and sides, so it's a lot harder to deal with aggressive pilots.

I agree with you about the drones, especially when they are slow drones like the kind in most standard multiplayer matches. They are mostly useful against someone who goes slow, or to influence the movement of a chasing opponent.

[MrBad151]

I think it all comes down to what our personal version of the Saber Dance is. If there are cautious and aggressive players, I am the cautious one, so instead of circling and hitting the rear shields, I like to hang around range 15-22 and keep firing at their forward shield. My key strategy is to take that shield down so that they have to expose their hull to phaser and disruptor fire in order to point at me. It's natural for them to want to get to range 8 or closer, but if their #1 shield is gone, that makes it hard for them to keep up a chase when the Klingon can easily turn off the disruptors, fly at 31, and fire phasers backwards all day through that burned shield.

Since Klinks have great arcs and can fire almost all ph-1 through all six shields and disruptors through five shields (if D5, C7, etc), it actually means that Klingons have stronger shields because we can spread the damage across every shield -- the long-range battle is between their one forward shield and the Klingon's five shields, so the odds look pretty good. The lack of awesome Klingon arcs are actually why I think Lyrans are so hard to fly. While a Klink can fire most phasers in most directions, the Lyrans have so few pointing to the back and sides, so it's a lot harder to deal with aggressive pilots.

I agree with you about the drones, especially when they are slow drones like the kind in most standard multiplayer matches. They are mostly useful against someone who goes slow, or to influence the movement of a chasing opponent.

Not to say your stratgey isn't a good one, obvously it must work for you, otherwise you wouldn't use it.  The problem I see, is if you meet up with someone else who is cautious.  In order to keep that range you must keep a superiors speed to mine.  The extra power I am not using on movement I put into specific reinforcement on my number 1 shield.  Everytime you fire and turn away, your recharging weapons are doing to drain your reinforcement.  I fire every time I see your rear shield.  Once I bring down your rear shield.. you can no longer keep the range.. no longer run..

Now that your primary strategy is no longer an option.. what are you going to do?

I have seen many Klinks die trying to break the Gorn Castle...(the Fed can castle.. but not nearly as well  ).  Not that the Gorn Castle can't be broken, but you have to be able to switch tactics and strategy.  Sometimes you can't be the cautious pilot.

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

I think it all comes down to what our personal version of the Saber Dance is. If there are cautious and aggressive players, I am the cautious one, so instead of circling and hitting the rear shields, I like to hang around range 15-22 and keep firing at their forward shield. My key strategy is to take that shield down so that they have to expose their hull to phaser and disruptor fire in order to point at me. It's natural for them to want to get to range 8 or closer, but if their #1 shield is gone, that makes it hard for them to keep up a chase when the Klingon can easily turn off the disruptors, fly at 31, and fire phasers backwards all day through that burned shield.

Since Klinks have great arcs and can fire almost all ph-1 through all six shields and disruptors through five shields (if D5, C7, etc), it actually means that Klingons have stronger shields because we can spread the damage across every shield -- the long-range battle is between their one forward shield and the Klingon's five shields, so the odds look pretty good. The lack of awesome Klingon arcs are actually why I think Lyrans are so hard to fly. While a Klink can fire most phasers in most directions, the Lyrans have so few pointing to the back and sides, so it's a lot harder to deal with aggressive pilots.

I agree with you about the drones, especially when they are slow drones like the kind in most standard multiplayer matches. They are mostly useful against someone who goes slow, or to influence the movement of a chasing opponent.

Not to say your stratgey isn't a good one, obvously it must work for you, otherwise you wouldn't use it.  The problem I see, is if you meet up with someone else who is cautious.  In order to keep that range you must keep a superiors speed to mine.  The extra power I am not using on movement I put into specific reinforcement on my number 1 shield.  Everytime you fire and turn away, your recharging weapons are doing to drain your reinforcement.  I fire every time I see your rear shield.  Once I bring down your rear shield.. you can no longer keep the range.. no longer run..

Now that your primary strategy is no longer an option.. what are you going to do?

I have seen many Klinks die trying to break the Gorn Castle...(the Fed can castle.. but not nearly as well  ).  Not that the Gorn Castle can't be broken, but you have to be able to switch tactics and strategy.  Sometimes you can't be the cautious pilot.

That is true, and my biggest problems have come from opponents who castle well. The trouble is closing with the castler...usually they are holding a crunchy ace up their sleeve like lot of plasma. The best I've been able to get from closing is a lot of damage on them, but the tougher ship (darned Gorn) make it through with maybe half hull left, and Klingon debris floating around. Or it might turn out with two gutted ships, but a Gorn with little power can castle a lot better than a power-ridden Klink can dance. This is why I am trying to learn to be more aggressive (at the right times!).

I try to avoid showing the rear shield (as long as they are slow, flying away with the 3 or 5 shield facing is good), and I usually have the reinforcement set to the rear shield, so the power from offline disruptors goes to back it up. Unfortunately, this reinforcement will never match that of a castling ship because I am also trying to move, and it means I am firing disruptors less than once a turn.

Sometimes I try to play on a large black hole map so it is tough for a castling ship to stay safe while slow, but I suppose that is kind of slimy  .

[KBF-Crim]

Speed is life

[Nemesis]

While I agree with 99% of what you said, I don't think you have to wait until his shield are worn to a frazzle.  That seems to imply that you must stay at range 15 until most of his shield are already gone.  Most decent players won't let you hang out at that range for that long. 

Among the advantages of the disruptor is that you can change its overload status quickly.  Your opponent if a Fed or Hydran can't.  They have to make a choice and stick with it for 2 turns at least.  You can on one pass come into that 9-15 range and jump back to 16 reducing his damage if he fires then compared to yours and if he overloaded he can't even fire his heavies.  The very next pass you can hit that 5-8 range and fire overloads jumping quickly back to the 9-15 range perhaps before he fires. 

Your opponent has to respond very quickly to fire in the same range category as you and he never knows if THIS pass you will be in overload range or not.

If he fires first he risks that you will close in and fry him seriously from close range.  If he fires late then he is firing at a worse category for damage.

To stop the tactic they don't have a lot of choices.  They can disengage.  They can turn off some weapons to get increased speed.  They can try to castle but the disruptor is very resistant to ECM.  Most opponents will hold on thinking you will slip up and that then one attack will equalize things.  Due to limitations on sensors they may not even realize how well your shields are holding up compared to theirs.

Remember the Disrupter might seem like a weaker weapon compared to the photon, but it isn't.

It loses a bit from SFB because if you worked it right in SFB you could fire it twice in a 8 impulse time frame hitting the same shield twice.  It is a powerful weapon when used right.  It is among the best at cloak piercing.  It is ECM resistant.  It also fires rapidly.  What it doesn't do is equal the heavy one shot punch of the Photon or Plasma.   You need multiple hits to get superiour damage and you need superiour damage as his ship is bigger. That is where finesse comes in. 

On Klingon ships drones are more for tying up phasers than for anything else... I know, I can already hear the Klinks protesting.. but really thats about all they are good for. 

There are different styles among those who fly Klingons.  There are those who fly the "drone boats" and there are those like myself who fly the mainline ships.  My preferences are K-F5/B/C/K/L/W/WK/WL or the K-D7/B/C/K/L.  Notice none of them are drone boats or specialty ships all are mainline or command vessels. 

Though the drones can do damage mostly they are just a damage sponge.

While the drone anchor seems like a really good tactic, it isn't all that great.  A good pilot can live through it and make the klink pay for trying it.

With mainline ships the drone anchor is almost useless.  Some ships can get away with it due to their total fire rate.  Drop a scatter pack, anchor follow up the scatterpack with a full barrage from the ship and pop another scatterpack and your opponent can be in serious trouble.  Not usually my style, it lacks finesse.

There are many good tactics.  One thing many fail at is remembering that your Disruptors have 3 settings, standard, overload and OFF.  There are times to use all 3.  Use the overload at the wrong time and your opponent will be faster and will close with you.  Use the off (on one or more banks) and you have excess power for speed or ECM.  Never forget that each of your banks can be at a different status.  You don't need to overload all, sometimes it is better to overload one bank while turning the 2nd off. 

If the opponent does take down your shield (or has fired all his weapons and has a weak or downed shield) a Klingon ship can be the master of the T-Bomb shower.  Planting 5 T-Bombs on an opponents downed shield can make them wish they hadn't knocked down your shield.  To do so most effectively you need to switch to the top down view (also useful for "threading the needle" between mines or asteroids).  The screams of pain from the recipient of a 5 T-Bomb mizia attack are quite pleasant to hear .

The typical Klingon vessel has a maneuvering advantage and a little more power as advantages against their enemy.  The disadvantage is they NEED to do a "one two punch" where due to the relative fragility of the Klingon hulls and heavier punch their opponents need only a single "knockout punch". 

The sabre dance is intended to weaken the enemy to where you can do the knockout punch while keeping them from using theirs against you. 

[KBF-Crim]

 Never assume your enemy lacks the will to take a bloody nose....

[MrBad151]

Woot! Great discussion!

Many Klinks are so concerned with the sabre dance they forget why thier ships have such great firing arcs.  You only need FA weapons to do the sabre dance...  So why do Klingon ships have such good firing arcs?  For the often forgotten part 2 to the sabre dance...  The knife fight!

The secret to an aggressive Klingon is switching from the Sabre Dance to the Knife fight at the right time.  Unlike a lot of ships Klingon ships have a lot of weapons the don't show up on the SSD.  Like Nemesis mentioned T-bombs, and Hit and Run raids.  Klingons tend to have more transporters then comparable sized ships of other races.

I'm not sure I agree with "Fragility" statement.  It might seems that way since Klingon are always getting hit with large amounts a damage at one time, but personally I think klingons take damage as well as, if not better than most other races. 

Take a Gorn and a Klingon, both lose one heavy weapon due to damage.  The Gorn loses say 30 points of Plasma damage, and possibly the 3 turns he spent arming it.  While the Klingon only loses 5 points of disrupter damage and at most the 1 turn spent arming it.  The Gorn damage output from that point on is considerably less while the Klingons is only slightly reduced.  Also because of the superior firing arcs on a klingon ship they are less affected by losing weapons.  For many races losing 2 phasers might mean not being able to fire in a direct at all.. but for a Klingon, it just means he is firing 3 phasers instead of 5.

I will agree that disrupters are somewhat ECM resistant..  depending on what you mean by resistant.  The are far less effected by ECM than photons are, but still can find that even a single shift can cause them to start missing far more often then hitting.  The only direct fire heavy weapons that I would say are REALLY ECM resistant are the Hellbore and the PPD.  Phasers are also fairly ECM resistant especially at shorter ranges.

[Nemesis]

Unlike a lot of ships Klingon ships have a lot of weapons the don't show up on the SSD.

Even the lowly attack probe can be a battle changer at times.   Hit and run a Romulans only R Torp and even in space you can hear them scream. 

I'm not sure I agree with "Fragility" statement.  It might seems that way since Klingon are always getting hit with large amounts a damage at one time, but personally I think klingons take damage as well as, if not better than most other races. 

As a former SFB player I know the Klingons are more fragile.  They have fewer total systems boxes to absorb damage.  The DAC (damage allocation chart) also awards more damage to forward hull of which the Klingon D6/7 hull only has 4 boxes and once those boxes are gone start hitting more important systems.   Fewer systems and important systems hit sooner make them more fragile in fact.

I will agree that disrupters are somewhat ECM resistant..  depending on what you mean by resistant.  The are far less effected by ECM than photons are, but still can find that even a single shift can cause them to start missing far more often then hitting.  The only direct fire heavy weapons that I would say are REALLY ECM resistant are the Hellbore and the PPD.  Phasers are also fairly ECM resistant especially at shorter ranges.

Agreed they aren't the most resistant but they are better than some.  Overloaded disruptor's make short work of cloaked vessels (Hellbores do it quicker still) for example. 

The knife fight is something that needs to be done with as much care as the sabre dance itself.  Especially vs Fusion/Gatling armed Hydrans and the forest of Ph III aboard most Kzinti.  It must be timed right and the correct range for the opponent used. 

Never assume your enemy lacks the will to take a bloody nose....

Most are willing to close but lack the patience to properly handle a sabre dancer.  Many will tend to believe the dancer fears a bloody nose, those ones tend to fire first eventually giving the gap in their offensive fire power allowing you to close to knife fighting range and rip them apart. 

Always the attack mode must adapt to the enemy capabilites, both of the ship and the commander.

[MrBad151]

Having played my share of SFB, I don't remember the klinks being that fragile.  Klingons has security boxes that could be used a hull hits, extra transporters meant they didn't run out, thus forcing more important systems to be destroyed.  If I remember correctly the one area the Klinks were weak on, and the feds had an over abundance of were labs. 

Just because a system is destroyed, doesn't mean the fighting capabilities of that ship are reduced by the same amount for all races.  Destroy a Roumlans only R-Torp, and his fighting capabilities are far more reduced than destroying a single Disrupter on a Klingon ship.  Losing an S-Torp hurts a Gorn far more than it does a Klingon to lose a Drone rack.

Can a Klingon ship take as many internals as say a Fed or Gorn? No, but their fighting capability is reduced less per system lost than many other races.

[marstone]

Actually Security Stations were hit on Flag bridge hits.  So they didn't pad much.  Gorns had the best padding with all the center hull they have.  Klingons were the worst. 

But Klingons also had alot of semi-good weapons so a loss of a few wasn't as bad.  Say a Klink loss two phasers, they would be a P-3 or P-2, but a unrefitted Fed CA would loss two P-1's.  1/3 of it's phasers.

But in the long run, Mizzia really hurt a Klink.  As those row one hull's didn't take long to remove.

[MrBad151]

You guys are counting "X"s on a SSD.   I am talking about a ships ability to fight despite those "X"'s.  I have seem many a Fed go down in flames even though the Klink took more "X"s simply because he couldn't get the Klink into a non destroyed weapons firing arc, while the Klink kept shooting with crossdeck firing phasers.  The Klink was able to out maneuver a the Fed well enough to stay out of his remaining firing arcs while using his own superior firing arcs to continue the battle.

I do concede the Flag bridge/security station point.. its been a very long time since I have played SFB.

Although... it does bring up a question I have been meaning to ask.  Why are there still double internals in SFC?  I would have thought someone would have modded/patched them out.  Is it not possible or just not desired? 

Way back when I heard that SFC went with double internals to make the battles last longer, but having played PvPer games that lasted over 1 hour and some going 1.5 hours, I always wondered if that was really wise.  I always thought double internals allowed players to be far more bold than they really should have been.  I have seen a Fed chase down a fully armed plasma ship knowing the internals he would take wouldn't cripple him and as long as he could catch the  plasma ship he had a good chance of winning.  A 30 pt plasma in SFB was far more terrifying than a 30 pt plasma in SFC.  5 Points of internals in SFC may not even destroy a single system, while 5 internals in SFB destroyed 5 systems!  That is a huge difference.

I have often wondered which race took the biggest hit from this, generally I have to lean towards the Klingons as they typically have more firing opprotunities at a down shield, and their weapons do less damage.  If I hit your ship with a disrupter... I might not even destroy a single system, while if I hit you ship with a plasma, I will destroy something, even if it just a few hull.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Plasma races took the biggest hit with Dbl internals.  The reload time of their plasma torpedoes is too long to make up the loss in damage.  The crunch of the weapon is lost.  Even a Plasma F with single internals could seriously ruin someone's day.  Fire it into a weakened shield and that is going to leave a mark.  But in SFC, I don't even consider an incoming F worth the WW.  Yes its going to do some damage.  But at worst, I'm going to lose one weapon, or a couple of warp boxes.

Honestly, I'd hate to see real Andros done with Dbl internals.

[Nemesis]

You guys are counting "X"s on a SSD.   I am talking about a ships ability to fight despite those "X"'s.  I have seem many a Fed go down in flames even though the Klink took more "X"s simply because he couldn't get the Klink into a non destroyed weapons firing arc, while the Klink kept shooting with crossdeck firing phasers.  The Klink was able to out maneuver a the Fed well enough to stay out of his remaining firing arcs while using his own superior firing arcs to continue the battle.

With every refit the advantage in the # of weapons the Klingons had declined.

The D7 starts with 15 weapons and adds an ADD to take it to 16.  The Fed CA starts with 10 weapons and as earlier pointed out gains 6 bringing it to equal number of weapons and improving its overall coverage. 

Having played my share of SFB, I don't remember the klinks being that fragile.  Klingons has security boxes that could be used a hull hits, extra transporters meant they didn't run out, thus forcing more important systems to be destroyed.  If I remember correctly the one area the Klinks were weak on, and the feds had an over abundance of were labs.

Looking at the DAC the Transporters are destroyed on a 4 as the 2nd non repeatable hit after phasers.  Not much help there and it means no one ran out quickly on their cruisers, not even the Feds.

On a 7 after F.Hull is gone it hits battery, shuttle APR, Lab, Phaser then any warp engine.  In SFC each of those hits is important to the D7.  The F-CA is cushioned from those hits for sometime and has more of at least some of them. 

6 on the DAC also being F.Hull meant that the quick loss of F.Hull was further compounded and continued hits were on impulse, lab and Left Warp.  All these are important systems in SFC and only the lab was not in SFB.  Again the F-CA was cushioned.

Before someone mentions that 8 hits A.Hull and hurts the Feds remember that it is the only common roll that hits A.Hull whereas both 6 and 7 hit F.Hull compounding the damage from the point of view of the Klingon but not the Feds.

I would love to see a patch whereby the direction of fire affected hull damage.  Hit a Klingon through their weak (in the base model) aft shields and you hit the stronger hull.  Hit a Fed the same way and the hull is fragile and more important damage is hit easier.  Directional damage is applied to phasers why not hull?

[Nemesis]

With our discussion of relative ability to take damage we actually expose one of the weaknesses of SFB.  Later designed races took into account experience with the existing races and customized them to avoid weaknesses in older ship designs and their weapons were designed to take those weaknesses into account. 

Consider the Hydrans.  Strong center hull so they are protected the longest versus the 3 most common rolls.  Their major enemy is the Klingon Empire and their major weapon is designed to hit the Klingons ships in their greatest weakness - the glass rear shields.

It is unfortunate that SFB didn't tell the designers "get stuffed with your super ships". 

[marstone]

I don't just look at the X's on the SSD, I flew Klingon for years in SFB, Fed was my second race.  Klingons take damage worse overall, they are better flying ships so help to balance it out.  But once damage rolls in, you just watch your weapons get stripped.  I agree, lossing a few weapons on a klingon isn't then of the world like lossing the main torp on the Roms or Gorns (but then they had 8 impulses to fire even after it was destroyed, so stripping a plasma off didn't always save you from being hit by it)

The weaknesses of the Klingons was something I liked to play around.  Take a scanner or sensor hit on a klink and it usually hurt, take a moderate blow past your shields and vital systems started to fry. (on the other hand, Disruptors were fairly cheap to repair with CDR).

I am not sure how close the DAC works in SFC compared to SFB as you don't truely get to see an SSD as damage rolls in.  Wonder where the DAC chart is stored in SFC??? hmmm

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

I am not sure how close the DAC works in SFC compared to SFB as you don't truely get to see an SSD as damage rolls in.  Wonder where the DAC chart is stored in SFC??? hmmm

Kind of unrelated, but I think it would be great to be able to see your ships SSD in-game, so you would know how many hull boxes, labs, and excess damage you had left. Wonder why they didn't do this in the first place, beside being more work? Even just a text list could be useful. For example, it could say: Labs 7 (current) / 8 (normal). Right now, beyond the cryptic hull meter and the weapons, there's not much to gauge a ships condition on. 

My take on Klingon hull fragility is that Klingons fight best undamaged, with all of their power (duh statement - who doesn't?). But as their engines take damage, they can no longer keep up the SPEED. Other races can lose a lot of engine power and still be effective -- a Romulan who still has enough power to sit there, cloak, and arm heavy plasma is still a real pain even if it is damaged. But since Klingons rely on speed so much, a good amount of damage that keeps them from moving fast is critical.