After an unpleasant event with lots of system failures during a fight close to a star (followed by a 1.5mio insurance payment) I started to think about the module priorities.
I was on the winning side during that fight until bit by bit my ship systems started to fail and losing a ship due to such a ship is by far more disappointing than losing the ship simply because the other pilot was better.
So what needs to be known about such module failures and the module priorities?
Modules can fail due to excessive power consumption... which could occour if you simply consume more energy than your powerplant can generate. I have the best powerplant available for my ship but the combat in the hot region to the star drained it fast so that my ship modules all of a sudden stopped receiving energy and shut down. In such a situation you could try to do a system reboot (right menu where you can do the UI settings).
However the problem remains... modules which consume power while actually not needed in combat.
When you are fighting then you dont need your fuel scoop, you dont need your FSD, you dont need power on your cargo hatch and you also dont need power on other less important systems. You need your power on your thrusters, your sensors and your weapons in such a combat and it sux if exactly there these modules fail while you still have enough power on your cargo hatch.
Thats where the priorities for the modules need to be set.
For each module you can set a priority. 1 is the highest priority, 5 is the lowest priority. If you run into power problems the modules with the lowest priorities get shut down first while the higher priority modules still receive energy.
The table below shows my new priority settings which hopefully will make a difference next time.
While I think that this table is self explaining Id like to give a small explanation about my settings for Shield generators and the other shield modules.
Shield generators have priority 2 (so the 2nd highest). If they fail its really time to run because then only the Thrusters, the Sensors and the Power Distribution is online. So at the moment I have a Shield Generator failure I can not fight back anymore but still have the option to run.
Shield Cell banks or in my case the Shield booster have the priority 3.... means that their priority is lower than the one of the Shield generators.
Reason is simply. I prevent this way that the Shield Generator shuts down while the Shield Boosters still have power. It makes no sense to have Shield Boosters while there is no Shield anymore. Thats why the Boosters have lower priority than the Generators.
| Module | Priority |
| Sensors | 1 |
| Thrusters | 1 |
| Power Distribution | 1 |
| Weapons | 2 |
| Shield Generator | 2 |
| Shield Cell Bank / Shield Booster | 3 |
| Life Support | 3 |
| Chaff Launcher | 3 |
| Cargo Hatch | 4 |
| Frame Shift Drive | 4 |
| Scanners (any kind) | 4 |
| Frame Shift Interdictor | 5 |
... and myself will do some further adjustments to my actual power priority settings. I may have only one thing for think about and it is different priority setting for Chaff launcher (1) ... reason is quite simple, this device can come rly handy in case you need to flee from fight.
