I'll spend a few minutes with some of my colleagues who are interested in Artemis, and will show them the Power Wheel and answer their questions. I'll report their feedback back to you.
Thanks for doing that, I really appreciate it.
What's the top node of the power wheel? I don't remember seeing that icon. And the one on the right of it is a cannon of some sorts?
I decided to separate out short range sensors (the radar icon) from long range sensors (the dish icon, the system on top of the wheel). I like the extra choice this gives, in focusing power on short, long, or both. It also is a "power sink" for the front of the ship, which was something I felt was lacking (it was just shields and weapons before). The system to the right of the long range sensors is the torpedo launcher.
We haven't discussed shields, so can you tell us more about that? Who turns them on or off? Are they the shield nodes? Does the shield have a percentage of how strong it is? Do some ships have stronger shields than others? Do the shields have phases or frequencies?
First of all the forward shield is provided by the forward shield system (top of the wheel), and the rear shield is provided by the rear shield system (bottom of the wheel).
Helm is in charge of ship defenses, including toggling shields. However as with all systems, Engineering can power down shields which would prevent Helm from using them.
As to how they work, the simplest explanation is that when the shield is on it absorbs all damage.
The more complicated answer is that when a shield is hit some of the damage is deflected into space (more on that in a second) and the rest is converted to heat in the shield system. If the system overheats (the heat goes over capacity) then this excess heat is converted into instability. It is this instability which will eventually cause the shields to fail. Therefor shields do not have a power level as they do in other games. Increasing the power to shields increases the deflection of damage, so that less heat builds up and the shields remain stable for longer.
Shields do have frequencies. If the enemy is using phased weaponry (usually energy based weapons) then they can attune the frequency of the weapons to the shield. This reduces the shield's deflection, causing more or all of the damage to be converted to heat on the shield system.
And can you share more insight into the Ship Status section?
What's the red line in the far right?
This shows the current strength of the ship's energy signature, lower is better.
How can we fix the damaged hull?
Hull damage has to be repaired at a station which has a repair dock (all UNION military stations will have these, some allied and civilian stations will have them too).
Does the ship icon represent the hull damage or the overall ship damage on the part of the ship? Meaning, does it show the hull damage or the system damage (turrets, propulsion, etc.)?
This shows the damage to the armor sections on the ship using colour from green to red, these are same sections which are arrayed around the power wheel. The Status pane is shown on all role UIs, so this indicator is not just for Engineering. As with the sections arrayed around the power wheel, hovering over these sections will give you show you the current and max integrity value of the armor.
Damage that penetrates or bypasses armor (due to armor being destroyed) can hit a system, doing damage to it. But whether or not a system is damaged the hull will always take damage. The hull is health bar of the ship.
Can you remind me what the number 0, the 4 lines around it, and the crosshair are?
This is the number of locks that other ships currently have on yours (giving an idea of how much danger you are currently in).
Can a ship lose a part of it? Does it still function after that? Or does it shut down or explode?
An extreme instability event can cause a system to be completely destroyed, meaning it will need to be replaced at a repair dock. Other less extreme stability events can cause explosions, which can damage neighboring systems. Usually they just shut down until they have been repaired (there is a minimum repair time though, you can't just repair it to 1% and turn it back on).
Thanks for your input and questions!
