Items remain equipped and usable even after stat requirements are no longer met.
 

So I had my green/light slots filled with crew that gave stat bonuses. I died, which killed several of them and I noticed that even though my equipment no longer met the requirements, it would remain equipped and usable.

Is this by design? It seems like this could be easily exploited if you have crew/yellow gear that has huge stat buffs.

It is by design, mostly so when you get debuffed all of your components don't stop working.

Weapons and other active-use items require the stat requirements to be met to use. Other things like shields, thrusters, power generators, etc. just need the stat requirement met to be installed, and will still function even if the stat requirement is not met after installation.

For an analogy, the guy who installs a tank engine and treads doesn't need to ride around in the vehicle for it to work. But the gunner does need training in order to man the weapons system.

Thanks for the response!

So if I stack crew/holo in order to equip bigger power plants, is that an expected mechanic in gameplay? Or by doing so will it make it too easy?

I have always thought that it was the way you are supposed to play. It's certainly the way I play. And if you think it is too easy... the sector levels go up to 200.

Or if you like pain, you can try playing with Hardcore Command Zero ships. Then you need every trick in the book to make it even to ship level 100. I have not yet.

By the way, if you add all the skill points you get over 100 levels, you end up with about 500. The biggest hull costs 460 Command points. This for me in a clear indicator that shuffling crew is intended.

would it not be better to add some parameter to "envelope" temporary stat changes (due to buff, debuff, emp etc) and separate equip requirements to be based on current total hard stats (base + crew) with the temporary envelope ignored. Thus to have item x equipped I must have y hard stats where as my soft stat total I simply ignore for equip purposes

this would avoid the obvious exploitative nature of the current system while maintaining non total shutdowns due to combat effects

* although technically doesn't it make more sense anyway that if i disable your power supply your laser that depends on that power supply to work would no longer function ...?

@Tuidjy command with those kind of numbers for only linear ship expansion is clearly a major point of contention in the game causing a HUGE bottleneck to the strategy meta :D

What bottleneck? ;)

The best ships are the ones with Command 460. It's just that you really need to be great at juggling...

I've had a few ships of this kind and that was an year ago, before you could level in a relaxed manner, collect crew, and then use the Cortex's race service to turn your ship into a heavy flagship.

It definitely makes sense, but some of the monsters would be really, really dangerous when they debuffed you and everything stopped working. :)

not to hijack this post BUT the bottleneck is simple
-with that high a percentage of total point consumption only the MOST linear builds are even possible let alone competitive
-non "war" themed ships become IMPOSSIBLE if not nonviable
-there becomes "knifes edge" margin for error
-that tight a constraint FORCES exploit / trick using to make the most basic builds. Where as this relationship should be reversed trick/exploit using should be used to REFINE basic builds
-only the most elite and experienced players will have proper knowledge base to make proper builds making difficult learning curves (that can really hurt sales)
- *meant to say* that the pure LINEAR progression your ship equipment takes is 1 in stark contrast to the asymmetrical breadth of possibility having such a deep rpg mechanic base and large item output should imply
2 the linear equipment progression directly amplifies the other limiting factors

as long as it is non tedious/monotonous really dangerous in games is synonymous (to me) to really fun and good :D as your forced to try new things adapt etc

I haven't seen any monsters that debuff basic stats (Tactical, Engineering), but couldn't you just change those to debuff the resulting stats (Damage,Fire Rate,Energy Regen,ShieldRegen... ect)?

If you did that and made it to where broken equipment still provided it's basic stat bonuses, there shouldn't be issues with having equipment no longer provide an effect if the stat pre-requisites are no longer met.