Damage Control
You no longer take critical hits. Drill and simulation of combat damage scenarios gives your crew the ability to fix problems almost as soon as they occur.
This Wonder, oh my. Critical hits can be a serious pain in the backside, taking everything from your engines to those shields you hide behind down in an instant. Damage Control allows you to completely ignore the possibility of these painful issues striking your ships and giving you the added reassurance that you’ll not lose those all-important sensors when the enemy is sneaking around you waiting for an opportunity to strike.
If Damage Control is available to you, you buy it. You don’t think about it, you don’t consider it, you just do it. Critical hits can throw a major spanner into the works of any strategy in Sid Meier’s Starships. The glorious opportunity to avoid this terrible affliction is beautiful. Simply beautiful. It’s alright to shed a tear of joy just thinking about it. We did.
Jump Start
You move first in all battles. Your targeting and maneuvering systems are no longer affected by FTL-deceleration, instantly bringing you into combat readiness.
There’s one constant in Sid Meier’s Starships that proves to be a constant bone of contention for players. You rarely seem to go first unless there’s something special about the mission you’re undertaking. With Jump Start, you’ll always go first in battle no matter the situation. That means you can move into a better position well before your opponents can, luring them into traps you can set many turns before you’d normally be able to do so.
Jump Start is actually not all that incredible for slower moving or more defensive fleets. If your strategy hinges upon quickly getting stealth vessels and Fighters into position or tempting enemies into a pincer attack, then Jump Start is utterly necessary. If not, maybe take it if you want to go first for once in your life.
Glide Path
Impulse power now provides 3 moves instead of 1. Next-generation inertial dampers give your ships an edge in mobility, even when thrusters are offline.
An oft-forgotten aspect of this game is that you don’t have to just move and fire. You can make your way into a position and want a little more time to adjust your facing or get ready for that deadly strike next turn. That’s where Glide Path comes into play. If you forego firing your weapons or conducting any other activities (unless you take Dual Command as another Wonder), you can engage impulse drives to keep you moving an extra hex forward. With Glide Path, that becomes 3 spare movement points.
Glide Path sounds absolutely incredible in theory but in practice, it’s not all that useful. If you find yourself having trouble when properly aligning your fleet then it’s a good way to go. Otherwise though, maybe focus your precious resources somewhere else.
Redundant Systems
Your ships automatically repair 50% damage per turn. Decentralized AI control and redundant/self-coordination smart systems can work around to restore capability.
Where Great Shipyard wasn’t particularly useful, Redundant Systems really shines. This tasty little Wonder allows your ships to repair themselves for half of the damage their took during battle at the end of every turn without the need to expend any resources. That means that if you had a sudden and unintentional lapse of concentration which put your flagship in danger, Redundant Systems might keep it going a little longer.
There’s no question here. Redundant Systems is an amazing Wonder. It’ll keep your ships flying after they’ve taken significant damage and may even allow you to enact a swift comeback after an enemy’s torpedo got a little too close and almost took out half of your forces.
