PDC Toggle in Engineering for ships or missiles
When PDCs were first introduced, they served their intended purpose: shooting down missiles. Since then, they have effectively become anti-ship weapons as well, and that has created a balance problem. Solo players can fly capital ships loaded with PDCs that defend against both missiles and other ships with no crew required. This undermines the multicrew gameplay that capital ships are meant to encourage.
Proposed Change
PDCs should be restricted to a purely defensive role: point defense against missiles and small, fast-moving targets, not general anti-ship weapons.
To bring this into effect, I propose the following:
Engineer requirement. PDCs should only function when activated by an engineer, either at an engineering terminal or from a dedicated engineer seat on capital ships. Without a crewed engineering station, PDCs stay offline.
Target mode toggle. PDCs should have a toggle between two modes: anti-ship or anti-missile. They should not be able to target both simultaneously. Switching modes should require a player actively in the seat, not an automated or default state.
This change would restore PDCs to their original purpose while reinforcing the multicrew design that larger vessels are supposed to demand. It also removes the current advantage solo players have in flying capital ships with full point defense and anti-ship coverage without any crew support.
