No, I'm not dead - I'm actually working on those internal damage rules in my spare time. I think I finally found a quick, easy and "realistic" solution! And I've put together a sample ship sheet for the ever so popular Epee light fighter (see attached jpg).
Ships are now divided into front and rear arc when it comes to determining damage, which means that armor will also be divided into a front and rear portion. Once a ship's armor is gone, hits will damage internal systems - starting from the outermost components and working their way through to the critical parts. Hits can affect the first 3 rows of subsystems, until one of the first 3 rows is completely destroyed. (If you destroyed the subsystem in row 2, then damage could be done to row 1, 3 and 4 instead of 1, 2 and 3.) Which also means that it's possible to literally rip a ship apart from bow to stern - or vice versa. (I know it's not an exhaustive explanation of how internal damage will work, but I think you get the idea.)
Oh, and you might notice I've included a gun energy chart in that ship sheet... I guess the next manual will have to be version 0.2 instead of 0.15, since I'm probably going to change quite a bit of the game's mechanics... (For the better, I hope!)
Ships are now divided into front and rear arc when it comes to determining damage, which means that armor will also be divided into a front and rear portion. Once a ship's armor is gone, hits will damage internal systems - starting from the outermost components and working their way through to the critical parts. Hits can affect the first 3 rows of subsystems, until one of the first 3 rows is completely destroyed. (If you destroyed the subsystem in row 2, then damage could be done to row 1, 3 and 4 instead of 1, 2 and 3.) Which also means that it's possible to literally rip a ship apart from bow to stern - or vice versa. (I know it's not an exhaustive explanation of how internal damage will work, but I think you get the idea.)
Oh, and you might notice I've included a gun energy chart in that ship sheet... I guess the next manual will have to be version 0.2 instead of 0.15, since I'm probably going to change quite a bit of the game's mechanics... (For the better, I hope!)