Oxygen in Enemy Ships

[febtiger]

I have the steam version and just barely finished a playthrough on normal. The less $$$ really makes a difference and sometimes the mid-game sectors have ships with 3-4 shield!!!

So my issue is that when I target and destroy oxygen systems on enemy ships and then try to turtle it out, enemy crew doesn't seem to die out or lose health. My only method is to teleport in some crew and do a tiny bit of damage, then the enemy crew will start to lose health from the lack of oxygen. I then port back my crew onto my ship and wait it out.
It doesn't seem to make sense that enemy crew will not suffocate unless they first take a tiny bit of damage. I mean, it's strange that my crew suffocates but their crew doesn't. This assumption was basically why I lost my first playthrough on normal; on the boss level I basically turtled shields and evade with cloak, ported in my crew to destroy oxygen systems, and waited it through with ioning and lasers on oxygen. When I got to 25% hull, I ported in my assault crew to see that none of them were dying and I got frustrated.

How does this oxygen system work?

[Cactuschef]

I've never seen this. are you sure you're waiting until the oxygen on their ship gets low enough to actually suffocate them? if you dont cause a hull breach it takes a long, long time for the 02 to drain to damaging levels. rooms where it's low enough to cause suffocation get a yellow border around the edges.

[UltraMantis]

If the enemy heals in their medbay, then they will avoid the effects of losing oxygen. A level 1 medbay will keep HP from deteriorating due to lack of oxygen, and level 2 and 3 medbays will even heal crewmembers. Maybe that was it?

Did they manage to repair their O2 room before you damaged it again? Suffocating the enemy takes a very long time and isnt recommended unless their weapons are too weak to damage you.

[Kieve]

...When I got to 25% hull, I ported in my assault crew to see that none of them were dying and I got frustrated.

This tells me you don't have Sensors II in your ship (or it was a nebula). In theory I guess there could be a bug where if you can't get a read on enemy crews' health, it won't deplete? Also as UltraMantis said, medbays can counter suffocation, which ought to make it a target even before O2 if your plan is to asphyxiate everyone.

[More Dakka]

...and even if you killed all the flagship's crew, that does *not* win the battle (although killing crew does make certain other tactics easier).