a thought that flew through my head for some time now:
what if the "hitpoints" of a system werent directly influencing the functionality of equipment but instead would affect the likelyhood of status effects (malfunctions) ?
damaging a piece of equipment has no direct effect on its functionality.
regardless of it being a 100%->99% hit or a 1%->0% hit.
but what changes is the likelyhood of the equipment
malfunctioning and having impacts on functionality from those malfunctions.
equipment without malfunctions works like its in mint condition, regardless of its hitpoint status.
the lower the hitpoints the more likely it becomes that a malfunction happens and the more likely it becomes that a heavy/more annoying one happens.
malfunctions are everything from a short stutter/efficiency reduction over critical components blowing out (that need to be repaired with proper equipment before it continues working) to the thing blowing up and damaging other components.
some malfunctions time out after a time, for example some kinds of stutters rectify themself after a while. ("there was a bubble in the fuel line but now the thruster is working fine again")
malfunctions are triggered (created) when stresses are imparted on the eqipment.
the most obvious stress is getting damaged, when a shot impacts an object theres a chance that a malfunction occurs.
the more damaged it already is, and the bigger the stress (the damage of the impact) the higher the chance of a malfunction occuring.
other stresses could be a shield bubble stopping a shot and the projector getting damaged (this should have a low chance compared to a shot directly impacting on the generator), a weapon firing, a thruster being active and so on.
although a thruster malfunctioning shouldnt happen that often when its undamaged, and for avoiding "thruster blew out, im stranded" problem, maybe thrusters simply dont have crippling malfunctions? maybe some thrusters can have those and others not?
with basic activity being able to cause malfunctions a way to set up a risk/reward sheme for overclocking equipment or leaving it running at 100% all the time.
the whole system also opens up an avenue for special weaponry causing effects on equipment.
for example cruise drive disruptors and ion stunner weapons could cause malfunctions adequate to the equipment and their intended effects. (Which may or may not wear off on their own)
with the chance of malfunctions affected by various factors again, damage, power of the effect, maybe some resistance value of the equipment...
all unified in one nice system
edit:
some types of equipment could be more resilient against some kinds of malfunctions (including immunity).
enabling "reinforced", "reliant" type equipment, differentiating brands further from each other.
for example one would prefer a highly reliable thruster when going out to explore, instead of a "better" one with lower reliabilty.
as the reliable one would continue to work (with higher capacity) even when damaged.
some kinds of equipment could also recover faster from "temporary" malfunctions. enabling them to be more stable when under stress.
for example a thruster with a fast-recovery ability would be stunned shorter from a cruise disruptor.