Engineering Console

Power Allocation

On all ships, power is divided between three major systems: phasers, engines, and shields
- Phaser power increases phaser range (7.5km-20km), and (at least on the Aegis) phaser damage; it does not affect phaser recharge time
- Engine power increases engine speed (1,000kph to 5,000kph) and turn rate; a minimum of 3,000 is needed for impulse engines and 5,000 for warp engines (except on the TOS ship)
- Shield power multiplies shield strength (1x to 5x) but does not affect shield recharge time
Each system has five circuits (commonly called "pips"), stacked and powered sequentially (e.g., activating the 4th circuit will also activate the first three)
The 1st circuit is at the bottom; the 5th at the top
The 1st circuit on each system cannot be deactivated (except on the TOS ship), all other circuits can be turned on or off
A maximum of 10 circuits can be on at one time across all systems
If the warp core is damaged below 80%, the total amount of available circuits will decrease

Ryan's demonstration of the relationship between phaser power and phaser damage

On the Aegis, in addition to allocating power between phasers, engines, and shields, the engineering console can also reroute power between these three systems
Each system circuit ("pip") has two slots for power nodes (commonly called "dots" by default, one node is used and one is empty; phaser nodes are blue, engine nodes are red, and shield nodes are green
Each system can hold up to ten power nodes (5 circuits x 2 per circuit there are 15 power nodes total (3 systems x 5 per system)
Power nodes can be rerouted to other systems on the same level; adjacent power nodes can also be cross-routed

System circuits will begin to overload when there are six or more power nodes in the system, regardless of their distribution; circuit overload is indicated by a yellow or red bar next to the circuit
The ship computer will automatically reduce power to an overloaded circuit to prevent damage; thus, the "boost" caused by overloading a system is temporary; once the overloaded circuit cools, power (and the "boost") is restored

On the Aegis, power systems will not overload if they have 5 or fewer power nodes (regardless of how many circuits are activated)
Power can be distributed more efficiently by rerouting power nodes from unused circuits (at the top) to used circuits (at the bottom), resulting in a net boost to overall power of up to +2 -- that is, power effects that add up to 12 (like 5/3/4 or 5/2/5) instead of 10 (like 5/1/4)
By balancing power to ensure each system holds 5 power nodes, system overheating can be avoided, resulting in stable boosts that do not drop
Additional reroutes can provide further boosts as needed (at the cost of system overheating)