History Main / DivertingPower

* In ''VideoGame/BattlestarGalactica,'' the player's missile racks can be configured to fire swarms of weak homing missiles (Number/Homing axis) or a single high-powered torpedo (Damage/Radius axis) by fiddling with the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2's]] D-pad. The weak, accurate homing missiles are great for the ZergRush of fighters, and the torpedoes are for the base-star bosses and other emplacements.

** Most Covenant vehicles after the [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved first game]] allow the player to "[[{{Overdrive}} boost]]" by diverting power from the weapons to the engines, granting temporary extra speed but rendering you unable to shoot while doing so.[[note]]Though there is an exception when Covenant vehicles have a secondary turret operated by a separate gunner. Presumably the secondary turret operates on its own isolated circuit.[[/note]]

* ''Film/Passengers2016'': A GenerationShip is damaged by a small meteorite fragment that becomes lodged in the engine core. The ship's computer responds by diverting power from the other systems in order to maintain life support, [[spoiler:but this slowly but surely causes a cascading effect where more and more systems across the ship start to malfunction due to lack of power. If it is not fixed in time by our leads, this will inevitably lead to total system failure and everybody on board dying.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BattlestarGalactica,'' the player's missile racks can be configured to fire swarms of weak homing missiles (Number/Homing axis) or a single high-powered torpedo (Damage/Radius axis) by fiddling with the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2's]] D-pad. The weak, accurate homing missiles are great for the ZergRush of fighters, and tge torpedoes are for the base-star bosses and other emplacements.

* In ''VideoGame/BattlestarGalactica,'' the player's missile racks can be configured to fire swarms of weak homing missiles (Number/Homing axis) or a single high-powered torpedo (Damage/Radius axis) by fiddling with the PS2's D-pad. The weak, accurate homing missiles are great for the ZergRush of fighters, and tge torpedoes are for the base-star bosses and other emplacements.

** A famous instance of this outside of warfare was when ''RMS Carpathia'' rushed to to the distress call of ''RMS Titanic.'' The ''Carpathia'' diverted as much steam as she could to from other systems (namely electrical and heating) to run the engines as fast as possible. ''Carpathia'''s crew managed to get her speed up to over 17 knots during this stint, a full two knots faster than what was considered her maximum theoretical design speed beforehand. Unfortunately, [[ShootTheShaggyDog this still was not fast enough to save to bulk of the ''Titanic'' passengers.]]

* ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe'' allows you to divert power between your forward and aft shields, and between your engines and recharging shields, guns, and afterburners.

* This is a core mechanic in ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight''. You'll never have enough power to operate every system in your ship at full capacity, even after upgrading the reactor several times. Therefor, [[ResourcesManagementGameplay it's imperative to adjust power distribution wisely]] according to the situation at hand.

* As a general rule, most Space SimulationGames will involve this as a ResourcesManagementGameplay mechanic.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''. In "The Siege of Lothal", the ''Ghost'' has Lord Vader in a TIE figher on their tail and a couple of Star Destroyers up ahead, so Hera orders all power to be diverted for a HyperspeedEscape, ''including'' the power to the guns Zeb is using to try and keep Vader from blasting them to bits. Zeb is not happy.

* ''VideoGame/StarWarsSquadrons'', being a SpiritualSuccessor to the above-mentioned ''X-Wing'' series, incorporates this into its gameplay as well, albeit streamlined. Diverting power to shields (Republic fighters only, as Imperial ships have no shields) increases their recharge rate, diverting power to thrusters increases maximum speed and allows for boosting, and diverting power to lasers increases their recharge rate and increases their attack power.

** In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', there was a more specific case, when Atlantis was hooked up to a [[InvisibilityCloak cloaking field]], making it invisible, but using the same power source as the shields, so the city could only be either invisible or shielded at a given time.
*** This was not a case of diverting power. The shield was reconfigured as a cloak, so was no longer available as a shield. Power was not the issue. In ''Grace Under Pressure'' the process is reversed, with Puddle Jumpers' cloaks reconfigured as shields.

[[quoteright:118:[[VideoGame/XWing https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/x-wing-power_3407.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:118:[[StandYourGround Cut power to the engines]], [[BeamSpam full power to the lasers]]!]]