Here another vague passage from the Core book:

Some Critical Hits
require an attacker to know about Components on the target
ship. The attacker can know what Components their target
has in one of two ways. The first is through using Active
Augury to scan the enemy vessel. The second is that if the
enemy vessel uses a Component to attack or otherwise effect
the attacker, the attacker obviously knows of its existence and
can target it with a Critical Hit.

First the second part:

a Component to attack check! I get that, if you shoot, then the enemy knows you have a gun and can target said gun. But otherwise effect , wtf is that? If you use void shield you 'influence' that attack but do you 'effect' the attacker? If you use a scanner to do an focussed augury scan do you 'effect' the attacker?. A teleportarium maybe, used for hit and run?

Then first part:

I'm guessing that instead of Active Augury they meant Focused Augury. However Active Augury is also vague:

the GM should reveal basic (and important)
information about celestial bodies, phenomena, and ships
within 20 VUs of the vessel.

Lets keep this down to ships: what exactly is basic and important information ? If I were to guess:

• Hull type
• Class
• Speed
• Direction

Any thoughts on this?

no one has any idea about this?

For the first part, yeah that would be a Focus Augury. For the second, I include even less info, mainly just hull size (aka Escort, Cruiser, Battleship) and it's location in space.

i give class, location, direction they are moving, and current speed. it's basic info you can get from looking at it.

ok the info is pretty clear and consistent with my own thoughts.

What about the if the enemy vessel uses a Component to attack or otherwise effect the attacker,

Which components do 'otherwise effect' the attacker??

The augur could be considered an "otherwise effect". As could a Teleportarium, or a Barracks if there are a ton of troops. Stuff like that.

I agree with the teleportarium, the rest however... Not so much. Would be nice if ffg is a bit clearer in there rules...

the auger would depend. it's like the difference between active and passive sonar. or radar anytime. also you KNOW they have augers. like all essential components.

and if the enemy gets close enough to the players ship to launch a h&r or board, it's close enough to see all exterior components.

if they board them i give a random component or two. the troops arn't always going to land on the components you know about.

jammers are easy to find because it's kicking out a constant signal.

i don't agree with crew quarters or life support being targeted, it's throughout the ship. not one component.

depending on number of ships mine layers may or may not be targetable. if only one ship and you run into mines it had to lay them, or they were already there. if you are chaseing 2 or more which ship layed them?

The point is, it's almost ALWAYS a GM call. And it comes up so rarely, so as not to be an actual problem. Most enemy ships should RUN when they start losing a fight, and if your players are like mine, it's usually overkill when they take something down. Remember, only the first couple options on the critical hits chart allow for choosing what components are affected.

Components that attack or otherwise affect your vessel could include things like Defensive Countermeasures (which would affect your BS Test), Flak Turrets (Which would affect you by virtue of affecting your attack craft), etc.

I rule that an Essential Component can always be chosen for a Critical Hit (unless specifically disallowed on the crit chart) because all vessels have them and they're apparent, with the obvious exceptions like system monitors not having warp drives; however, I think it's always good to perform a Focused Augury because you may discover that the Essential Component may be an Archeotech version, or just a really nice upgraded version that you'd rather take the ship for.

If think there was a component (Hymn caster?) that loweres the moral of your foes or something like that.

I gues that would be a component that affects you.