Questions about switching from 3rd edition to 4th

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I don't think GURPS assumes a point target in the sense you mean. If it does that might account for this absurdity, but I really don't see any reason to think that's the case.

Actually, the game does assume a point target. Shots at anything big enough to have "walls" are assumed to be at a 10-square-foot area; see p. B558. If you exceed the HP in that area, you cause a breach at that one point. For huge targets like buildings and aircraft carriers, the other hits simply don't contribute to the breach. They certainly still count as hits against the wrong target, which here can be crew on deck, protruding antennas, and anything else that isn't the primary 10-square-foot target. The rules don't say that if you fire a machine gun at a truck, all the bullets that "miss" magically bend around the truck; they just say that they don't contribute to chewing up the truck's HP. They can still hit people riding on the truck, pierce nonvital areas of the truck and come out the other side, etc.