The Shield discussion thread

Do you think Shield Cells are:

  • Good the way they are in 1.03

    Votes: 62 20.3%
  • Ok but should be limited to 1 bank per ship

    Votes: 93 30.5%
  • Ok but Limit to 1 bank per ship and only a few cells (4?)

    Votes: 66 21.6%
  • Broken Mechanic - Should be removed from game

    Votes: 68 22.3%
  • Other : please leave comment

    Votes: 16 5.2%

  • Total voters
    305
And yet, they're not infallible.

if you've got enough stuff hitting you, they can quickly overpower your shields while you're on a different firing group and without shields, shield cells are useless.

A good way to get around messing with fire group is to assign the firing of shield cells to a separate key. It has its own keybinding.
 

Remiel

Banned
It isn't a few more hit points though, it can theoretically give you 6 times as many hitpoints for your shields. The idea of something being overpowered is when two people of equal ability go against each other, and one comes out way on top. What if a good pilot uses them?

The problem about them being overpowered is that we can use multiple banks on one ship, which is simply way too much IMO.

And as explained, using multiple shield cell banks comes with serious drawbacks. As I also explained, a good pilot is going to prefer a good shield generator and reduced weight, because a good pilot is hardly ever going to need to boost his shields anyway. He will be too hard to hit to need it.

Something is not overpowered by virtue of it granting one of two pilots of equal ability an edge, otherwise rocket launchers would have been removed from Halo a long time ago because they were OP against players using pistols and assault rifles.

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A good way to get around messing with fire group is to assign the firing of shield cells to a separate key. It has its own keybinding.

I'm aware of that, but if you're packing multiple units, the keybinding will fire them all at the same time, so you have to mess around in menus in the middle of combat powering one down and powering the other up. It's incredibly inconvenient.
 
I'm aware of that, but if you're packing multiple units, the keybinding will fire them all at the same time, so you have to mess around in menus in the middle of combat powering one down and powering the other up. It's incredibly inconvenient.

Oh. I was not aware of that. That is counterintuitive.
 
It's a much smaller ship.

The Eagle is much smaller than the Viper yet still has half the shield power with Class 3 Shields.

It's kind of like they had a formula there at one point that made sense, but then went back and nearly doubled the power of the Vipers Shields for whatever reason. UP in alpha or early in beta maybe?

Not complaining btw, I was about to trade in my Cobra for a Viper anyway...:D
 
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So Viper Class 3 Shields are better than a Cobras Class 4?
It's a much smaller ship.

That would make its shields even stronger, effectively.

According to that table, Viper's Class 3 shields are closer to the strength of Asp's Class 6. The latter being several times bigger ...
Makes me wonder if the data is accurate.

The Eagle is much smaller than the Viper yet still has half the shield power with Class 3 Shields.

Really? Never noticed too much of a difference when shooting at either of them. Cobras are objectively bigger and Sidewinders a bit smaller, but Viper and Eagle seem pretty similar in size.

EDIT: Here's some comparison picture I found. Not sure how accurate it is.
 
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Viper is meant to be a pure combat platform, so that's probably why it has better shield rating (rating listed in shipyard) than the Cobra, which is a multipurpose craft. Given equally skilled pilots, a Viper should best a Cobra in 1 on 1 combat, because combat is all a Viper is really good for. The higher price tag on the Cobra is because it can do lots of things really well.
 
Can't really believe that a Python with a class 6 shield is that much better than an Asp with class 6.

I think our beloved Python will get balanced in the not too distant future.

At the moment it handles like an Eagle and has Anaconda firepower and shield strength.

It can land on outposts and shift hefty cargo as well.
 
That would make its shields even stronger, effectively.

According to that table, Viper's Class 3 shields are closer to the strength of Asp's Class 6. The latter being several times bigger ...
Makes me wonder if the data is accurate.



Really? Never noticed too much of a difference when shooting at either of them. Cobras are objectively bigger and Sidewinders a bit smaller, but Viper and Eagle seem pretty similar in size.

EDIT: Here's some comparison picture I found. Not sure how accurate it is.

Yep you're right, there's not that much of a difference - 10T in hull mass only between them.
 
I think our beloved Python will get balanced in the not too distant future.

At the moment it handles like an Eagle and has Anaconda firepower and shield strength.

It can land on outposts and shift hefty cargo as well.

I hope not, I've just upgraded from a Type 7 into a Python. Been running without shields to cram as much cargo in but have been looking getting some, never realised they were so powerful - I'll probably go for a class 5 rather then 6 to save some cargo space.
 
The NPC died, but the collision damage didn't register on him until I was completly dead which i suppose is the reason why it destroyed me first. But frankly... i've never seen a ship collision without afterburner doing that kinda of damage. It's like i hit a rock when it was simply a damaged cobra(same as me)
 
According to the video it looks like the damage registered pretty much the same time. You simply hit too hard head-on (Hit damage is highly dependent on *how* you hit the other person, a glancing strike is far more forgiving than a head-on crash). I've done it many, many times, a direct hit about maybe 100m/s total (so 50 m/s in opposite directions) nearly kills my A-class, mil-grade armored cobra. You were going twice that speed, so its not a surprise- always try to use thrusters to vector away from a collision, it will likely save your life even if you still collide.
 
Just to explain some things too:

4 pips in shields doesn't mean anything at all.. Your power distribution is simply the power your allowing from the reactor at this time to go where ever you need it, power has in the case of the shields a 3 'tier' system.

1. Your current shield strength (displayed by the Circles around your ship)
2. The current storage in the 'capacitor' to feed the strength should it fall from maximum strength.
3. The current feed into the capacitor from your reactor (the Pips).

So all that having extra pips does is keep the capacitor charged and the refill happening faster in the case your shield strength drops.

When it comes to ramming / collisions etc as others here have explained Physics does play into the actual math for the damage and it is more or less a question of energy and mass which it should be, if you take two ships flying head on into each other each massing upwards of 175tons (in the case of the Cobra) and each moving at up to 300+ meters a second, the raw kinectic energy is MASSIVE, simple fact is that given we don't have artifical gravity in elite the two objects would leave you dead but given this is a game, and a scifi setting.. the shields overload (they juts has the equivilent of more than the entire energy in the multi-cannon unloaded into them and then that mass also hit your armor.. dead on.. which was designed to take bullets and lasers not ship sized mass accelerated objects hitting it head on..

Hence.. you both come out looking like two cars would if you drove them on rocket sleds at each other.. only you and he have fusion reactors... and in this case yours lost containment and let go a second before his.. that's all.
 
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