Shield recharge - MISCONCEPT!

[Elgered]

we have four options:

1.) being ignored, nothing changes.
2.) being heard. Shields get a button like ammo and fuel or recharge in dock automatically.
3.) Only the "combat-logging-shield-bust" (generator restarts after disconnect, I noticed it 30k lys away, good idea) is "fixed" again...
4.) for the fairness, refuelling and rearming take even longer than the shields to recharge.

I vote for 2.) ^^

 

[Stigbob]

@stigbob, shields recharging offline are no more exploitable than combat logging. As you say, logging while your shields recharge at best keep you safe until you log back in, by then the problem has likely disappeared. At worst it puts you in another, irrelevant instance.

That's not what I meant, I meant that people exiting to the menu and back immediately may do so with full shields allowing them to use it as a nearly instant recharge exploit. This would explain FD's decision to keep shield power status static whilst logged out. As you say no better or worse than combat logging.

Also, using shield cell banks after launching just means you have to waste time buying more, or go short. And I really don't see station ship recharge being exploited.

You don't need to use cell banks after launching, engage FSD and your shields recharge as you fly you are safe until you jump away from the station because of the no-fire zone and speed limit.

You are not (I hope) a griefer. Griefers generally use cash exploits to get very rich they then use ships as throwaway griefing tools at stations, with the persistent bounties and persistant shield state they can't die launch fully charged, die launch fully charged over and over again because after the first death their shields are down. It makes things inconvenient for them and as a result station griefing has stopped (as far as I'm aware). Add an instant shield recharge button in dock and people with loads of money and no interest in the game other than spoiling your day will repeatedly suicide to cause other players bother, add a delay whilst their shields recharge and they get bored and go away which is a good thing for the game.

Oh, I didn't notice the thing about the station powering sys. Nice.

See this supposedly game-breaking problem isn't really that bad, it's just inconvenient for people who relied on an exploit in the past.

 

[Iskariot]

we have four options:

1.) being ignored, nothing changes.
2.) being heard. Shields get a button like ammo and fuel or recharge in dock automatically.
3.) Only the "combat-logging-shield-bust" (generator restarts after disconnect, I noticed it 30k lys away, good idea) is "fixed" again...
4.) for the fairness, refuelling and rearming take even longer than the shields to recharge.

I vote for 2.) ^^

Absolutely.
Shield recharging should be a service provided for credits by the station.
I think it is not just convenient for us commanders, but also a way to introduce more station functionality that makes sense.

 

[KaizoMK]

That's not what I meant, I meant that people exiting to the menu and back immediately may do so with full shields allowing them to use it as a nearly instant recharge exploit. This would explain FD's decision to keep shield power status static whilst logged out. As you say no better or worse than combat logging.



You don't need to use cell banks after launching, engage FSD and your shields recharge as you fly you are safe until you jump away from the station because of the no-fire zone and speed limit.

You are not (I hope) a griefer. Griefers generally use cash exploits to get very rich they then use ships as throwaway griefing tools at stations, with the persistent bounties and persistant shield state they can't die launch fully charged, die launch fully charged over and over again because after the first death their shields are down. It makes things inconvenient for them and as a result station griefing has stopped (as far as I'm aware). Add an instant shield recharge button in dock and people with loads of money and no interest in the game other than spoiling your day will repeatedly suicide to cause other players bother, add a delay whilst their shields recharge and they get bored and go away which is a good thing for the game.



See this supposedly game-breaking problem isn't really that bad, it's just inconvenient for people who relied on an exploit in the past.

What we've called for isn't instant offline shield recharge, it's shield recharge while offline. It might still take 15 minutes, but it'll happen.

Same with shield recharge at a station. I think it should be free, but accelerated rather than instant. And I mean, if you're looking at griefers with infinite money, it doesn't matter since they're going to dive bomb people regardless of shield status.

And.......seriously, am I missing something? What exploit? I was aware of the SC charge breaking gameplay elements, but what can you really do at a station aside from kamikaze over and over?

 

[excalibus]

i would think having rapid shield recharge it as part of a service which can be station dependant and costs the player some credits is not a bad idea make it so you either its pay per ring and is instant or a flat fee based on shield module, higher class module = more cost, say 100 cr per module class so a class 4 shield regardless of grade will cost 400 cr for 10x recharge speed

 

[Rauminen]

This is something that can't be solved just by flying more carefully. Shields go offline if you upgrade your shield generator, and on particularly power-starved ships I've noticed that my shields often go offline if I even go into the outfitting screen. It gets to be a real pain.

If your shields go down when you go to the outfitting screen, they will go down when you deploy hardpoints. Because they get deployed on the outfitting screen. Please DO NOT remove this FD - this is how I test my power setup without leaving the station....

 

[andyraptor]

That may have some relevance when in combat but has absolutely none when docked, I did a rough time test when docked.

Anaconda A7 Shields, 7 x A rated SB


Shields off Boosters off 20:58:00
Shields up Booster on 21:01:49
Shields recharged @ 21:18:57

And that is called total and a needless waste of real time, I know there are ways to speed that time up and I use them, but having to use in game work a rounds to mitigate a time sink like that is pathetic.

Shields should recharge upon docking or be recharged in the same manner as using Shield Cells on the repair screen, because if you can repair and refuel your ship with a button click and be OK with that then it stands to reason shield recharge should be treated in the same way regardless of which ship you fly.

I was coming down on the side of tough luck.... but after seeing those times for shield regen....I think that you (big ship/big shield owners) have a very valid point

 

[Rauminen]

As for the OP - just make SCBs usable while docked. Solves all the issues.

 

[KaizoMK]

As for the OP - just make SCBs usable while docked. Solves all the issues.

Except now you're, once again, forced to possess scb's. It makes sense to have station-integrated scb's that essentially do the same thing.

 

[Skillet]

This has not been an issue for me. And OP, this is by far not a severe issue. But ok, FD put it on your list of player future wants if you must. In the meantime keep working on those alien wings and planetary landings

 

[Distance]

If your shields go down when you go to the outfitting screen, they will go down when you deploy hardpoints. Because they get deployed on the outfitting screen. Please DO NOT remove this FD - this is how I test my power setup without leaving the station....

That makes no sense. If you swap out a new shield module or kit out a ship for combat then most of the time it will shut the shields off because you're over power but once you've gone to the priority screen and changed them they won't go down when you deploy hardpoints.

It makes no sense to punish the rest of us because you can't do basic math.

 

[Stigbob]

What we've called for isn't instant offline shield recharge, it's shield recharge while offline. It might still take 15 minutes, but it'll happen.

Same with shield recharge at a station. I think it should be free, but accelerated rather than instant. And I mean, if you're looking at griefers with infinite money, it doesn't matter since they're going to dive bomb people regardless of shield status.

And.......seriously, am I missing something? What exploit? I was aware of the SC charge breaking gameplay elements, but what can you really do at a station aside from kamikaze over and over?

Game alterations/fixes were made specifically to stop repeated kamikaze griefing and instant shield recharge cheating, blame the cheats and griefers.

The persistent shield state is one of those fixes, it improves the game for the majority of players. The only thing making you wait in a station is you.

 

[KaizoMK]

Game alterations/fixes were made specifically to stop repeated kamikaze griefing and instant shield recharge cheating, blame the cheats and griefers.

The persistent shield state is one of those fixes, it improves the game for the majority of players. The only thing making you wait in a station is you.

.....again, no idea what you're talking about. Instant shield recharge cheating? And how does a lack of recharge at a station stop kamikaze?

Nothing is stopping me from leaving a station without shields either. ....no wait, common sense. Common sense is making me wait in a station.

 

[Shaamaan]

Except now you're, once again, forced to possess scb's. It makes sense to have station-integrated scb's that essentially do the same thing.

While this IS a good point, if you look at this from the other side you'll notice that SCB are pretty much a must with bigger shields anyway...

Just like you don't want to leave a station without a fully charged shield, you don't want to find yourself in space with a huge-capacity shield and with no way to recharge said shields.

BUT, this still leaves one problem - to use a SCB (even a station integrated one) you still need to wait for the shields to come back online - which is STILL a pointless waste of time.

 

[Elgered]

Game alterations/fixes were made specifically to stop repeated kamikaze griefing and instant shield recharge cheating, blame the cheats and griefers.

Fully agreed.

The persistent shield state is one of those fixes, it improves the game for the majority of players. The only thing making you wait in a station is you.

Nobody says that it doesn't improve the game for a majority. But a recharge option in a station would even further improve it without missing its target (shields still don't recharge on SC engage).

Against real cheaters it seems to be useless. When you ask google about the cheats you will find a forum where the cheaters lough out loud about us and FD. They manipulate their client to shorten timers and change multipliers for recharge time and strength as well as weapon power. But that are a hand full of people that shouldn't bother us at all.

Having the shields "remember" their charge over SC is very fine. Just as stated above, a recharge facility would be great.

PS: yes and it it's only me, making me wait at a red light or have a look at my balance regarding insurance before takoff ...

 

[Zoff]

I must say that it's really not bothering me at all. In the bigger scheme of things I don't see a problem here. Just fly a bit more carefully with all pips in shields until fully recharged.

All pips does not make it recharge faster, it fills the capacitor faster and used to (maybe still does) increases shield strength. It does not affect recharge speed directly.

 

[althaz]

I must say that it's really not bothering me at all. In the bigger scheme of things I don't see a problem here. Just fly a bit more carefully with all pips in shields until fully recharged.

So if you enjoy combat you just don't play the game for while (and yet still leave it running)?

It's a clear mistake in design. Powerplay introduced a lot of stuff and IMO, things like the change to shield recharging should have been left for a later release when the devs had more time. Clearly they didn't have time to consider some of the changed that were made to the core game. That's not their fault, that's just reality. Which is why a lot of software places do tweaks and major features separately. That way, Powerplay would've hit sooner and 1.4 would have been a more-considered and much better received tweaks release. Things like shield recharge changes could've been more thoroughly planned if devs had more concentration to spare on them.

 

[SpitTheDog]

I have no issue with the idea of having to wait to recharge shields, but I have two main issue with the charging in stations.

First, when buying new equipment I have to do power management BEFORE I buy anything otherwise my shields are turned off and I have to wait an age for them to come back up again (gets worse the bigger the ship/shield). This would at least be partially remedied by having a faster recharge while docked or at least some mechanism that defaults your new piece of kit to the lowest priority rather than the highest.

Second, why do my mission timers keep running when I disconnect but my shields don't recharge? If I finish my evening with a good healthy amount of carnage in a conflict zone, is it too much to expect that 18 hours later my shields aren't still at low ebb making me wait 20 minutes before i can return? I can't even make use of a shield cell while docked to speed things up. Come on FD guys, you are gradually stopping the exploits, but gave consideration to negative gameplay impacts even if you just set a timer against the persistence of the shield state like you do with the selling and repurchase of modules.

 

[Tusken]

Can't we just get a instant recharge during the launche secuence as you undock?
Can't see any real way to exploit that.

 

[zombieapocalypse]

It does seem stupid that your shields only recharge in game time, but most other mechanics take place in real time. Even in my vulture I find this annoying, so I imagine it's pretty frustrating in a conda. And it would be nice to have a shield top-up service when you dock.