Why the shields STILL don't recharge when docked?!

While you can do this, surely the station mechanics would do this as part of the fitting service?

Sure, the devs could code it to happen automatically. Personally I don't see the big deal, I shut them off on certain ships to avoid losing shields in outfitting, takes me a second to do it.
 
Developer B: I know! Let's give them no recharge options besides the need to wait for a recharge! That'll teach them to use big ships!

An FDL's shield takes almost 8 minutes at base value.
This is a little long, I agree. Just a bit.

However nobody in this thread should be pushing their top classe prismatics up with six boosters then complaining that it takes twenty minutes to recharge them.

This is like buying a clipper then complaining about not being able to dock with outposts. Well dummy, guess who bought the clipper?
Or buying a rail gun then complaining about having only 30 shots. Well dummy, guess who bought the rail gun?
Or buying a T9 and complaining that it's slow and made of paper. Well dummy, guess who bought the T9?

The length of time it takes to get your shield back up is exactly proportional to the amount of protection it offers. If people are complaining about long wait times, then they need to take smaller shields.
 
The length of time it takes to get your shield back up is exactly proportional to the amount of protection it offers. If people are complaining about long wait times, then they need to take smaller shields.

There's a BIG difference between "I'm in the middle of space without shields, I wish they recharged faster" and "I'm safely docked, bored out of my mind, waiting for shields to recharge". There's absolutely NO gameplay value in having shields self-recharge when docked at stations. It's just a pointless waste of time.
 
Love the caps. Really.

That's the way the game works. live with it. They brought in shield recharge for a very good reason. People were abusing shields by wing man nav locking and jumping in and out of instances.
 
It really depends on what you're flying and what you want to do.

If you're a trader, then it's not THAT bad when waiting for the shields - like you said, you can be a bit more cautious, and that tends to solve the problem.

But if you're in a combat ship and want to go bounty hunting, then it won't do.

There are also cases when the time itself is so long it's just insulting - a Cobra (or anything around that size) tends to recharge pretty fast, while a big ship like a Python or Anaconda... well, it's seriously insulting.

I feel you. Even my Vulture has a pretty slow recharge time.
 
So what was your point here?

This is just another way Frontier wanted to develop a more realistic game game at the cost of enjoyment for the players.

You kinda answered it yourself - my point was if you dock and there's an access port for fuel it's not inconceivable that there's a port too for power / shield recharging. It's like going to a fancy garage and popping the hood to gain access to the battery.

As the insta-recharge "bug" was fixed by FD (by jumping into SC) that gave the knock on effect of long recharge times for larger ships with high end shields. Your choice would be to either pop a shield cell and then dock / restock, or, allow functionality at the station so that you can recharge them for a fee.

- - - Updated - - -

If you have a power hungry build, shut down thrusters before doing any outfitting.

And this is a workaround - never thought of that :)
 
Love the caps. Really.

That's the way the game works. live with it. They brought in shield recharge for a very good reason. People were abusing shields by wing man nav locking and jumping in and out of instances.

That's exactly why it was introduced, yes.

But the topic is shield recharge in stations. That would still prevent the abuse you correctly mentioned, where a wing member would just briefly enter SC and immediately come back with full shields.

But even with instant station recharge, by the time he returns, the intended target would either have been killed by his wing mates or escaped.

An insta-recharge while docked would NOT compromise that intended fix, and as it is now it's a mere annoyance without purpose.
 
An insta-recharge while docked would NOT compromise that intended fix, and as it is now it's a mere annoyance without purpose.

This. Only this. This forever.

If someone seriously thinks that the recharge time (IN STATIONS I should add!) is fine, then answer the simple question: WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF THIS ANNOYANCE?

/still bangs head against wall trying to understand the logic here...
 
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I spent a lot of time messing with my Python setup the last week and here's what I did to mitigate the shields down thing: Set my boosters to priority 2,3,4,5. This would usually keep the shields up.
 
Of course, being a devils advocate, maybe repair should take time instead of being instant.. That would penalise taking damage... :)
 
Of course, being a devils advocate, maybe repair should take time instead of being instant.. That would penalise taking damage... :)

So should outfitting! I mean, at least 15 minutes. And then sometimes a few hours, because there's a backorder, and the main technician got drunk last night and has a terrible hangover. And then refuelling should take at least a few minutes (it takes a bit to refuel my Fiat, I'm sure even a Sidewinder will take significantly more than that!).

And getting a new ship? Whoa boy... all the paperwork alone is at least a few days, with registrations and whatnots.

...

Of course you can pay a few GBP / EUR / USD to purchase "favours", a special in game currency which will allow you to speed these things up.

...

Should I continue?
 
I agree. Maybe it should be like a car repair shop. You would never know if they were fitting good parts or knock off ones. Or if they were overcharging you. Maybe some stations should be honest and others dodgy. You would have to work out what stations were honest.

It's a whole new game play mechanic!
 
As the title says! WHAT THE HELL!?

Once more, I went into outfitting, changed a module, which brought my shields down, and now I have the wait forever for them to get back up.

There's absolutely NO gameplay mechanic here, other than to annoy players! Tell me, oh wise men of Frontier, why would you want a player to just wait and do nothing while their shields recharge?

This was the reason I originally went exploring after 1.4 went live - my reasoning was this was something Frontier initially missed, and will be added later. But exploration's taken it's mental toll, and I stopped playing. Now I come back after so much time and I see the game still doesn't respect my time in the slightest. Why the hell should I respect it in return?

There must be something wrong with your system. I don't have to wait forever for my shields to re-charge - just a few minutes (in a Python). And I don't have to wait and do nothing either - I can do the same as if I had shields. I have no respect for the game though - the original ideas possibly, the coders maybe - but the game seems to ethereal to earn respect.
 
There's a BIG difference between "I'm in the middle of space without shields, I wish they recharged faster" and "I'm safely docked, bored out of my mind, waiting for shields to recharge". There's absolutely NO gameplay value in having shields self-recharge when docked at stations. It's just a pointless waste of time.
This. Only this. This forever.

If someone seriously thinks that the recharge time (IN STATIONS I should add!) is fine, then answer the simple question: WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF THIS ANNOYANCE?

/still bangs head against wall trying to understand the logic here...
What's the purpose of this annoyance?
.
It's a penalty. You're not supposed to like it. It's supposed to get in your way. It's supposed to be annoying. It's supposed to be time consuming.
In exchange for this inconvenience, you have bigger shields.
.
The courier is pricey. Its stock price is the cost of an entire a-rated eagle. Getting money is boring. It's work. It's a chore. It's annoying. It's time consuming.
In exchange for this inconvenience, you get a better ship.
.
I honestly don't see a difference.
 
There must be something wrong with your system. I don't have to wait forever for my shields to re-charge - just a few minutes (in a Python). And I don't have to wait and do nothing either - I can do the same as if I had shields. I have no respect for the game though - the original ideas possibly, the coders maybe - but the game seems to ethereal to earn respect.

A-graded Python (except the PP, which is still A-grade, but lower class) with plenty of boosters (one slot for a KWS).

And... You go into combat zones without shields!? o_O

What's the purpose of this annoyance?
.
It's a penalty. You're not supposed to like it. It's supposed to get in your way. It's supposed to be annoying. It's supposed to be time consuming.
In exchange for this inconvenience, you have bigger shields.
.
The courier is pricey. Its stock price is the cost of an entire a-rated eagle. Getting money is boring. It's work. It's a chore. It's annoying. It's time consuming.
In exchange for this inconvenience, you get a better ship.
.
I honestly don't see a difference.

Things should serve a gameplay purpose.

Having to earn ships (rather than being given all of them them right from the start) is a way to gate progress (in ED it's quite a "grindy" gate which is another bad no-no when it comes to design, but let's move on), which in turn is there to create a progression path for players and for balance reasons as well (if everyone could access all ships at their whim then small ships would probably be largely unused).

Having bigger shields is offset by them recharging longer, yes - which is fine outside of stations, when unexpected things can happen. It's during an engagement when you need the bigger buffer and having said buffer replenish slowly is the offset (albeit given the current state of shields, their prices, SCBs and general recharge times I'd say this entire aspect is in major need of an overhaul - but this is besides this point).

There's absolutely no reason for the shields to not recharge instantly when docked. You can refuel instantly, you can repair instantly, you can change armaments and reload instantly... But to ask for a shield recharge? Oh no! Tis mission impossible!

If you really can't see a difference (and aren't just plain trolling), then you really don't have a clue about game design.
 
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I agree with OP if some ships do really take 5min+ to recharge. We really should have an option in Starports for instant shield recharge for a price.

Does logging off and logging back in work as a workaround?
 
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I agree with OP if some ships do really take 5min+ to recharge. We really should have an option in Starports for instant shield recharge for a price.

Does logging off and logging back in work as a workaround?

Tried it, and no.

Best solution is to turn off boosters (if equipped), wait for shields to be online, then spend SCBs to recharge till full (need to undock for that). The entire procedure is needlessly complicated and lengthy, plus you need to dock again if you want to re-buy the spent SCBs.
 
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And the funniest thing is that sometimes when you log out, while docked in a station, for a few REALTIME hours with like 50% shields left, when you come back in... You're STILL at 50% shields left !
What an amazing and realistic feature !
I accept having a long recharge time coming along with my big shields (and it's necessary when in the wild) but there is absolutely no reason having to wait 5-10 minutes when I am docked !
 
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Other than from a realistic standpoint it would be wholley inaccurate since your ship runs on it's own power and isn't plugged in and drawing power from the station, you mean?
And why can't you just pay the station a few thousand credits to tap into their massive reactors and pump your shields up to full?

Exactly. It makes no sense.
 
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