Hang on...what happened to shields?

digitalscream · Dec 15, 2015

OK, so I take my new 1.5 Vulture out for a spin, drop into a USS, and my shields are promptly shredded by a couple of NPC Cobras.

I don't mean "they outflew me" - I mean in a couple of passes, they'd practically taken my shields out completely, whereas exactly the same amount of hits yesterday would barely have taken half a ring away. Same against a pair of Vipers.

Also...my A4 shield cell barely even managed to fill one ring of my shields - less than a third of the 1.4 refill - whereas (to my understanding) they're supposed to be filling twice the amount of shield energy (ie same power output, twice the active time).

Now, I know I haven't played since beta 2, but I'm fairly sure there was nothing in the patch notes about reducing the Vulture's shields to paper thickness.

Is it just me? Did I miss something significant in the patch notes? Or is this a punishment for not buying Horizons?

stripealipe · Dec 15, 2015

Haha, lol, yep, you missed plenty i guess...

Colonel Kenney · Dec 15, 2015

Yeah.. betas have been ... interesting.

shadragon · Dec 15, 2015

Wait until you land at a station and see how fast they recharge. Will astound you.

mono · Dec 15, 2015

Have you tested to see if their (ie the NPCs) shields are down in a similarly small amount of time..?

digitalscream said:
OK, so I take my new 1.5 Vulture out for a spin, drop into a USS, and my shields are promptly shredded by a couple of NPC Cobras.

I don't mean "they outflew me" - I mean in a couple of passes, they'd practically taken my shields out completely, whereas exactly the same amount of hits yesterday would barely have taken half a ring away. Same against a pair of Vipers.

Also...my A4 shield cell barely even managed to fill one ring of my shields - less than a third of the 1.4 refill - whereas (to my understanding) they're supposed to be filling twice the amount of shield energy (ie same power output, twice the active time).

Now, I know I haven't played since beta 2, but I'm fairly sure there was nothing in the patch notes about reducing the Vulture's shields to paper thickness.

Is it just me? Did I miss something significant in the patch notes? Or is this a punishment for not buying Horizons?

Midian27 · Dec 15, 2015

Shield strength wasn't touched. And a4 scbs actually received a very slight nerf whereas the larger scbs got buffed.

GilliganTX · Dec 15, 2015

Could have been NPC's with 100% accuracy rail guns.

The bane of my existence, those are. It's really the only thing that can punch out my Vulture shields quickly.

digitalscream · Dec 15, 2015

GilliganTX said:
Could have been NPC's with 100% accuracy rail guns.

The bane of my existence, those are. It's really the only thing that can punch out my Vulture shields quickly.

Nope, these were just pulse + beam lasers.

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Midian27 said:
Shield strength wasn't touched. And a4 scbs actually received a very slight nerf whereas the larger scbs got buffed.

No "slight" about it - I used to be able to go from half a ring to nearly 3 rings using a single A4 cell. Now it barely manages one ring.

GilliganTX · Dec 15, 2015

Well that's unnerving then. I guess I'll find out sometime this week...

digitalscream · Dec 15, 2015

mono said:
Have you tested to see if their (ie the NPCs) shields are down in a similarly small amount of time..?

Yup. Took just as long as normal.

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I'll be honest, the Vulture's the only ship I enjoy flying in the whole game. If its shields have been nerfed this badly, then it's basically useless for PvP now...and that's generally what I do.

It's the only thing I hate about this game - the constantly moving goalposts to appease those who shout the loudest. More hassle != more fun

mono · Dec 15, 2015

Same boat, Vulture (combat) or Asp (everything else) for me. I have other ships including a Python but, well they make good markers on the gal map.

digitalscream said:
I'll be honest, the Vulture's the only ship I enjoy flying in the whole game. If its shields have been nerfed this badly, then it's basically useless for PvP now...and that's generally what I do.

It's the only thing I hate about this game - the constantly moving goalposts to appease those who shout the loudest. More hassle != more fun

CMDR Byr Goefin · Dec 15, 2015

digitalscream said:
I'll be honest, the Vulture's the only ship I enjoy flying in the whole game. If its shields have been nerfed this badly, then it's basically useless for PvP now...and that's generally what I do.

It's the only thing I hate about this game - the constantly moving goalposts to appease those who shout the loudest. More hassle != more fun

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of pirates suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I believe something wonderful has happened

Kristov · Dec 15, 2015

Rgconner said:
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of pirates suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I believe something wonderful has happened

Don't you mean hundreds of pirates?

MottiKhan · Dec 15, 2015

This sounds interesting. Can't wait to try it out tonight.

ShadowWolf Kell · Dec 15, 2015

Placebo effect. The only thing they altered were SCBs and shield recharge rates. Class 1-3 SCBs aren't too hot. 4 is tolerable in an FdL but the real gems are 6 and above. There's also Bi Weave shields, which are basically C rated shields with twice the regen. Great for ships with a high capacity, and not so great for those that don't (like the FAS.)

What you're probably noticing is the AI isn't going dormant and just spinning in a circle while not moving. They actually shoot back now. It also seemed like they matched them more closely to your combat rating in RES and CZs too, which is great for both bounties and raising your rating.

I was running into mostly Elite NPCs in a High Intensity RES while messing around with frag cannons. 140k for an Asp in a non boosted system.

Vasious · Dec 15, 2015

ShadowWolf Kell said:
Placebo effect. The only thing they altered were SCBs and shield recharge rates. Class 1-3 SCBs aren't too hot. 4 is tolerable in an FdL but the real gems are 6 and above. There's also Bi Weave shields, which are basically C rated shields with twice the regen. Great for ships with a high capacity, and not so great for those that don't (like the FAS.)

What you're probably noticing is the AI isn't going dormant and just spinning in a circle while not moving. They actually shoot back now. It also seemed like they matched them more closely to your combat rating in RES and CZs too, which is great for both bounties and raising your rating.

I was running into mostly Elite NPCs in a High Intensity RES while messing around with frag cannons. 140k for an Asp in a non boosted system.

Yes, only the recharge rates being faster, especially when docked.
Shields are no weaker

drholliday · Dec 15, 2015

Not a 1.5 thing. I had that with a Vulture (NPC) and my MASSIVELY shielded Anaconda a while ago. It seems to be a bug. There's no way in hell a Vulture can take out a maxed out Anaconda shield in less than 10s with 2 L beams. Not going to happen under any condition.

MarkMSG · Dec 15, 2015

Had a couple of sideys shooting at me and got rammed by a cobra , took my combat Python A6 shield out no problem

Calaban · Dec 15, 2015

I like the shift. look at it this way for a sec:

How interesting would combat be if you could just keep shields up ALL THE TIME? - I mean- what kind of play is that? boooring!

I believe Shields became a crutch to many many players, and now that they cannot lean on it as much- they feel betrayed.

So now we actually take armor damage in combat. Shields are never eternal (and probably was never intended to be). System failures, hull reinforcements, and several many other elements of the game will now get a chance to emerge. [... you did buy armor for going into combat... right? why not? eh? Crutch much?]

Obnoxious_Gamer · Dec 16, 2015

digitalscream said:
OK, so I take my new 1.5 Vulture out for a spin, drop into a USS, and my shields are promptly shredded by a couple of NPC Cobras.

I don't mean "they outflew me" - I mean in a couple of passes, they'd practically taken my shields out completely, whereas exactly the same amount of hits yesterday would barely have taken half a ring away. Same against a pair of Vipers.

Also...my A4 shield cell barely even managed to fill one ring of my shields - less than a third of the 1.4 refill - whereas (to my understanding) they're supposed to be filling twice the amount of shield energy (ie same power output, twice the active time).

Now, I know I haven't played since beta 2, but I'm fairly sure there was nothing in the patch notes about reducing the Vulture's shields to paper thickness.

Is it just me? Did I miss something significant in the patch notes? Or is this a punishment for not buying Horizons?

I dunno, but the same thing happened to my poor Python, except it was a Diamondback Explorer with pulse lasers and a Cobra III with small frag cannons. Same story, shields nearly went down after three passes from the Cobra and a glancing two-second strike from the Exploder - and this is with A-rank shields and TWO A-rank boosters. Somewhere, somehow, I think someone moved a decimal point...

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Calaban said:
I like the shift. look at it this way for a sec:

How interesting would combat be if you could just keep shields up ALL THE TIME? - I mean- what kind of play is that? boooring!

I believe Shields became a crutch to many many players, and now that they cannot lean on it as much- they feel betrayed.

So now we actually take armor damage in combat. Shields are never eternal (and probably was never intended to be). System failures, hull reinforcements, and several many other elements of the game will now get a chance to emerge. [... you did buy armor for going into combat... right? why not? eh? Crutch much?]

What I'm seeing here is someone who's never flown a combat ship, much less paid the repair bill for a damaged Python. Sure, this would be fine if the bounty rewards per ship were something like a million bucks, because then it'd be worth it to take one ship out and be forced to fly back for repairs. Right now? Absolutely ridiculous. I paid a damn sight more than a Cobra's worth for my Python, and I don't expect it to be able to be taken out by a Cobra because of that. And keep in mind, this is a ship I spent over two hundred hours grinding for. When you actually spend some time trying to earn a ship, THEN you can come back and state your opinion. For now, get out.