Do shields recharge under fire?
- Thread starter Kled7
- Start date
Pips to sys reduces incoming damage, it does not improve recharge rate.
I know all shields have a passive charge rate, like 1mj for reg and 1.5 for biweave. Does that recharge rate continue when under fire or do my shields have to not take damage for 10 seconds or something for it to kick in?
Based on my anecdotal experience, if you have <2 pips to sys, recharging shields will deplete the sys capacitor.
If you have >/= 2 pips in sys, the sys capacitor will not deplete while shields recharge.
Your shields recharge at a set rate, and require energy equal to two pips to do so with out discharging the capacitor.
The rate at which your shields recharge is not dependent on the Pips. Pips only serve to increase the performance of the remaining shield (or weapons or thrusters), and recharge the capacitor.
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If you have >/= 2 pips in sys, the sys capacitor will not deplete while shields recharge.
Your shields recharge at a set rate, and require energy equal to two pips to do so with out discharging the capacitor.
The rate at which your shields recharge is not dependent on the Pips. Pips only serve to increase the performance of the remaining shield (or weapons or thrusters), and recharge the capacitor.
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Ah, that is more specific. Good question, and I'm not sure.
Not as far as I am aware.
I have always used Beams, so I can see what you are thinking about. Hard to say, are they doing anything, under fire? Because, with beams, the shields are just taken apart. Even Anacondas can be stripped in seconds, with just a couple of Mid Beams, because, they are constant? Yes: SCBs help and NPCs are using them now, but most, SCBs again; only last seconds.
So it is a good question.
I think you are right. If the capacitor is empty, your shields will not recharge.Also - I think you need at least 1 pip in shields to recharge them once they are depleted (But I may be wrong - I often am)
*Note, if they went down, and are coming back online, you can have zero pips to sys and they will still "reboot."
people put 4 pips to sheilds to recharge them.. but this is not needed and does not help.
you need to work out how many pips it takes to replenish 1 bar of capacitance in the time it takes for the shields to deplete 1 bar of capacitance during recharge..
for me with my current set up it is 2 pips..
The shield recharge takes 1 bar of capacitor off with 2 pips to system the bar has been re filled just before the shield regen takes it off again. having more pips does not make it charge any faster as long as you keep the cap replenished (even 1 bar in the system capasator + 2 pips is fine as it will always have 1 bar by the time the shields take a bar)
however more pips to systems does let shields absorb more damage before they fail, so i like to keep 1 pip to system at all times during combat. this isnt to keep em charged or anything. "although technically you could argue it is" it is just to make them absorb more damage than they would with 0 pips to system..
so no shields dont recharge when under fire (unless they are fully offline) But more pips will let them take more damage before thy do go offline. after they are offline there is a maximum ammount of pips that should be put to systems to have them recharge, anything above that is a waste of pips. and even 0 pips will be fine untill you only have 1 bar of capacitance left in system, at that point you have to send the pre determined number of pips to system to have that 1 bar replenish every cycle of the shield regen process.
you need to work out how many pips it takes to replenish 1 bar of capacitance in the time it takes for the shields to deplete 1 bar of capacitance during recharge..
for me with my current set up it is 2 pips..
The shield recharge takes 1 bar of capacitor off with 2 pips to system the bar has been re filled just before the shield regen takes it off again. having more pips does not make it charge any faster as long as you keep the cap replenished (even 1 bar in the system capasator + 2 pips is fine as it will always have 1 bar by the time the shields take a bar)
however more pips to systems does let shields absorb more damage before they fail, so i like to keep 1 pip to system at all times during combat. this isnt to keep em charged or anything. "although technically you could argue it is" it is just to make them absorb more damage than they would with 0 pips to system..
so no shields dont recharge when under fire (unless they are fully offline) But more pips will let them take more damage before thy do go offline. after they are offline there is a maximum ammount of pips that should be put to systems to have them recharge, anything above that is a waste of pips. and even 0 pips will be fine untill you only have 1 bar of capacitance left in system, at that point you have to send the pre determined number of pips to system to have that 1 bar replenish every cycle of the shield regen process.
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Yes they will recharge while you are getting hit.
Switching your shield to 4 pips for even a few seconds every chance you get (enemy not in FOV) will help keep the capacitor charged. I've switched to a shield cap bias to keep them up longer, which means sometimes I can't fire beams as much, but a good power distributor minimizes this issue.
Constant fire from almost any weapon will tend to deplete your shields faster than the natural recharge rate though.
I run 3 and 3 in my Cobra, which keeps beams and shields happy for me.
I read somewhere before that weapons fire makes your shields stop recharging for a few seconds (while they're still up that is, it doesn't affect the reboot cycle after they collapse), I guess so persistent fire from small weapons can eventually overpower a huge shield if it keeps at it long enough.
Well test it, take a friend, with shields around 300. And a small pulse laser. Shoot it, measure time and count the shots. Since we know how much damage the pulses do to sheilds we should be able to see f you need more than calculated or not.
Then take 2 and do the same. shield should now colalpse in half the "doubleshots"
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That's what I remember reading as well, any hit on active shields will stop recharge for 5 or 10 seconds.
From what I remember, number of pips in SYS will affect only the recharge rate of collapse shields, but when shields are already active, the recharge rate is constant (unless interrupted by incoming damage), and pips only affect the amount of damage that is absorbed for each hit.
Pips in shield effects their hardness so they take less damage. The amount of hardness is not linear, I.e. the difference in hardness between 3 & 4 pips is much greater than the difference between 2 & 3 pips.
Early experiments about a year ago concluded that the difference between 3 and 4 pips was so great that you may as well have four pips or nothing.
There was a lot of moaning that pips should increase recharge rate as this was easier to understand but that's not what we've got.
As far as shield recharge goes as information above. The recharge rate is fixed and very slow. Provided there is some energy in the shield capacitor they will keep recharging.
So basically, if you're being hammered in a fight put 4 pips in shield and if you're not just put one pip in occasionally to keep the capacitor topped up.
Early experiments about a year ago concluded that the difference between 3 and 4 pips was so great that you may as well have four pips or nothing.
There was a lot of moaning that pips should increase recharge rate as this was easier to understand but that's not what we've got.
As far as shield recharge goes as information above. The recharge rate is fixed and very slow. Provided there is some energy in the shield capacitor they will keep recharging.
So basically, if you're being hammered in a fight put 4 pips in shield and if you're not just put one pip in occasionally to keep the capacitor topped up.