4 Pips to Shields - Why?

jpjeffrey

jpjeffrey
Elsewhere in the forum I've seen combat advice that emphasises putting '4 pips to shields'

My question is WHY this is important; ie the meter above the 'pip bar' shows the current charge of the SYS system - if it's fully charged, what difference does it make to have 4 pips allocated to SYS (other than increasing the recharge rate)

I might add that I'm in no doubt that it indeed makes SOME difference; I've seen the YouTube combat videos, and '4 pips to shields' seems to be common among the combat experts; my question is: What is the difference? Is it measurable?
 

Omgzzwtf

Omgzzwtf
I dunno, but I'm interested in the answer as well. I put 4 pips to shield, but only because I was told to do so, lol
 

Gemai

Gemai
A shield has a power draw, this draw shown in the outfitter is the energy it needs to regenerate 1 shield point per second. It has a max regeneration while active and one when broken. Multiply it by that and you see the needed pips.

You will quickly see that BEFORE the nerf of the distributor, shields could be upheld with 1 or a half pip while damaged and two while broken.
Now you need 2 pips roughly to counter damage and all 4 to reg a broken Bi-Weave shield.

Full pips helps in defense mode though.
 
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Monk

Monk
Jmanis said:
It increases the resistance of your shields by a huge amount. 0 pips makes them paper thin.

Will get the numbers in a sec.
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This...each additional pip to shields results in a significant increase in their strength. I know it doesn't quite seem intuitive because the recharge rate remains constant as long as their is juice the in SYS capacitor (4 pips to shields recharges at the same rate that 0 pips recharges shields)
 

777Driver

777Driver
Gemai said:
A shield has a power draw, this draw shown in the outfitter is the energy it needs to regenerate 1 shield point per second. It has a max regeneration while active and one when broken. Multiply it by that and you see the needed pips.

You will quickly see that BEFORE the nerf of the distributor, shields could be upheld with 1 or a half pip while damaged and two while broken.
Now you need 2 pips roughly to counter damage and all 4 to reg a broken Bi-Weave shield.

Full pips helps in defense mode though.
Click to expand...

I don't think you fully understand how it works.
 
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Darth Ender

D
The only one pips make any intuitive sense is weapons. The distributor behavior isn't even internally consistent. Sys and eng pips both boost the performance of their respective components, weapon pips do not.

Yay!
 

Gemai

Gemai
777Driver said:
I don't think you fully understand how it works.
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Oh I do. Unless you really want that damage reduction, you will regain exactly as much energy for the capacitor as you eat for shield regen in that case.

The same goes for weapons. Multi-Cannons seem cheap energy wise - they still are - but they eat the distributor draw PER SHOT, so their advantage isn't that big compared to others. It is there though. Just not good to break shields with 40% resistance to kinetics.

If you fight a weak enemy - NPC around VIPER III - knowing you only need 2 pips in shield to remain +- 0 will free pips to just burn them out of space.
 
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Darrett

Darrett
Gemai said:
Oh I do. Unless you really want that damage reduction, you will regain exactly as much energy for the capacitor as you eat for shield regen in that case.

The same goes for weapons. Multi-Cannons seem cheap energy wise - they still are - but they eat the distributor draw PER SHOT, so their advantage isn't that big compared to others. It is there though. Just not good to break shields with 40% resistance to kinetics.

If you fight a weak enemy - NPC around VIPER III - knowing you only need 2 pips in shield to remain +- 0 will free pips to just burn them out of space.
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You do want that damage resistance. 4 pips to shields make them 250% the strength of 0 pips. The curve is also insane, so there's little reason to have anything except 4 if you're being fired on.
 

Gemai

Gemai
Darrett said:
You do want that damage resistance. 4 pips to shields make them 250% the strength of 0 pips. The curve is also insane, so there's little reason to have anything except 4 if you're being fired on.
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I mentioned the Viper III (and Cobra etc.) because they don't even break my ASP boosted shields with 2 pips. If they are so weak, why use 4 pips...

I'd rather use the 2 pips for weapon energy to shot more and kill them quicker. I am in no danger, the shield recharge doesn't cost money.
You don't have to go full turtle against a fly.
 

jpjeffrey

jpjeffrey
Thanks for this very useful link
JJ

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Here: [URL said:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/138536-SYS-PIP-Shield-Damage-Resistance-Tested[/URL]

.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this very useful link
JJ
 

Sandmann

Sandmann
h347h said:
Well I'm 90% sure stuff like this is why people though the AI changes were too hard. Fundamental things like that should be explained a bit more clearly to the player base so they know and we can get half competent AI back.
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Yah there's no definitive "how it works" document other than digging through the forum. I (like many others here) have a bit of a head start due to being one of the original elite players... but that of course means that I tend to bring any misunderatandings about the game that I had in 1984 with me too. I've now managed nearly 3 years of ED without picking up on that little useful tidbit.
 

Monsieur Pickwick

M
I'm not a fan of the 4 pips sys in combat. 4 pips sys = 0-2 pips engine and 0-2 pips weapons. You have strong shield but you mouve slower and shoot less. Depends on your ship and your loadout of course. I rarely put 4 pips in shield. And I never die.
 

n4p0l3on

N
I suspect huge majority of cmdrs also don't know about or neglecting the option for 4 pips on engine, it's not only useful for boosting and running away but can fundamentally change your ship handling.

Post 2.1 against the npc you have to actually think whether to fight these npc with durability or agility (aside from firepower that is), for example if you are fighting high ranking pirate lord in his conda alone while you are in more agile ship, you actually have the option to fight him with 4 pips to engine and 2 pips to weapon instead of 1-1-4 pips or 4-0-2 pips.

In ghe later scenarios you might be able to deal more damage in shorter time or tanking more damage, however due to the lack of power to your engine you also put more risk at getting shot, and these may result in the illusion that the AI able to out turn you in his supposedly less agile ship. What probably actually happened was that the AI dared to risk his shield and use 4 pips to their engine to out turn you while you were doing the opposite. (though I still think that the AI does cheat in some of their maneuvering ability but that is based on my observation mainly concerning their strafing)
 
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