Engineers Best way to take out an Anaconda

[XW_Ziggy]

Very nearly lost my Anaconda today to PVP squatters griefing with at the CG:

What took me by surprise was that I lost full shields in one hit, and scraped into the orbital as my hull was being pounded by a wing of three FdLs. I heard the incoming missile warning but I have two rear-facing point defences so I don't know if a missile actually made it through; All I know is that without any weapons fire showing up on my three rings HUD display, there was an incoming missile warning and then my shields went from full to offline at about the time as I heard an explosion - could have been the missile(s) hitting, could have been the missile being shot down.

Anyway, this isn't no namby-pamby 4D lightweight shield. Nope, this is a Rank-3 Reinforced Shields modded 5A Generator with 6x Rank-3 Resistance Augmented shield boosters for a total of 1083MJ and 55% resistance from boosters.

Now, I understand two things:

1. There are diminishing returns to stacking resistances that apply after 50%, so I'll presume that I'm getting only around 2200MJ effective shields
2. Phasing Sequence allows a small portion of the weapon hit to bleed through the shields, but for my generator with 115 point of integrity to die in a single shot seems unlikely.

So CMDRs, what am I missing. Is there a new PVP meta that makes shields useless, or is this a bug? Either way I want to know because I want to do something about it. I don't know how many combined hours I've spent trying to jiggle loadouts and engineer mods around to try and arrive at what I have, but if it's all in vain and I'm as defenceless as a damp towel, I'd at least like to know about it and not fly around in Open anymore.

 

[Codger]

There's a mod that kills shields, I believe. Sorry I don't have details but I've seen it being discussed.

 

[Nardypants]

Maybe they had reverberating cascade on torpedo pylons. Damages the shield generator directly, which might have caused a malfunction and shutdown.

 

[TuxedoSteve]

What Nardypants said, Reverberating cascade torpedoes, when they hit shields they deal damage directly to the shield generator, 4 torpedoes is generally enough to take any shields out. The defenses to it are point defense, ECM, and running fast enough that the torpedo can't catch you, then just wait until it runs out of fuel

 

[Buliel]

Point defense won't be able to do enough damage to stop torpedos. The two reliable ways are ECMs and running faster than torps. (Their max speed is 150)

 

[Ozram]

You were hit by four reverb Cascade torps. Each takes 25% off your generators integrity. Four equals dead shields that won't come back. Yeah, fun.

 

[Buliel]

You were hit by four reverb Cascade torps. Each takes 25% off your generators integrity. Four equals dead shields that won't come back. Yeah, fun.

Actually, with 115 intergrity, only 3 torpedo needs to hit. As they do 120 damage and 35% of this (42) damages shields directly, 126 damage will bring down a 5A shield.

 

[Ozram]

Actually, with 115 intergrity, only 3 torpedo needs to hit. As they do 120 damage and 35% of this (42) damages shields directly, 126 damage will bring down a 5A shield.

My mistake. I was under the impression it was a flat 25% regardless of shield generator stats and size.

 

[rrobes]

This META and others, which chases any number of players away from open CG's, likely used by the same group time and time again. And please, those who practice the griefing, spare me any sanctimonious statements justifying those actions, I've read them before, no need to beat that dead horse and won't respond to them in any case.

There is also tacit/implicit complicity in the way this type of behavior is allowed to continue. Read into it what you may.

 

[Ozram]

This META and others, which chases any number of players away from open CG's, likely used by the same group time and time again. And please, those who practice the griefing, spare me any sanctimonious statements justifying those actions, I've read them before, no need to beat that dead horse and won't respond to them in any case.

There is also tacit/implicit complicity in the way this type of behavior is allowed to continue. Read into it what you may.

These metas coupled with permadeath NPCs means I'll be applying for private groups for the first time.

 

[Kyokushin]

Very nearly lost my Anaconda today to PVP squatters griefing with at the CG:

What took me by surprise was that I lost full shields in one hit, and scraped into the orbital as my hull was being pounded by a wing of three FdLs. I heard the incoming missile warning but I have two rear-facing point defences so I don't know if a missile actually made it through; All I know is that without any weapons fire showing up on my three rings HUD display, there was an incoming missile warning and then my shields went from full to offline at about the time as I heard an explosion - could have been the missile(s) hitting, could have been the missile being shot down.

Anyway, this isn't no namby-pamby 4D lightweight shield. Nope, this is a Rank-3 Reinforced Shields modded 5A Generator with 6x Rank-3 Resistance Augmented shield boosters for a total of 1083MJ and 55% resistance from boosters.

Now, I understand two things:

1. There are diminishing returns to stacking resistances that apply after 50%, so I'll presume that I'm getting only around 2200MJ effective shields
2. Phasing Sequence allows a small portion of the weapon hit to bleed through the shields, but for my generator with 115 point of integrity to die in a single shot seems unlikely.

So CMDRs, what am I missing. Is there a new PVP meta that makes shields useless, or is this a bug? Either way I want to know because I want to do something about it. I don't know how many combined hours I've spent trying to jiggle loadouts and engineer mods around to try and arrive at what I have, but if it's all in vain and I'm as defenceless as a damp towel, I'd at least like to know about it and not fly around in Open anymore.

You have been hit by three todpedoes with revertbalance cascade. Just keep eyes open, use ECM, make evasive maneuvers. Torpedoes are slow.

 

[Minoo Minou]

How much pips in SYST?

 

[XW_Ziggy]

Edit: To answer the above questions,
3pips SYS, 3pips ENG
No ECM fitted since I built this as a shield tank, unaware of the ridiculously silly RC torpedo meta. Why even bother putting shield sizes, boosters, augments, batteries in game if your shield is now measured only by it's generator HP?! As for evasive maneuvers, it's kind hard to do that in a fully-laden Anaconda whilst lining up with the toaster rack within the no-fire zone. How are the station defences not annihilating these people anyway? I cant even

Wow, yeah. I watched a couple of vids on Youtube; Four torpedos that are fairly PD-resistant seems dumb, especially when you can do it with a viper that costs nothing to take out a shield costing 5M+mod costs - a shield that robs me of cargo capacity and is fitted only because of PVP griefers in the first place, but lets me enjoy Open.

I understand that the griefers want to (and are entitled to) have their fun but the risk that I lose a ship full of cargo and my progress in whatever task at hand seems like a big loss for almost no reward. If I'd lost that 'conda for the GG it would have been 45 minutes of gameplay, about 12M lost, and my GG progress. While that wouldn't really bother me much (It's <1% of my in-game worth and time) it's still a setback I'd want to avoid at almost any cost.

I mean, there are four types of open-world play:

PVE
PVP
RPPVE
RPPVP

It seems to me that three of those typical open-world gameplay types suffer immensely at the burden of griefing PVP players. That's why other RPG games often split them up like that list above. If FD can't balance or control the PVP rules enough to not harm the other three gameplay types, then they're failing to serve a large portion (I'm assuming the vast majority, actually) of their customers.

Tell me more about these private groups - are there any big enough to make the galaxy feel inhabited? Even Open feels pretty empty a lot of the time.
I can tolerate PVP if there's a motive or reason for it but just being assaulted meaninglessly actually adds nothing to the game for me, other than risk. Yes I combat log if I don't think I'm going to survive an unwarranted and unprovoked greifer gank - to me that's as much of an undesirable necessity as mode-switching to get mission updates, but that's what the game is and we must make do with what we have :\

 

[Ozram]

Wow, yeah. I watched a couple of vids on Youtube; Four torpedos that are fairly PD-resistant seems dumb, especially when you can do it with a viper that costs nothing to take out a shield costing 5M+mod costs - a shield that robs me of cargo capacity and is fitted only because of PVP griefers in the first place, but lets me enjoy Open.

I understand that the griefers want to (and are entitled to) have their fun but the risk that I lose a ship full of cargo and my progress in whatever task at hand seems like a big loss for almost no reward. If I'd lost that conda for the GG it would have been 45 minutes of gameplay, about 12M lost, and my GG progress. While that wouldn't really bother me much (It's <1% of my in-game worth and time) it's still a setback I'd want to avoid at almost any cost.

I mean, there are four types of open-world play:

PVE
PVP
RPPVE
RPPVP

It seems to me that three of those typical open-world gameplay types suffer immensely at the burden of griefing PVP players. That's why other RPG games often split them up like that list above. If FD can't balance or control the PVP rules enough to not harm the other three gameplay types, then they're failing to serve a large portion (I'm assuming the vast majority, actually) of their customers.

Tell me more about these private groups - are there any big enough to make the galaxy feel inhabited? Even Open feels pretty empty a lot of the time.
I can tolerate PVP if there's a motive or reason for it but just being assaulted meaninglessly actually adds nothing to the game for me, other than risk. Yes I combat log if I don't think I'm going to survive an unwarranted and unprovoked greifer gank - to me that's as much of an undesirable necessity as mode-switching to get mission updates, but that's what the game is and we must make do with what we have :\

Möbius is huge! It's a pve group. I only just recently joined them because while I don't mind losing a ship, losing my crew member is a different thing entirely. I'll definitely log if my NPC is at risk of permadeath... so in order to avoid that now I go to certain locations in the private group.

 

[Martind Forlon]

Just put ECM and be ready use it when fly on 'public busy' areas. Conda shields with 5 boosters (engineered) are insanely enough strong (4pips/sys) to withstand almost every normal attack in time when you need to flee or enter station. Ecm also makes torps/missiles change course and you can activate it with separate key also with retracted hpoints. Grief succesfully today well prepared and cautious conda pilot is quite hard/impossible. Have reverb torps with limited ammo also cost attackers normal fire-power.

... these constant offers (coming almost immediately) join Mobius are starting to be quite tiring, and log is considered as cheating. If player can't play without cheating (no matter which game mode is used), he maybe should think if such game is for him ...

 

[Ozram]

Just put ECM and be ready use it when fly on 'public busy' areas. Conda shields with 5 boosters (engineered) are insanely enough strong (4pips/sys) to withstand almost every normal attack in time when you need to flee or enter station. Ecm also makes torps/missiles change course and you can activate it with separate key also with retracted hpoints. Grief succesfully today well prepared and cautious conda pilot is quite hard/impossible. Have reverb torps with limited ammo also cost attackers normal fire-power.

... these constant offers (coming almost immediately) join Mobius are starting to be quite tiring, and log is considered as cheating. If player can't play without cheating (no matter which game mode is used), he maybe should think if such game is for him ...

Why? I like this game just fine.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

I'm quite happy to log in a grossly unfair fight. If I wasn't trying to dock I'd have high-waked. No way FdL's can mass-lock a 'conda and me boosting away would outrun the torpedos.

As for "combat logging is cheating", what do you call exploiting game bugs that let you attack without penalty within the no-fire zone of a station? I was being shot in the mailslot yet the station defences weren't working.
Cheat vs exploit is fair; I don't want to be blown up by you and you don't want to be blown up by the station defences; If that ruins your fun well it's no different to you ruing my fun.

Groups like Mobius exist because the griefers exploit situations where the aim is literally to upset other players, and that makes the griefers some kind of group I don't want to have anything to do with, regardless of game mode.

 

[Nardypants]

... these constant offers (coming almost immediately) join Mobius are starting to be quite tiring, and log is considered as cheating. If player can't play without cheating (no matter which game mode is used), he maybe should think if such game is for him ...

And you don't think that more and more people considering Mobius is an indication that something is wrong with either the griefing or the consequences of ship destruction (i.e. perma-loss of crew)?

 

[TuxedoSteve]

Edit: To answer the above questions,
3pips SYS, 3pips ENG
No ECM fitted since I built this as a shield tank, unaware of the ridiculously silly RC torpedo meta. Why even bother putting shield sizes, boosters, augments, batteries in game if your shield is now measured only by it's generator HP?! As for evasive maneuvers, it's kind hard to do that in a fully-laden Anaconda whilst lining up with the toaster rack within the no-fire zone. How are the station defences not annihilating these people anyway? I cant even

The thing is, if you use ECM or just run from the torpedoes, PvP setup ships generally only carry 4 of them so they can't destroy your shields anymore. Once the initial wave of shield breaking torpedoes are gone, the shield tank build is more than viable.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

The thing is, if you use ECM or just run from the torpedoes, PvP setup ships generally only carry 4 of them so they can't destroy your shields anymore. Once the initial wave of shield breaking torpedoes are gone, the shield tank build is more than viable.

That's so very not true it's almost laughable, you've clearly not been griefed yet

Firstly, griefers are never alone, always in wings to make sure the odds are in their favour; 3 or 5 vs 1.
Secondly, instant combat synthesis provides more torpedoes to counter the low ammo count.