Engineers Tinkering with Shields in Coriolis

[L M P]

I am trying to figure out a way to compare shield strength on the same ship with different types of shield setups. I used thermal resistant grade 5 on one ship and reinforced grade 5 on the other. I decided to try multiplying the resistance number by the megajoule number and came up with this set of numbers.

VULTURE-01: https://s.orbis.zone/2cb9

EXPLOSIVE: 0.648 X 1872 = 1213.056

KINETIC: 0.492 X 1300 = 639.6

THERMAL: 0.577 X 1560 = 900.12

Then I did the other ship and came up with this set of numbers.

VULTURE-02: https://s.orbis.zone/2cb8

EXPLOSIVE: 0.544 X 1786 = 971.584

KINETIC: 0.453 X 1488 = 674.0640

THERMAL: 0.429 X 1428 = 612.612

This is the comparison.

EXPLOSIVE: VULTURE-01 = 1213.056 > VULTURE-02 = 971.584

KINETIC: VULTURE-01 = 639.6 < VULTURE-02 = 674.064

THERMAL: VULTURE-01 = 900.12 > VULTURE-02 = 612.612

So, the 02 has higher kinetic strength, but the 01 is stronger on thermal and explosive strength.

Is this doing what I want it to do or is there a problem with it?

How does the HP ABSOLUTE number fit into all this? The 01 is 660MJ and 02 is 815MJ.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

This is something I've been playing with recently, and there's a couple of other things to consider. The absolute value impacts shield recharge and (obviously) ability to deal with absolute damage dealing Thargoids, PAs and those Tridents. Reinforced shields also eat up more distributor reserves.

It's the reason that most people will suggest using thermal resist on bi-weaves as by keeping your absolute values low, you don't impact recharge time (amount per second stays the same so 5mj/s on a 600mj shield is better than 5mj/s on an 800mj shield) like you do with reinforced whilst still keeping a similar or better shield strength in the vast majority of cases (Thargoids being the big exception IMO).

Long story short, use thermal on bi-weaves when you want to preserve recharge times and reinforced on prismatics when recharge times are huge already.

 

[L M P]

This is something I've been playing with recently, and there's a couple of other things to consider. The absolute value impacts shield recharge and (obviously) ability to deal with absolute damage dealing Thargoids, PAs and those Tridents. Reinforced shields also eat up more distributor reserves.

It's the reason that most people will suggest using thermal resist on bi-weaves as by keeping your absolute values low, you don't impact recharge time (amount per second stays the same so 5mj/s on a 600mj shield is better than 5mj/s on an 800mj shield) like you do with reinforced whilst still keeping a similar or better shield strength in the vast majority of cases (Thargoids being the big exception IMO).

Long story short, use thermal on bi-weaves when you want to preserve recharge times and reinforced on prismatics when recharge times are huge already.

I want to know how the basic system works, which is applicable to either type of shield.

The thing that I am wondering about most is the absolute number, what does it mean and how does it fit in with the rest?

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

I want to know how the basic system works, which is applicable to either type of shield.

The thing that I am wondering about most is the absolute number, what does it mean and how does it fit in with the rest?

Absolute = raw for all intents and purposes, in that it bypasses resistances.

If you only look at one variable, you aren't getting a complete picture.
Deejayeff145 gave you a good answer.

 

[L M P]

Absolute = raw for all intents and purposes, in that it bypasses resistances.

If you only look at one variable, you aren't getting a complete picture.
Deejayeff145 gave you a good answer.

Yeah, I read his post and I learned some things from it, but is that all there is to it?

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Yeah, I read his post and I learned some things from it, but is that all there is to it?

Pretty much, aside from power and pips management.
Biweaves have a high recharge rate so they require more sys capacitor.
Prismatics are more power hungry otoh.
Both can be mitigated with the lo-draw experimental.

If you fool around on coriolis enough, you'll find the aforementioned combinations make the most sense, respectively.

That said, I have toyed around with the idea of a thermal prismatic on a Cutter, since you can get more shield gen integrity that way, and c8 SCBs are huge.

 

[Flin]

L M P,

If you haven't already, learn about the key variables such as damage types: explosive, kinetic, thermal, caustic and absolute. Such as resistences, etc.

Then in Coriolis, you'll have a better understanding of and more able to interpret the values there. Beyond the numbers at the top for shields, check the defense tab for profiles based on pips input (scenario analysis).

Quick look at the defense tab, Vulture 1 has higher effective shields based on higher resistences, but at the cost of slightly lower absolute.

Looking at the effective value with 4 pips to shields, you can start seeing how resistences augment effective shield value with pips to shields.

Vulture 1 also has slightly lower recharge and regen rates.

Special note on the defense profile page: change the "opponent" you want to analyze against. The default eagle comparison is useless for analytic purposes.

Save your build and select it as the opponent. Then you can see your shield perform against your build.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

These would be more typical blueprints/experimentals to compare.

Reinforced/hicap + HD/SC boosters:
https://s.orbis.zone/2ctp

Thermal/fast charge + RA/SC boosters:
https://s.orbis.zone/2ctq

 

[L M P]

Based on everything I've read about shields and shield setup I would have guessed the 01 has the best shield configuration. When I made 02 with a grade 5 reinforced shield instead of a thermal shield I had to use thermal block on everything and thermal shield boosters to get the thermal resistance up. The thing that has me wondering is it feels like the shields on the 02 are harder to knock down. Is that because its got a higher absolute number?

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Based on everything I've read about shields and shield setup I would have guessed the 01 has the best shield configuration. When I made 02 with a grade 5 reinforced shield instead of a thermal shield I had to use thermal block on everything and thermal shield boosters to get the thermal resistance up. The thing that has me wondering is it feels like the shields on the 02 are harder to knock down. Is that because its got a higher absolute number?

It depends on what's hitting you. If you're rammed (I think this does absolute damage- not 100% sure though) it certainly feels like thermal resist shields suffer more. The absolute value merely means you're able to take more absolute damage. However it's worth seeing if you can increase your kinetic resistance if that's looking low as that can be an issue with thermal resists.

I'm finding that if I can avoid being rammed, thermal resist shields are dropping less than reinforced since most npcs come at me with a significant amount of thermal damage dealing weapons. Most of my builds are now hybrid hull/shield tanks, so the faster broken shield recovery in thermal resists can be very useful to me as well.

Resistance values are usually more critical than absolute values. A stock 2000 mj shield is far worse at dealing with lasers than a 1000 mj shield with 50% thermal resistance but would likely be better against PAs. In a Vulture, you'd probably try to evade a PA though. This might be something to take to a Vulture owners thread as well, if you haven't already.