Prismatic Shield Generator advice?

JetsonRING

JetsonRING
[alien] I have read that Prismatic Shield generators basically benefit the largest ships the most and that their greatly increased mass and power-draw make them undesirable for smaller ships.


I purchased Prismatic Shield Generators for my Cutter, Corvette, Type-10 and Anacondas (I have no T-9, T-7, Orca, Beluga, etc.) and am wondering which, if any of the smaller ships could benefit from Prismatics.


I would also appreciate advice on modifications and experimental effects. So far I am using the reinforced shield mod with thermo-block experimental effect backed up with a mix of Shield Boosters modded for Heavy-Duty with Thermal Conduit and Thermal Resistant with Flow Control.


Bi-weaves on the small & medium ships and Prismatics on the large ships?
 
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Vedmo

Vedmo
Don't rule out Prismatics for small ships. Enhanced low power still ups the shield value while cutting the weight down to that of a bi-weave the same size. Small bi-weaves don't regenerate fast enough to justify them over regular shields either, imo. I don't think I have bi-weaves on anything smaller than 5's. Courier and Vulture are two small ships that benefit nicely from prismatics.

You can do some good things with undersized prismatics on trade and exploration builds as well.
 
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AsukaZ

AsukaZ
JetsonRING said:
[alien]
...
Bi-weaves on the small & medium ships and Prismatics on the large ships?
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I think mostly yes, with a few exceptions. I have prismatics on the Anaconda but Bi-weaves on the Cutter.
Tried it that way as an experiment and think I prefer it.
Tried prismatics on the Courier too, I prefer their holding power when I'm need to do a runner.
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
Said almost the same thing yesterday; the best use of smaller prismatic shields to provide adequate shields for medium-pad ships for minimal slot real-estate.

If you have, say, an Asp, Krait or Python which you don't intend to take into combat (and which, if you do get into combat, it'll either be a one-time thing or you'll just run away) then a C3/C4 prismatic will work.

I wouldn't fit them to something like a Cobra, Viper 3 or iCourier simply cos whatever you can do to make a prismatic shield lighter, you can also do to a shield that's lighter to begin with and the main defence those ships have is speed.

I still wouldn't stick them on a big combat ship though, even with SCBs.
That's what I used to do and I find a bi-weave with SBs and GSBs is more useful in prolonged combat.

FWIW, I just spent an hour at a CNB in a Krait with a C3 prismatic shield.
It wasn't terrible but I did have to re-boot the shields a couple of times.
That works as long as you don't have a GSB fitted, cos they prevent your shield coming back on line.
 

Captain Willard

Captain Willard
I use prismatics on most ships. They carry no weapons.
Biweaves on smaller combat ships. heavily engyd prismatics on ships that carry multple big scb's
Eache ship is a different build. I only fly solo or pg so mileage may vary.
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
Always use reinforced on prismatics, as the boosters work on the total amount of mj and reinforced maximizes that. Throw in a thermal resist or two.
High-cap if possible for the same reasons (but sometimes low-draw is needed if you don't have the power for all those mj).
 

NecasekO

N
I'd say it's not small ship / large ship but rather what is the relative shield modifier of each ship type.

Since prismatic shields add a percentage of shield MJ, they work better on ships that already have high shield strength, and/or have lots of utility slots for boosters. FDL, Mamba, iCourier or Vulture can make good use of prismatic shields. I have had great success using class 4 prismatic shield (with 4 boosters) on a DBX.

On the other hand, trying a prismatic shield on a Challenger didn't go well, since that ship has a low shield modifier and the prismatic shield was still fairly weak, with added weight and power draw. I assume similar results with federal ships or Clipper - some ships are just plain better with bi-weave shields.

One final note - DO NOT use prismatic shield with the low power mod. It sounds good at first, but a normal A rated shield with reinforced mod is better overall (similar mass, power draw and MJ strength, but higher resistance).
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
NecasekO said:
One final note - DO NOT use prismatic shield with the low power mod. It sounds good at first, but a normal A rated shield with reinforced mod is better overall (similar mass, power draw and MJ strength, but higher resistance).
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The last one is not true in every case, if you for example compare a 7A reinforced high cap on a corvette with a 7A prismatic reinforced low draw you still get better mj from the prismatic, which only improves by adding boosters.
 
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Trollymctrollerson

T
I get the most use out of my size 4 5 and 6 prismatics. Size 7 with reinforced +high cap is alot of shield but it sucks soooooo much power I went back to normal A rated for the Corvette. I still get 4600 MJ with A shields. The extra 1000Mj the prismatic gives is just over the top and causes lots of other sacrifices to be made. I haven't yet figured out a way to run 7 prismatic, 6 shield boosters and 2 7b SCBs without overcharging the power plant. I like the armored G5+monstered mod and hate overcharged but that's just a personal preference.
 

Ayho

A
Trollymctrollerson said:
I get the most use out of my size 4 5 and 6 prismatics. Size 7 with reinforced +high cap is alot of shield but it sucks soooooo much power I went back to normal A rated for the Corvette. I still get 4600 MJ with A shields. The extra 1000Mj the prismatic gives is just over the top and causes lots of other sacrifices to be made. I haven't yet figured out a way to run 7 prismatic, 6 shield boosters and 2 7b SCBs without overcharging the power plant. I like the armored G5+monstered mod and hate overcharged but that's just a personal preference.
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Did you thought of flow control on 6 shield boosters and also if you use lasers than you can also have flow control on them. You create more power this way.
 

Trollymctrollerson

T
Ya I tried that. It's still short. Besides, using gimped shield boosters defeats the objective of using the strongest shield possible for mooOAoar shield strength. It's more power efficient to just use A rated shields and supercapacitors effect on the HD boosters. Resist augmented boosters do get Flow control.
 

Ayho

A
Trollymctrollerson said:
Ya I tried that. It's still short. Besides, using gimped shield boosters defeats the objective of using the strongest shield possible for mooOAoar shield strength. It's more power efficient to just use A rated shields and supercapacitors effect on the HD boosters. Resist augmented boosters do get Flow control.
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I have the same power problem but i had to use flow control. 4 hd boosters grade 5 and 2 resist boosters. I have 5300 mj shields and finally i can run it with armored powerplant.
 
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