Anybody fitting B-rated upgrades?

[Troa Barton]

You are always going to benefit from having better rated components.
not too sure about having a noticeable armor steroid though. There hasn't really been any good testing on this to say for sure unfortunately.
the only B rated component that I purposfully seek out are SCBs the B's have more charges, use less power, and can restore a greater total amount of shields over the A's.
The A's weigh less and restore more shield per charge but have less of them and use more power.

 

[Ben_BigBen]

B-rated AFMUs have more "repair ammo" than A rated ones (and no mass)

 

[Troa Barton]

B is for "Broke" (as in no credits, not broken) imo

I'm running some B gear at the moment, but plan to upgrade eventually.

The only D gear I'm currently packing is life support and sensors. Does anyone upgrade those things beyond D ?

Some people upgrade the life support but otherwise it's not worth the weight and power draw in my opinion. Some of my builds don't even have D rated sensors or life support in favor of a larger weapon or better shields ect. If sensors actually did something to improve accuracy for gimbals and turrets or increased the range to scan planetary bodies I can see fitting them into a build but otherwise i only upgrade them to D to save weight or if I have spare power.

 

[khaitom]

Good thing the number of ships that can actually be fitted with a B powerplant and not be completely starved or power can be counted on one hand. One carpenter's hand, too.

They all can. It depends what trade you're in.

 

[Leoben Capa]

I tend to avoid B just because I like my ships as light as possible. That and a B PP would never work on my Vulture.

 

[Quineloe]

They all can. It depends what trade you're in.

Yeah, because you need an armored power plant when trading...

 

[xondk]

Ok, did a little testing with a friend, vulture vs vulture, pulse lasers fired by him, both firing at my power plant, by all means not very detailed or scientific.

2x E3 pulse against A4 power plant: 9% damage
2x E3 pulse against A4 power plant: 8% damage

So there is a difference, but not very big.

 

[puca]

You are always going to benefit from having better rated components.

You only always benefit by upgrading from E. Otherwise it's tradeoffs. D is lightest (explorers/traders like them), B is armored, A is best at the role, C I think is average across the board.

 

[Midian27]

I use B rated powerplants for the extra health.

 

[Rubbernuke]

In Lugh I fitted a B rated powerplant in my Asp, as otherwise I'd be dead in six shots.

If you are fighting and think you will take hull damage B rated stuff is important.

 

[Briarée]

Ok, did a little testing with a friend, vulture vs vulture, pulse lasers fired by him, both firing at my power plant, by all means not very detailed or scientific.

2x E3 pulse against A4 power plant: 9% damage
2x E3 pulse against A4 power plant: 8% damage

So there is a difference, but not very big.

tbh, this difference might not even had to do with the pp grade, unless you did the test 10 times and each time there was a 1% difference......

 

[DidierDrbois]

B is for "Broke" (as in no credits, not broken) imo

I'm running some B gear at the moment, but plan to upgrade eventually.

The only D gear I'm currently packing is life support and sensors. Does anyone upgrade those things beyond D ?

Heh. Never. Might try A sensors for RES as sensibly suggested by a fellow commander some time ago. But they're way too power hungry.

Re life support, if it fails in combat, a station is always nearby. If it fails during exploration, not even a J (for Jesus) rated one will save you. D is a no-brainer.