I wanted to compare the three different types of shields Regular/Bi-weave/Prismatic and give them an actual score in comparison to each other. I am using Regular shields as a base value of 100. Anything that effects the performance of your ship will either add or subtract from this value. For example bi-weave has 20% lower mj value over a regular shield, which would give it a score of 80 vs the 100 baseline. Test was done using Anaconda with no SB. I used Coriolis Ship yard, not sure if all values there are correct as it shows regular shields 22% stronger vs bi-weave, but Prismatic are only 18% stronger than regular shields (I though it was supposed to be 20/20) but I think for this comparison its close enough.
The comparison:
--------------------Shield Mj------- Power Use----------- Weight-------- Recharge rate
Regular shields ---- 100 --------------100 -----------------100 --------------100
Biweave -------------78 -------------- 140 -----------------100 --------------150
Prismatic -----------118--------------- 60 -------------------50 --------------100
Overall Score:
Regular - 400
Bi-weave - 468
Prismatic - 328
Imo this is very unbalanced. You only gain 18% shield value with Prismatic and have to make massive sacrifices in weight and power consumption. With Bi-weave you lose 22% shield value but not only do you get a massive 50% faster recharge rate, but you also dont have to make any weight compromises. If thats not enough, you also actually use much less power, like 50% less. Thats a lot of power, which can be used toward better weapons/shield cell banks/boosters to completely in itself offset the small shield value advantage you get with Prismatic.
I do realize some people may not necessarily see this as a fair comparison as all 4 categories have a base value of 100, and might think in the real world, weight isnt nearly as important as recharge rate or max shield value. But all these things do matter, including power usage on certain ships/builds, you simply cant max out your shield boosters, in which case Prismatic shield might not be any stronger than a regular shield, while at the same time drawing more power from your ship. Higher weight and Power usage can wreak havoc on certain ship builds, so all these categories do play into each other and are equally important. Based on this test, regular/Bi-weave are the best shields for most situations, aside for non combat roles. When a trader is running from a fight and wants to absorb maximum damage (using Prismatic), they dont care about recharge rate, but even for a trader its a questionable shield. As it will greatly reduce your jump range and maybe even require you to use a bigger generator which adds even more weight, just to get a measly 18% increase in shield value? I suppose on trade ships, you could use Prysmatic to free up a bit of cargo space and maintain the same shield value, but again at the cost of jump range/speed/huge cost difference, so its arguable if its worth it even in that scenario.
This brings me to my last point and the the reason for this post. If we added two more categories to the list, the results would be so skewed it would be laughable. These categories would be, difficulty to acquire the part and its price. A C7 Bi-weave costs around 9 million, but its Prismatic counterpart costs 77 million!! Thats almost 8x the cost. Also you can go to any station and buy a Bi-weave, but to get a Prismatic would require, defecting from your faction, not having access to their unique parts anymore, about a week of waiting and a bunch of missions to get a high enough rating to be able to buy it.
Could someone explain to me why the most inferior shield costs 8x as much and requires extra time and effort to get? Shouldnt this be the other way around? This probably goes for most faction specific parts.. If I understand this correctly, I join and support a faction, wait patiently, and do a bunch of work for that faction, my reward is punishment? These faction specific parts should be glorious!! I mean if you wanted just half these parts youre talking months of waiting and you have to buy ships to store all these parts so you still have access to them. This is a lot of effort and should be rewarded. FD could we get a small adjustment? If this was balanced most ships would be using their faction parts, but i bet most cmdr's use regular parts like beam/burst/Bi-weave/regular shields. Which goes to show you, the parts that are unique and hardest to attain and cost the most are actually inferior parts. This doesnt make sense to me.
The comparison:
--------------------Shield Mj------- Power Use----------- Weight-------- Recharge rate
Regular shields ---- 100 --------------100 -----------------100 --------------100
Biweave -------------78 -------------- 140 -----------------100 --------------150
Prismatic -----------118--------------- 60 -------------------50 --------------100
Overall Score:
Regular - 400
Bi-weave - 468
Prismatic - 328
Imo this is very unbalanced. You only gain 18% shield value with Prismatic and have to make massive sacrifices in weight and power consumption. With Bi-weave you lose 22% shield value but not only do you get a massive 50% faster recharge rate, but you also dont have to make any weight compromises. If thats not enough, you also actually use much less power, like 50% less. Thats a lot of power, which can be used toward better weapons/shield cell banks/boosters to completely in itself offset the small shield value advantage you get with Prismatic.
I do realize some people may not necessarily see this as a fair comparison as all 4 categories have a base value of 100, and might think in the real world, weight isnt nearly as important as recharge rate or max shield value. But all these things do matter, including power usage on certain ships/builds, you simply cant max out your shield boosters, in which case Prismatic shield might not be any stronger than a regular shield, while at the same time drawing more power from your ship. Higher weight and Power usage can wreak havoc on certain ship builds, so all these categories do play into each other and are equally important. Based on this test, regular/Bi-weave are the best shields for most situations, aside for non combat roles. When a trader is running from a fight and wants to absorb maximum damage (using Prismatic), they dont care about recharge rate, but even for a trader its a questionable shield. As it will greatly reduce your jump range and maybe even require you to use a bigger generator which adds even more weight, just to get a measly 18% increase in shield value? I suppose on trade ships, you could use Prysmatic to free up a bit of cargo space and maintain the same shield value, but again at the cost of jump range/speed/huge cost difference, so its arguable if its worth it even in that scenario.
This brings me to my last point and the the reason for this post. If we added two more categories to the list, the results would be so skewed it would be laughable. These categories would be, difficulty to acquire the part and its price. A C7 Bi-weave costs around 9 million, but its Prismatic counterpart costs 77 million!! Thats almost 8x the cost. Also you can go to any station and buy a Bi-weave, but to get a Prismatic would require, defecting from your faction, not having access to their unique parts anymore, about a week of waiting and a bunch of missions to get a high enough rating to be able to buy it.
Could someone explain to me why the most inferior shield costs 8x as much and requires extra time and effort to get? Shouldnt this be the other way around? This probably goes for most faction specific parts.. If I understand this correctly, I join and support a faction, wait patiently, and do a bunch of work for that faction, my reward is punishment? These faction specific parts should be glorious!! I mean if you wanted just half these parts youre talking months of waiting and you have to buy ships to store all these parts so you still have access to them. This is a lot of effort and should be rewarded. FD could we get a small adjustment? If this was balanced most ships would be using their faction parts, but i bet most cmdr's use regular parts like beam/burst/Bi-weave/regular shields. Which goes to show you, the parts that are unique and hardest to attain and cost the most are actually inferior parts. This doesnt make sense to me.
