I think that it’s not a matter of debate that there is significant imbalance between Hull and Shields in this game; Shields are far more important in comparison to Hull for ships, which is detrimental for ships which rely on high hull strength for their survivability. Therefore, I (using the contributions of a number of players from Elite and AXI Discords) have compiled a list of suggestions to improve the value of hull vis a vis shields.
The underlying issues with the weakness of hulls are:-
1. That hull focused ships have to rely on a mix of Hull Reinforcement Packages and Module Reinforcement Packages to actually survive;
requiring investment in HRPs, MRPs and hull upgrades (which separately address different areas of hull and module protection) whereas
Shield focus only really requires investment in a shield generator and inexpensive shield boosters and SCBs (which all address the same
shield strength value).
2. Hull tanking is invariably expensive due to the repair costs involved
3. Shields provide near universal protection from damage, while Hull provides limited protection and leaves the ship open to the module
killing through missiles and rails, and which seems to be extremely easy for NPCs who start sniping player modules with the second
shields go down.
The suggestions are:-
1. Merge Hull Reinforcement Packages and Module Reinforcement Packages to make it simpler and more effective to rely on the
hull. Doing so will allow hull focused ships to have a simpler and more effective way of increasing their survivability.
2. Allow for bigger classes HRPs/MRPs for them to be a worthy replacement for shield generator/SCB slot on larger ships.
3. Reduce the shield buff provided by pips to SYS; 4 pips should be 200%, 3 pips should be 150%, 2 pips should be 100% and 1
pip should be 50% shields respectively.
4. Make NPCs less effective at module sniping and not have magical module killing weapons the second a shields go down.
5. Make modules only take damage after a hull is at 50% or below (with MRPs or HRPs pushing that threshold further).
It may also be fruitful to make the following changes to missiles and utilities to make them easier and more fun to use:-
1. Remove jitter from point defense or increase its rate of fire significantly, and make it more accurate so that it can reliably kill missiles.
2. Make Chaff cause missiles to lose target while it is active.
3. Make ECMs act as a passive rather than active ability, which has a good (about 50-75)% chance to cause missiles around the ship to
malfunction and destroy themselves.
4. Make missiles a fast hull killing weapon that can’t turn around effectively; ships should be able to dodge it by making sharp manoeuvres
and/or through countermeasures.
5. Missiles should only really be effective when fired beyond a certain range (to avoid overshoot) and reduce target acquisition angle from
the current nearly 180 degrees to something like 90 degrees. Give missile racks in larger sizes and with bigger magazines to
compensate.
6. Make missiles with a variety of warheads to compensate instead of just the simple hull killer variety; for example, shield killer missiles
that cause a variety of effects on shields (such as a % of the total strength as damage or damage the shield boosters through heat), or
even impart heat to the ship modules. This would bring out the versatility of missiles as a weapon that can be made to suit a variety of
situations by changing the payload.
7. Make utility slots have better placement on ships so that point defense can have adequate coverage to fire effectively.
The underlying issues with the weakness of hulls are:-
1. That hull focused ships have to rely on a mix of Hull Reinforcement Packages and Module Reinforcement Packages to actually survive;
requiring investment in HRPs, MRPs and hull upgrades (which separately address different areas of hull and module protection) whereas
Shield focus only really requires investment in a shield generator and inexpensive shield boosters and SCBs (which all address the same
shield strength value).
2. Hull tanking is invariably expensive due to the repair costs involved
3. Shields provide near universal protection from damage, while Hull provides limited protection and leaves the ship open to the module
killing through missiles and rails, and which seems to be extremely easy for NPCs who start sniping player modules with the second
shields go down.
The suggestions are:-
1. Merge Hull Reinforcement Packages and Module Reinforcement Packages to make it simpler and more effective to rely on the
hull. Doing so will allow hull focused ships to have a simpler and more effective way of increasing their survivability.
2. Allow for bigger classes HRPs/MRPs for them to be a worthy replacement for shield generator/SCB slot on larger ships.
3. Reduce the shield buff provided by pips to SYS; 4 pips should be 200%, 3 pips should be 150%, 2 pips should be 100% and 1
pip should be 50% shields respectively.
4. Make NPCs less effective at module sniping and not have magical module killing weapons the second a shields go down.
5. Make modules only take damage after a hull is at 50% or below (with MRPs or HRPs pushing that threshold further).
It may also be fruitful to make the following changes to missiles and utilities to make them easier and more fun to use:-
1. Remove jitter from point defense or increase its rate of fire significantly, and make it more accurate so that it can reliably kill missiles.
2. Make Chaff cause missiles to lose target while it is active.
3. Make ECMs act as a passive rather than active ability, which has a good (about 50-75)% chance to cause missiles around the ship to
malfunction and destroy themselves.
4. Make missiles a fast hull killing weapon that can’t turn around effectively; ships should be able to dodge it by making sharp manoeuvres
and/or through countermeasures.
5. Missiles should only really be effective when fired beyond a certain range (to avoid overshoot) and reduce target acquisition angle from
the current nearly 180 degrees to something like 90 degrees. Give missile racks in larger sizes and with bigger magazines to
compensate.
6. Make missiles with a variety of warheads to compensate instead of just the simple hull killer variety; for example, shield killer missiles
that cause a variety of effects on shields (such as a % of the total strength as damage or damage the shield boosters through heat), or
even impart heat to the ship modules. This would bring out the versatility of missiles as a weapon that can be made to suit a variety of
situations by changing the payload.
7. Make utility slots have better placement on ships so that point defense can have adequate coverage to fire effectively.
