Since this is the "Suggestion" forum: the net effect of having the incredible shield strengths (including shield cell banks, modded shield etc etc) is that it simply takes forever to kill an evenly matched target. Now in Odyssey I see ridiculous pumping of lasers into enemies footsoldiers...all to bring their shields down, followed by a long slog pf bullets etc to injure the target.
NET EFFECT: All weapons in Elite feel puny and underpowered. Combat goes on far longer than it needs be. Rather than tense, brutal and short. Its a long slog of exchanging spitballs in a war of "shield attrition." This is boring and unsatisfying.
Making shields, say, half as strong as they currently are would make weapons feel powerful without losing the advantage of having shields.
I have a silly but historical metaphor from 30+ years ago.
When I was a kid and used to play as a DM in "Dungeons & Dragons,": I did the silly things like allowing players to do "multiple rolls" for hit points when they were leveling up ("choose best out of 3 rolls"). This then forced me to add extra hit points to monsters to balance the game out. All this "arms race" ever did was result in overtanked players and monsters and combat would go on and on and on. WHen I stopped doing that...forcing players to level up with lower levels of hit points, and I stopped assigning high hit point counts to monsters, combat was more exciting. It was more dangerous, didn't drag as long, and getting a hit really meant something.
SO perhaps consider reducing the overpowered shielding in this game. An for the love of god, reduce all this Shield Cell tanking. It will feel more realistic and I daresay much for fun to play.
NET EFFECT: All weapons in Elite feel puny and underpowered. Combat goes on far longer than it needs be. Rather than tense, brutal and short. Its a long slog of exchanging spitballs in a war of "shield attrition." This is boring and unsatisfying.
Making shields, say, half as strong as they currently are would make weapons feel powerful without losing the advantage of having shields.
I have a silly but historical metaphor from 30+ years ago.
When I was a kid and used to play as a DM in "Dungeons & Dragons,": I did the silly things like allowing players to do "multiple rolls" for hit points when they were leveling up ("choose best out of 3 rolls"). This then forced me to add extra hit points to monsters to balance the game out. All this "arms race" ever did was result in overtanked players and monsters and combat would go on and on and on. WHen I stopped doing that...forcing players to level up with lower levels of hit points, and I stopped assigning high hit point counts to monsters, combat was more exciting. It was more dangerous, didn't drag as long, and getting a hit really meant something.
SO perhaps consider reducing the overpowered shielding in this game. An for the love of god, reduce all this Shield Cell tanking. It will feel more realistic and I daresay much for fun to play.