Engineers Force Shells on Shielded Targets

Do Force Shells work on ships with shields? Does the amount of "blast" depend on cannon size? As an Overwatch player who enjoys the tactic of "booping", I think it would be cool to try rear-firing force shell cannons on my non-combat ships as a tool for keeping "bad guys" off my tail after an interdiction long enough for my FSD to charge for a speedy escape. I used to equip mines for this purpose until I learned that they are useless... Or has that changed? How does the "boop" of a force shell compare to shock mines?
 
Do Force Shells work on ships with shields? Does the amount of "blast" depend on cannon size? As an Overwatch player who enjoys the tactic of "booping", I think it would be cool to try rear-firing force shell cannons on my non-combat ships as a tool for keeping "bad guys" off my tail after an interdiction long enough for my FSD to charge for a speedy escape. I used to equip mines for this purpose until I learned that they are useless... Or has that changed? How does the "boop" of a force shell compare to shock mines?

I was in a wing battle, in my fully shielded vette, and somebody blasted me with Force Shells repeatedly; so much so it drove me backwards and looked like I was flying reverski.

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I'm curious if Force Shell stacks. If so, I'm stacking these bad bois.
 
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I use force shells myself, I find them pretty funny on really small vessels!

Yes, they do work with shielded targets, In fact today I was sending sidewinders and eagles into flips with my size 1's!

they do not stack apparently, there was nerf a while ago I heard preventing this (as FS is surprisingly OP and underrated).

One question that I have been asking is does the size make a huge difference, size 1's make a sidewinder spin like a vinyl record, size 4 do the same to a python?
 
I use force shells myself, I find them pretty funny on really small vessels!

Yes, they do work with shielded targets, In fact today I was sending sidewinders and eagles into flips with my size 1's!

they do not stack apparently, there was nerf a while ago I heard preventing this (as FS is surprisingly OP and underrated).

One question that I have been asking is does the size make a huge difference, size 1's make a sidewinder spin like a vinyl record, size 4 do the same to a python?

This makes me want to put a size 1 cannon/long range/force shell/ turret on every PvP ship in my fleet; especially vs FDL griefers. Why is this not a thing?
 
They do definitely stack, 1 force shell cannon does barely anything, while 3 will send an anaconda backwards. Still, i feel like there's a lot of missing information on these bad boys. As far as i understand, their strength are based on damage, so a class 2 cannon will have a higher "force" exerted than a class one, and overcharging the cannon will boost the effect further (although long range is my favorite mod for this experimental). What i don't know for is, for example, will 3 small fixed cannons have a bigger effect than 2 medium fixed cannons? They both deal almost identical damage, so according to what i've said earlier, the force shell effect should be about the same strength on both, but i don't know if the fact that it's 3 force shell effects vs 2 force shell effects have any difference on it.
 
Do Force Shells work on ships with shields?

Yes.

Does the amount of "blast" depend on cannon size?

It depends on projectile damage, so indirectly, yes.

I'm curious if Force Shell stacks

The magnitude of the shock no longer stacks, at least not much.

However, more than force shell cannon can shake a target more often.

This makes me want to put a size 1 cannon/long range/force shell/ turret on every PvP ship in my fleet; especially vs FDL griefers.

The amount of push is relative to the damage of the shot vs. the mass of the vessel.

A single small LR turret doesn't do much to an FDL, though it can be annoying if they are trying to land fixed hitscan weapons.
 
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Okay I'm seeing mixed messages regarding if the "knock you off course" effect stacks or not. One disadvantage of mixing FS with a non FS cannon is that FS slows down shots. So for example, if I have a Vulture with two cannons firing "double-barrel" and only one is FS, it'll be harder to land both shots except at close range or on targets not crossing my path at high velocity.
 
Also, is the force of the shell deterministic? Can I aim my shots like a cue ball in order to knock a ship in a particular direction (like into an asteroid)?

I know it would be a suicide mission and probably make somebody mad, but I really want to try this on a Beluga coming out of the mailslot! 😈
 
No idea about stacking but if you pop some into your mothership and get out to the side in an SLF you can really see the comedy effect it has on even shielded ships.
 
Okay I'm seeing mixed messages regarding if the "knock you off course" effect stacks or not. One disadvantage of mixing FS with a non FS cannon is that FS slows down shots. So for example, if I have a Vulture with two cannons firing "double-barrel" and only one is FS, it'll be harder to land both shots except at close range or on targets not crossing my path at high velocity.

The instantaneous amplitude slightly stacks, but two cannon on a vulture are very easy to stagger for more frequent hits. A LR5 large force shell turret is also very close in velocity to an LR or Focused 4 large PA projectile, should you want to pair one with a weapon that does more damage.

Also, is the force of the shell deterministic? Can I aim my shots like a cue ball in order to knock a ship in a particular direction (like into an asteroid)?

Yes. However, placing your shots perfectly against a moving target is difficult on NPCs and essentially impossible against CMDRs (due to latency compensation) and an oppoent's corrections can be unpredictable in any case.
 
I've used FS cannons on a number of ships and AFAIK they do stack e.g. a Conda with 2S+1L+1H or a Vette with 2S+2M+1L can toss another Conda/Vette around like a toy even bouncing it off an asteroid.

As mentioned above the results are a combination of weapon DPS and target mass/thruster performance (get a clean hit on a T10 and it'll fly backwards!)
 
It dawned on me while testing these on my Vulture that I can put each cannon on a separate trigger, allowing for a "one, two punch" or a "double-barreled blast". When using these for pure annoyance / disruption, I'm thinking the more rapid back and forth "one, two punch" would be more effective.

Now I'm looking forward to the next CG so I can wing up with a couple other players against some bigger ships. This build isn't the most effective solo build (mainly because landing cannon shots in a 1v1 dance isn't trivial), but in a wing it would definitely serve a unique and fun role. It also packs quite the DPS punch!
 
One of the most effective features of force canons besides disrupting a fixed opponents aim is the ability to sit inside their turn radius and use the effects to prvent/impede their ability to turn their nose toward you.

Fixed c2's give you the same lead as pa's.
This gives you more time to swap thruster matchup for your transition.

For larger versions a c4 force will actually stop a b3 from boost flipping in front of you if you hit it in the nose from above and behind as it pitches and reverse thrusts.
 
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