Newcomer / Intro Hull mass exceeds shield generator confusion

[DanteC]

In my Asp Explorer, after the 1.6 upgrade, I appear to be getting massacred in combat. Looking at my equipment, I had a message with my 5C shield generator saying 'Hull mass exceeds shield generator'. Great, I figured. Having A rank power units etc made my shields useless, so upgraded to a 6C, and downgraded engines etc. But I'm still getting a message saying 'hull mass exceeds shield generator'. Seems weird considering this is the best shields I can get.

The 6C shield generator has a minimum hull mass of 270T, optimal at 540, and maximum at 1350.
The bottom-left of the outfitting screen has three figures for total mass, but nothing to indicate what these actually represent?. 494.1/504.1/945T . I can't upload a screenshot for some reason to clarify this better unfortunately.

 

[Chris Simon]

Please upload the screen to imgur and put it here. Once it's uploaded, right-click it and choose "Copy image location". Then click the little "painting" icon, here (insert image), choosing the "from URL".
It sounds fishy, Asp should be okay with even just class 4 shield (mass-wise, of course, they would be crap, altogether)

Just from your description I can't say what you're doing wrong.

You can also show us your ship by building it in coriolis.io and linking it here.

 

[DanteC]

Here's a pic of the shield generator info I'm getting.

 

[Luke3107]

The three numbers by 'Total Mass' represent:
Current/Fully Laden/Maximum

Current is basically the total Mass of all your modules and the hull of your ship plus any cargo you are carrying.

Fully Laden is the same plus a full cargo hold (this will be the same number as current if you don't have any cargo racks)

Maximum is the maxium T your currently installed thrusters can handle.

I am open to correction but this is the principle I have been using and it has served me quite well so far.

In order to find 'Hull Mass' use the "Current" section as your guide as I believe "Hull Mass" refers to the total mass of all your ship plus all modules, not just the empty ship. I am unsure if your cargo is taken into account for shields or not, but it definitely affects your thrusters.

Edit: As for why your 6C Shields are unsuitable, that is a mystery to me I'm afraid.

 

[Chris Simon]

Hmm. Well, you have it fitted, so the warning might be a bug.

Does the shield actually work?

 

[DanteC]

It works, but I have been expecting it to last a lot longer in fights, especially being a more powerful shield generator. Fights seem a lot tougher now (I did hear about how AI pirates accidently had more powerful weapons, but that was meant to have been fixed?). I had to run away from an Adder just now, it was tearing my shields apart.

EDIT - Just bought a Vulture, went to outfitting screen, haven't bought a single thing, and I'm getting the same message.

 

[happyfunball]

This looks like a UI display bug. When you hover over the "Installed" Shield Generator, the UI does not update that line about hull mass. When you mouse over a smaller shield that's available for sale, the UI displays that line. When you hover over the installed shield, the UI does not update, so it keeps the line from the smaller shield.

To check for yourself, find a station with a different class 6 shield, say a 6A. If you hover over the 6A shield that is for sale, that line will disappear. If you then avoid hovering your mouse pointer over any other underpower shields and hover over the installed shield, you'll see that the line remains undisplayed.

 

[aRJay]

http://i.imgur.com/9pez8nT.png

Here's a pic of the shield generator info I'm getting.

That is a feature of the outfitting interface I think, sometimes it doesn't always show the right information. I have had it displaying info for Hull reinforcements when I had switched to a totally different category it sorted itself out when I clicked on an item.

In this case it is displaying the stats for your 6C shield bat has the warning for the 2E which is the only one it stocks.

If you go to somewhere with a more comprehensive set of shields you should get rid of this glitch. I am running the slightly less powerful but quicker 6C biweave shield on my Asp X and it is fine.

 

[Chris Simon]

It works, but I have been expecting it to last a lot longer in fights, especially being a more powerful shield generator. Fights seem a lot tougher now (I did hear about how AI pirates accidently had more powerful weapons, but that was meant to have been fixed?). I had to run away from an Adder just now, it was tearing my shields apart.

EDIT - Just bought a Vulture, went to outfitting screen, haven't bought a single thing, and I'm getting the same message.

Oh, it's alright. Asp, even with A6 SG doesn't have somewhat stellar shields.
And like aRJay said, the message is related to the comparison of your currently fitted shields (C6) and the ones available in the outfitting. (E2)

If you want to experiment with the shield strengths on ships, use the site I've linked earlier. It will tell you the values and you don't have to build everything in game.
As you can see, your shield's strength is 250MJ. One hit from dual C2 Rail guns is approximately 100MJ. So yeah. Asp is an awesome multirole, but she isn't a tank.

 

[aRJay]

Just tried it in game I get the same message until I hi-lighted the first valid shield they had available when it went away.

To cope with the vagaries of shields I run with a utility point fitted with an A class shield booster for an extra 20% and most of the interior is hull reinforcement, which was handy in this session when for no good reason my targets wingman objected to me shooting the target up and they both started firing at me.

It was all getting very exciting with even my point defence going onto nearly continuous fire, no idea what at maybe I should fit gun cameras, then the police took out the wingman just before my target exploded right alongside my canopy.