In Solo? Yes; Less weight, longer jumps, quicker turnaround. In PvP I'm not so sure.
Is it worth it to run without shields?
- Thread starter deathmagnet
- Start date
In Solo? Yes; Less weight, longer jumps, quicker turnaround. In PvP I'm not so sure.
Well you already know my opinion I run shield less on all my traders except the anaconda.
npcs can't kill you fast enough
repairs are cheap
fuel is cheap
most Pirates will actually let you go if you comply
the only thing you have to worry about is a griefer/sore winner
BUT that isn't outside the scope of possibility and if you're flying at a community goal or rare circuit your chances of finding one of these types of players is significantly higher.
be smart, fly safe
frankly though I wish there were incentives to armor up and shield traders I hope smuggling makes the reduced cargo hold and shorter jump distances appealing.
imho though you don't make enough otherwise and the only way you can make a T9 better than a conda is to wing up and run it bare hull.
but deathmagnet is not lying and to those new to the game you should heed his advice he is not being unreasonable. Just know that the Galaxy is a big place you don't always have to go into heavy traffic areas to make a good buck.
npcs can't kill you fast enough
repairs are cheap
fuel is cheap
most Pirates will actually let you go if you comply
the only thing you have to worry about is a griefer/sore winner
BUT that isn't outside the scope of possibility and if you're flying at a community goal or rare circuit your chances of finding one of these types of players is significantly higher.
be smart, fly safe
frankly though I wish there were incentives to armor up and shield traders I hope smuggling makes the reduced cargo hold and shorter jump distances appealing.
imho though you don't make enough otherwise and the only way you can make a T9 better than a conda is to wing up and run it bare hull.
but deathmagnet is not lying and to those new to the game you should heed his advice he is not being unreasonable. Just know that the Galaxy is a big place you don't always have to go into heavy traffic areas to make a good buck.
I rarely use shields.
I've only been playing 4+ weeks and upgraded to an Asp Explorer 1 week or so ago.
To date 50% of my time has been exploring and 50% Trading -- now I'm doing some fighting for the Community Goal events WITH shields! i really haven't had much of problem crashing into anything (just fast/hard landing scrapes) and not lost a ship since my Sidewinder experiments (like "How much heat can I really take?" "Will the game let me fly into a sun?")
I've rarely run into another CMDR until I come back for the Community Goals and any pirate CMDRs have been very polite and let me jettison cargo *shrug*
I guess I should go find a craps game somewhere? Bet on some ponies or something?
"Red" Warden
I've only been playing 4+ weeks and upgraded to an Asp Explorer 1 week or so ago.
To date 50% of my time has been exploring and 50% Trading -- now I'm doing some fighting for the Community Goal events WITH shields! i really haven't had much of problem crashing into anything (just fast/hard landing scrapes) and not lost a ship since my Sidewinder experiments (like "How much heat can I really take?" "Will the game let me fly into a sun?")
I've rarely run into another CMDR until I come back for the Community Goals and any pirate CMDRs have been very polite and let me jettison cargo *shrug*
I guess I should go find a craps game somewhere? Bet on some ponies or something?
"Red" Warden
Thank you for everyone being polite, insightful and informative and just not throwing up over this thread.
No!!! I recently owned a Python with 77,000,000 credits. After days and days of trading between two systems with no shields I was finally blown away by a seriously well equipped Python. I was then very close to the point I wouldn't be able to afford the cost of getting my ship back. So what did I do? Rather than downgrade for a while I went out for one last run. I was attacked by a wing of 5 and now I am back to 1,000 credits in a sidewinder. Very annoyed to say the least. Not sure if I can be bothered to go through it all again. Shame really, I was starting to really enjoy it.
Cobra or Conda? I have no issues running my Conda without shields in Open, my T9 runs without shields in Mobius. Only other ship I would consider in Open is the Clipper.
Can't really see a reason to run a Cobra without shields. How much extra cargo can you get?
In general, I would suggest flying traders at least with the lowest shields possible, just in case. The main reason is that I read too much about failing and I suggest fromm all I hear, read, watch that the average skill level is rather...low. This is not a competitive game and is played by a decent amout of people who do not invest all their time into it due to different reasons. The older generation seem not to have a very high natural/basic skill + less time. Many use a HOTAS for their first time or haven't used their joystick for 7 years, cant even imagine how to play with mouse+kb, so their skills need to (re-)develop. Some even can't handle their money for insurance...Better safe than sorry. Quite frequently you can read about people stating frankly that they're rather bad pilots ^^
I myself never used shields on any trading ship since gamma. As a profit maximizer I had chosen to stay in Mobius when trading and as a beta backer I had learned piloting a spaceship already by that time and I am very confident about my flying skills. I made 90% of my assets during the time with crazy high fuel and repair costs. I never died in that time and only paid 1,2m in repairs which mostly came from the T9 where you had to pay 50k for a scratch. The one and only major fail produced a repair bill of 700k alone ^^ With my calculations I made some time ago I made way more profit having no shields.
I myself never used shields on any trading ship since gamma. As a profit maximizer I had chosen to stay in Mobius when trading and as a beta backer I had learned piloting a spaceship already by that time and I am very confident about my flying skills. I made 90% of my assets during the time with crazy high fuel and repair costs. I never died in that time and only paid 1,2m in repairs which mostly came from the T9 where you had to pay 50k for a scratch. The one and only major fail produced a repair bill of 700k alone ^^ With my calculations I made some time ago I made way more profit having no shields.
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This does of course not imply that this is correct for all, but I would bet that the vast majority of sons are better at computer gaming than their fathers. The young ones learn this from their childhood, some even too much. It's a generation difference, although there are very good gaming dads of course. But look at the e-sport scene, not many 40+ are professional gamers.
I didnt mean to offend and maybe I am wrong, those are just my assumptions and based on these and knowing that this forum community is by far older than the average gaming community talking about CS, CoD, LoL,... I would generally say that people should use shields if they have any doubt in their skills and keep asking themselves how expensive it is to die sometimes. If you are confident enough to fly without shields, there is no question about dying while trading (with the current mechanics)
I didnt mean to offend and maybe I am wrong, those are just my assumptions and based on these and knowing that this forum community is by far older than the average gaming community talking about CS, CoD, LoL,... I would generally say that people should use shields if they have any doubt in their skills and keep asking themselves how expensive it is to die sometimes. If you are confident enough to fly without shields, there is no question about dying while trading (with the current mechanics)
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16 tonnes i believe.
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This older generation you speak of started the gaming industry. Why do you think there skills would be sub-par? Funny. You may be right that there are not any pro-gamers above 40 but 20 years ago, professional gaming wasn't a very viable professional career to take up.
I run a T7 without shields in Open. Never lost a trading ship so far in over 4 months with c100m earned. if you chose your trading location well your biggest enemy will be scraping the letter box - seriously.
No need for shields.
No need for shields.
- just because they started the industry doesn't mean that they are automatically high-skilled. Usually programmers of games who somehow start games in the first place but are not the best at playing their own game
- games grew more complex and sometimes require skills that weren't present 20 years ago
- it is believed that we humans learn the most while being a child/teen and todays ~20 year olds grew up with gaming their entire life if they had access to it. guys who began to play i.e. quake and such when they were 11 (if thats good is another question) and continued doing so the last 10 years give them a superior basic aiming skill, good reactions and coordination. while older people were playing outside, the younger generation is doing so far less
- pro-gaming can be profitable today (in short-term relations), yet the older generation did not "adapt" and dominate the competitive scenes of various games.
- it is not unusual that upcoming generations outperform the older ones. You can witness it in many professional sports in fact. Todays athleths often havent done pretty much anything else their childhood/life and have better conditions and learned from experiences others already made. At least from many old football legends I read quotes that they weren't be able to compete at all against these sport-machines
as I said: there are very good players that are 40+ no question about that. But these arguments plus being here for several months as a very active reader, watching many youtube videos and observing people ingame and so on I have the impression and feeling that many people would not be considered as high-skilled. Much more casual gamers. That's completely fine for me. Anyway that's my opinion, but it's getting off-topic somewhat..
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Your right it is getting off topic. This thread is to provide a formula for you to consider if your combined skill level and exposure to risk makes it worth running without shields or not, for your situation.
Hmm. Thread died. Lets see if we can revive it.