Matching shield cell to shields?

Istaria

I
Hi all,

Apologies if this is a stupid question, but I can't seem to quite figure out the relationship of Shields to Shield Cells.

My Asp has a size 5 shield. Given my other compartments, I can use a size 3 or a size 2 (or a size 6 if I wanted, I guess) shield cell. But I just don't get the difference between them.

Can anyone give me the children's explanation please?

Thanks :)

Ist.
 

Zieman

Zieman
Yes, more insight to this would be nice. Only thing I've noted about the different cells is that they work. It's magic. :)
 

Mountain Dewed

Mountain Dewed
No need to match them up. SCB quality is pretty much just how long it takes them to work, how much more/less power they use to work and how much shields they will replenish when used. So you can use any size/quality SCB, but that will determine how much and how long it will take to replace your damaged shields.

Sorry, I could have probably explained a bit better but just waked up... :)
 

Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye
My rule of thumb is to use 2 size down SCB. So a 6A shield will be supplemented with 4A SCB, unless there is no size 4 slot & you can spare the power, in which case I go 1 size down (5A SCB).

This seems to work well enough, I trigger when I have 1 ring or less and they charged my shield to 3 rings. The heat is also much more manageable, I have deployed 2 in succession while escaping from a warzone under heavy fire from the capital ship and the whole federal fleet and I dont take any heat damage.
 
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Scoob

Scoob
When kitted out for combat with a Class 6 shield, I've found that even an A2 Shield Cell is enough to be useful - in fact, I've never fitted a larger one. The Delay is annoying of course, but I can happily activate a Cell if my shields are at 50% and dropping fast knowing I'm not "wasting" a full charge. I consider it a short-term recharge boost, which is hopefully enough to keep my shields up.

So, a C2 Cell for a C6 shield is useful, if used appropriately.

Scoob.
 

Istaria

I
Glad I am not the only one who isn't sure :) I've been using a class 3, because I happen to have my discovery scanners on my class 2 slots. Seems to work pretty well.

Thanks for all replies! Reps incoming :)

Ist.
 

Pilot in red shirt

Pilot in red shirt
I'm using a 3A and a 2A shield cell in an Asp and both work fine, full shield recharge etc. I'm using a joystick button to fire the shield cell and it fires a charge out of both which seems to recharge quicker. However with the new power draw and less charges per cell I have the 2A disabled in the modules panel and only enable it once I run out of charges in the 3A.
 

Loskene

L
I generally go a class or two down to save on power and price, I was never really too concerned if they weren't as good, I try not to rely on them.
 

QorbeQ

QorbeQ
Not entirely a derail - with the new delay that is built in, do you have to *trigger* the SCB before your shields collapse or does it have to *start recharging* before they're offline?

I'm assuming the latter but it would be interesting to know.

Back on track - I'm using an SCB one class lower than my A-rated shields on my Viper and it "just about" manages to recharge them.
 

Loskene

L
QorbeQ said:
Not entirely a derail - with the new delay that is built in, do you have to *trigger* the SCB before your shields collapse or does it have to *start recharging* before they're offline?

I'm assuming the latter but it would be interesting to know.

Back on track - I'm using an SCB one class lower than my A-rated shields on my Viper and it "just about" manages to recharge them.
Click to expand...

If your shields collapse before the cell can start recharging them, that's it, they're gone.
 

Zieman

Zieman
It would be great if the shield cells could be used to get collapsed shields faster back up too.
 
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Istaria

I
Zieman said:
It would be great if the shield cells could be used to get collapsed shields faster back up too.
Click to expand...

On the one hand, I agree.

On the other hand, might be a little bit OP.

Maybe if it blew all charges to instantly recharge or something like that....would need a bit of balancing I guess.
 

Zieman

Zieman
Istaria said:
On the one hand, I agree.

On the other hand, might be a little bit OP.

Maybe if it blew all charges to instantly recharge or something like that....would need a bit of balancing I guess.
Click to expand...
They did balance this somewhat by reducing the amount of charges one cell bank has. Easy solution would be to reduce the amount of cell banks a ship can have, like max cell bank modules = ship size class (re landing pad size), giving bigger ship an edge that's not overwhelming.
 

Ironclad

Ironclad
Using a 4A shield in a cobra with 2C cells. A single charge will replenish shields allmost to full. I use them when i'm on the last ring and it's fading.
 

ChubbyBunneh

ChubbyBunneh
I don't think there is any set formula for what size shield cells to take.

Remember every ship has a base shield value. Ships with inherently very strong shields like the Anaconda and Python will need more powerful cells than ships with weaker shields like Cobras, Clippers, and Lakons.

On the Conda and Python I find a 5A cell heals about 2 rings worth of 6A shields.
 

Istaria

I
Seems to me that this could be greatly clarified by implementing a shield power capacity mechanic.

i.e. Larger shields have a greater power capacity, and require more juice to fill up. And in turn the shield cells would have more power stored according to their size and class.

Make these figures available in game, and commanders would be able to choose appropriately rather than just slotting them in where they happen to have an open space (which I admit is what I do).
 

Loskene

L
Istaria said:
On the one hand, I agree.

On the other hand, might be a little bit OP.

Maybe if it blew all charges to instantly recharge or something like that....would need a bit of balancing I guess.
Click to expand...

If you could burn a shield cell to (partially, depending on quality) refill your sys capacitor, I think that'd be useful without being too useful.
 

Tarman

Tarman
Loskene said:
If you could burn a shield cell to (partially, depending on quality) refill your sys capacitor, I think that'd be useful without being too useful.
Click to expand...

How would you prevent it from being a distributor powerup without messing with pip operation?
 
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