power distributor effect on shields?

Eleonore Nali · Jan 27, 2015

Hey all,

I don't know how the distributor affects shields exactly. I understand that the better the distributor, the faster the shield recharge. But are there effects on top of that, and if so, which?

Example: If I couple say an A5 shield with an E2 distributor what will be the effect? I figure that once the shield is down it will basically never recharge with this combination, but what about initial strength? Is the shield weaker than the same A5 shield with an A7 distributor?

What about pips? Is 4 pips with a horrible distributor worth the same as 4 pips with an awesome distributor?

vonvonbraun · Jan 27, 2015

From my experience pips impact whatever you are distributing too at the smae rates

a power distributor that is bigger/more efficient should make you able to distribute power better

Mr. Woof · Jan 27, 2015

You can say a better power distributor makes better use of the power you have. In addition every system that distributes energy, loses some of it on the way and a better distributor also does less of that.
So the whole setup gets more efficient. Weaps, Shields and Engine power charge up faster and it is my impression (though I cannot prove it) that there is also more power available to the individual systems. So the distributor is always the first thing I upgrade to A-level.

The number of pips only gives you the percentage of power that is diverted to the individual systems. And while a better distributor increases efficiency, this ratio always stays same, no matter which power distributor you use. In order to increase the amount of power you will need a larger power plant.

Derath · Jan 27, 2015

Pretty simple two important functions

#1 - Bigger capacitor, think of it like if you need 40 energy to boost and it holds 80, you can boost twice without recharging. Same for weapons (most important one) they could ue 5 energy per shot out of a pool of 80.

#2 - Recharge rate, is how fast it fills that energy stored in the capacitor.

They tend to go hand in hand, so bigger energy storage will recharge faster as well, hopefully they give some options for this in future as i'd love to be able to choose slower recharge for bigger energy storage for example. For combat I actually think the distributor is the most important thing you can upgrade. I'd rather have an A distributor and an E shield than the other way round for example.

Dave1235 · Jan 27, 2015

Derath said:
Pretty simple two important functions

#1 - Bigger capacitor, think of it like if you need 40 energy to boost and it holds 80, you can boost twice without recharging. Same for weapons (most important one) they could ue 5 energy per shot out of a pool of 80.

#2 - Recharge rate, is how fast it fills that energy stored in the capacitor.

They tend to go hand in hand, so bigger energy storage will recharge faster as well, hopefully they give some options for this in future as i'd love to be able to choose slower recharge for bigger energy storage for example. For combat I actually think the distributor is the most important thing you can upgrade. I'd rather have an A distributor and an E shield than the other way round for example.

In a sidey or hauler the PD is the first thing I upgrade, with full pips to engines the boost recharges a lot quicker when you need to run.

I can't comment on shields but I would assume the improvement should be similar to engines.

Eleonore Nali · Jan 28, 2015

I was hoping somebody studied the effect specifically on shields and is willing to share their info. But the game is still young so it's natural that the player understanding of it's mechanics relies heavily on gut feelings and rule of thumb.

Personally I find it plausible that the distributor possibly
- for weapons affects how long you can keep up max dps, but not max dps itself
- for thrusters affects the rate at which you can boost, but not actual topspeed or agility (other than indirectly through mass)
- for shields affects how they recharge, but not how strong they are

However I have done no tests on this, so this is just me guessing. Also the 'Pips' system adds an additional layer of complexity since pips clearly change topspeed or shield strength (not sure about max dps). And regardless of whether base shield power scales with the distributor, the 'extra' shield power from pips might or might not scale with the distributor (it certainly correlates at least in the way that if you have disabled your distributor, the pips system is no longer available at all).

Brujah · Jun 23, 2015

J Lee said:
I was hoping somebody studied the effect specifically on shields and is willing to share their info. But the game is still young so it's natural that the player understanding of it's mechanics relies heavily on gut feelings and rule of thumb.

Personally I find it plausible that the distributor possibly
- for weapons affects how long you can keep up max dps, but not max dps itself
- for thrusters affects the rate at which you can boost, but not actual topspeed or agility (other than indirectly through mass)
- for shields affects how they recharge, but not how strong they are

However I have done no tests on this, so this is just me guessing. Also the 'Pips' system adds an additional layer of complexity since pips clearly change topspeed or shield strength (not sure about max dps). And regardless of whether base shield power scales with the distributor, the 'extra' shield power from pips might or might not scale with the distributor (it certainly correlates at least in the way that if you have disabled your distributor, the pips system is no longer available at all).

Sorry for the necro, but I was just researching this exact thing and I would say your summation there is pretty much bang-on from what I've seen.

I've not had a chance to really test out the weapons side, but certainly for thrusters and shields that appears to be exactly right.

scbfromnc · Jun 23, 2015

I performed this test to look at how long it took shields to come online after turning them off. Did the tests with a Cobra looking at the effect of Power Pips, Shield class and Power Distributor class. Results in the attached table.
_
Results shown as time (seconds) for shields to come online. Surprisingly, the Power Distributor had NO EFFECT on the minimum time to shields online. But does allow shields to come online more quickly at fewer Pips to Systems. Regardless of shield class, an A3 distributor brought shields online the quickest with as few as 1.5 Pips; C3 needed 2 Pips, and E3 needed 3 Pips.

Cumquat of Pain · Jun 23, 2015

So the Power Distributor is fundamentally two things: stored energy and distribution.

Stored energy:
First, there are the 3 capacitor energy buckets. As mentioned, there is a "size" and "recharge rate" for these energy buckets. http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Power_Distributor
So, if you are in a ship with a 1E power distributor and you consume all 8 units when boosting, it will take some time for all those bars to fill back up. However, if you upgraded to a 1A distributor, you would now only consume 8 of the 12 units. So in the time it takes to refill 4 units, you could boost again. And of course, the recharge is now 50% faster.

Note that the number of pips affects how fast each of the three capacitor banks charges. So if you have 0 pips, it will not charge at all. If you have 4, it charges at the maximum rate.

Power Distribution:
DOES AFFECT SHIELD STRENGTH. You are diverting more energy to your shields, making them stronger. (http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Shield_Generator)
DOES AFFECT SPEED/ENGINES. You are diverting more energy to your engines, making them more powerful.
DOES NOT AFFECT WEAPON DAMAGE. It affects Damage Per Second (DPS) only by allowing you to fire for a longer period of time. In this case, its not energy but heat/cooling capacity.

Roqinn · Jun 23, 2015

I have also found that the better the power distributor, the faster FSD charges. Also if you put more pips into the system side, the FSD even faster. I found this out because I shifted all my weapons pips over to system and engine because I don't use weapons in my cargo ships. Why waste power to something that isn't there? =D

JoeShmo · Jun 23, 2015

Shields recharge at the same rate regardless of system power or shield type. This means that bigger shields ( including with boosters ) take longer to recharge to full.

System Power only affects how much damage they can sustain before failing; or "shield strength", which is basically a % of damage reduction per hit based on how much power you have into system.

Ralph Vargr · Jun 23, 2015

Always get an "A" distributor. Even weight-conscious explorers like me need them for return to inhabited space.

Cumquat of Pain · Jun 23, 2015

I had forgotten about this. A nice visual test: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=138536

yyy · Jun 23, 2015

Mr. Woof said:
You can say a better power distributor makes better use of the power you have. In addition every system that distributes energy, loses some of it on the way and a better distributor also does less of that.
So the whole setup gets more efficient. Weaps, Shields and Engine power charge up faster and it is my impression (though I cannot prove it) that there is also more power available to the individual systems. So the distributor is always the first thing I upgrade to A-level.

The number of pips only gives you the percentage of power that is diverted to the individual systems. And while a better distributor increases efficiency, this ratio always stays same, no matter which power distributor you use. In order to increase the amount of power you will need a larger power plant.

Another reason why the distributor gets upgraded before other ship modules is because its cheaper at A rate, comparatively speaking, than other A-rated ship modules like the power plant and thrusters.

- - - Updated - - -

J Lee said:
I was hoping somebody studied the effect specifically on shields and is willing to share their info. But the game is still young so it's natural that the player understanding of it's mechanics relies heavily on gut feelings and rule of thumb.

Personally I find it plausible that the distributor possibly
- for weapons affects how long you can keep up max dps, but not max dps itself
- for thrusters affects the rate at which you can boost, but not actual topspeed or agility (other than indirectly through mass)
- for shields affects how they recharge, but not how strong they are

However I have done no tests on this, so this is just me guessing. Also the 'Pips' system adds an additional layer of complexity since pips clearly change topspeed or shield strength (not sure about max dps). And regardless of whether base shield power scales with the distributor, the 'extra' shield power from pips might or might not scale with the distributor (it certainly correlates at least in the way that if you have disabled your distributor, the pips system is no longer available at all).

- Once the shield is down, it doesn't matter how many pips are in SYS, they recharge at a constant rate.
- More pips to SYS means they recharge quicker and shields drop slower when shot at.