Review: Double engineered 3A shield generator

[Bortas]

Played around a bit with the double engineered 3A shield generator from the last CG, trying different combinations of shield boosters on my iCourier.

The best allround combination for my liking was the following:

• Add thermo block to the shield gen
• 2 HD shield boosters / Super Cap.
• 2 Thermal resistant shield boosters / Super Cap.

This resulted in:
989 MJ shield strength
64.8% thermal resistance
64.2% kinetic resistance

Or a raw shield strength of
2805 MJ thermal
2761 MJ kinetic

For comparison I tried to build the best possible bi-weave combination with as even reistances as possible:

• 3C Bi-Weave, reinforced, thermo block
• Same Shield boosters as above

Resulted in:
1124 MJ shield strength
41.2% thermal resistance
40.2% kinetic resistance

Or a raw shield strength of
1909 MJ thermal
1879 MJ kinetic


So let's compare the results...

Engineered for even resistances the build with the 3A shield generator is almost 900 MJ stronger vs. both thermal and kinetic.
Unfortunately small bi-weaves, like class 3, don't regenerate that much faster, than a regular one:

3C Bi-weave regens at 1.8/s
3A regens at 1.0/s

So, to make up for the difference in shield strength when using bi-weave, you have to stay out of weapon fire for 1125 seconds - almost 19 minutes.

Maybe someone can come up with a better combo for bi-weaves, but as of now, I think the 3A shield generator is an insanely powerful option, if you are looking for even resistances vs. thermal and kinetic.


Edit: corrected the engineering of the bi-weave... reinforced, not thermal res.

 

[Bigmaec]

I fail to reproduce your numbers in Coriolis,
could you please add some build links?

 

[Bortas]

I fail to reproduce your numbers in Coriolis,
could you please add some build links?

Sure thing... here you go: https://tinyurl.com/tytj7pda

Obviously Coriolis doesn't have the double engineered shield gen... so to check the kinetic resistances, you have to switch out the thermal res engineering on the shield generator for kinetic res.

To check the bi-weave, just switch the 3A for a 3C bi-weave and engineer it for reinforced, thermo block.

 

[Bigmaec]

Your link doesn't work for me, but refers to the old EDCD Coriolis address.

If I remove the edcd part in the address I get a build with 65% thermal and 15% kinetic resistance.
Something is borked.

 

[Bortas]

Your link doesn't work for me, but refers to the old EDCD Coriolis address.

If I remove the edcd part in the address I get a build with 65% thermal and 15% kinetic resistance.
Something is borked.

Nah, it's fine... you cannot reproduce the build on Coriolis, because the double-engineered shield generator is not available there. So you have to write down the results with thermal resistance engineered shield gen first, then swap the engineering for kinetic resistance and combine the values.

 

[Bigmaec]

Nah, it's fine... you cannot reproduce the build on Coriolis, because the double-engineered shield generator is not available there. So you have to write down the results with thermal resistance engineered shield gen first, then swap the engineering for kinetic resistance and combine the values.

hmmm...

These are the numbers I get when I use the data from GraphiteGB in the CG thread combined with thermo block and the booster you stated

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

 

[Bortas]

hmmm...

These are the numbers I get when I use the data from GraphiteGB in the CG thread combined with thermo block and the booster you stated

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Did it again with the new Coriolis...

Thermal: https://tinyurl.com/2hc6v26c
Kinetic: https://tinyurl.com/3whcd4a5

 

[Crimson Kaim]

Unfortunately small bi-weaves, like class 3, don't regenerate that much faster, than a regular one:

3C Bi-weave regens at 1.8/s
3A regens at 1.0/s

You forget that Bi-weaves only have a recharge delay of 2 seconds whereas any other shield gen has a delay of 8 seconds (or even more for prismos, never tried them).
Their short recharge delay is what makes them so powerful. The added recharge speed is obviously good too but not its main strength.

 

[Para Handy]

You forget that Bi-weaves only have a recharge delay of 2 seconds whereas any other shield gen has a delay of 8 seconds (or even more for prismos, never tried them).
Their short recharge delay is what makes them so powerful. The added recharge speed is obviously good too but not its main strength.

I have seen other people mention this recharge delay but I cannot find it specified anywhere. Is it really the case that normal shields don't start to recharge until 8 sec after any damage and bi-weaves only 2? Can you point me to where this is detailed for future reference? (I always thought that recharge was immediate on cessation of damage.) Thanks

 

[Crimson Kaim]

I have seen other people mention this recharge delay but I cannot find it specified anywhere. Is it really the case that normal shields don't start to recharge until 8 sec after any damage and bi-weaves only 2? Can you point me to where this is detailed for future reference? (I always thought that recharge was immediate on cessation of damage.) Thanks

Unfortunately no, this is one of Elite's many mechanics that are not documented anywhere. You can test it though by getting a very large (C7/8) Biweave and equipping a C1 PD on it. Boop into an asteorid while having 0 pips to SYS and count how long it takes for your SYS cap to start draining (which you will experience almost instantly thanks to an undersized PD that has a very low capacity).
You will observe that Bi-weaves have a 2 second delay and regular shields around 8. As said earlier, no idea about prismos as I have never used them (and prolly never will).

 

[Shadowed]

Thanks for testing. I use a Viper mk3 with 3c bi weave, 2 resist boosters, and a bunch of guardian shield boosters. I have 530mj of shields with 2.1 mj/s recharge. with around 45% resist for thermal and kinetic.

Moving to the new 3a shield gen seems pretty darn compelling, especially because it weighs the same as the 3c. Getting 2x the shield strength for half the recharge rate seems pretty balanced. And I'll have slots for hull reinforcement available.

I find it pretty hard to lose shields in Viper due to its small size. Gonna be hard to wanna go back to the courier.

 

[Flying Scorpion]

I'm using this module on the viper, it's pretty good.

 

[GunnerBill]

Help me out here (old person) what's all this "double engineered" stuff mean? I've seen that phrase used a lot recently but have no idea what it's referring to, some new process???

 

[Northpin]

Help me out here (old person) what's all this "double engineered" stuff mean? I've seen that phrase used a lot recently but have no idea what it's referring to, some new process???

Some of the recent CG rewards have been under the form of already engineered modules, that have 2 blueprints added to them
FSD++ has LongRange and Fast charge blueprints - you can currently buy this one at the Human Tech brokers, but it costs quite an amount of resources

The shield mentioned here has both Kinetic and Thermal resists blueprints added... but it is borked because it also has a 40% increas in power usage... which is not found in the normal blueprints and i have no idea where it comes from

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Help me out here (old person) what's all this "double engineered" stuff mean? I've seen that phrase used a lot recently but have no idea what it's referring to, some new process???

The simple powercreep wasn't enough. FD had to take ridiculousness to the next level.

 

[GunnerBill]

The simple powercreep wasn't enough. FD had to take ridiculousness to the next level.

Yes, yes! But what does it refer to?

 

[Lev -Shadow- Arris]

Some of the recent CG rewards have been under the form of already engineered modules, that have 2 blueprints added to them
FSD++ has LongRange and Fast charge blueprints - you can currently buy this one at the Human Tech brokers, but it costs quite an amount of resources

The shield mentioned here has both Kinetic and Thermal resists blueprints added... but it is borked because it also has a 40% increas in power usage... which is not found in the normal blueprints and i have no idea where it comes from

That's why they gave out a 3A double-engineered power plant to go with it. Seriously, that's what I think their thought process was. I have them both on a Viper MKIII and it's not bad at all.

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

If the 3A double shield has a base kinetic resistance of 58, how the heck did you get it up to 64.2? Your use of 4 boosters that all have super capacitors with no kinetic boosts should leave you with about 50%. Or there something strange going on here like the inverse diminishing returns we sometimes see on edge case armor stacking?

 

[Northpin]

That's why they gave out a 3A double-engineered power plant to go with it. Seriously, that's what I think their thought process was. I have them both on a Viper MKIII and it's not bad at all.

well, a bi-weave has only 23 mj less shields, but it goes from 50% > 100% in 43 seconds (with high cap)
The 3A (with fast charge) does that in 77 seconds.

IF we add the delay timer to start recharging... bi-weave is even better

 

[Shadowed]

I just put the new 3a shield gen (havent engineered secondary effects) and it is reporting a whopping 71% kinetic resist with my 2 resist augmented boosters. Power consumption is my biggest issue with it. Gonna be figuring out what I'm willing to sacrifice. The new power plant gives me a bit more juice at least.