Shield boosters a bit poo?

[Noddie]

Is it only me, or are shield boosters a bit of a mixed-blessing?

I fitted one and it makes fairly marginal improvement to shield strength but massively extends recharge time. I think any gain due to the increased strength of the shield is likely to be outweighed by how slowly it regenerates. Maybe if you have a really expensive power distributor they make more sense, but for me i'd probably get a better shield generator before bothering with the booster. For me I need to shields to pop back up after they've gone down. A tactic i've used against larger vessels is to charge in, hit their shields, boost out whilst mine recharge... when mine are back I charge in again, hitting theirs before they've fully recharged (larger vessels generally recharge more slowly). I might knock only 10 percent off a pass, but sooner-or-later i'm whacking their hull plates whilst they're whacking my shield!

Shield Cells in conjunction with boosters might be the answer although you have to activate them at least 5 seconds before the shield collapses, of course.

 

[Forlorn]

Shield boosters have no affect on the rate of recharge, only on the amount of time it takes 1 mj/s to take your shields from 0% to 50% (that's when they come online).

Turn your boosters off to lower the 50% threshold, then turn them back on.

All shields - big or small - recharge at the same rate. The bigger they are, the longer it seems to take because of the fixed rate. Definitely agree that SCB are a good idea to keep them from dropping, though.

 

[tetra]

That is exactly how they work, the playstyle you're describing is not best suited for larger or stronger shields if you want them to recharge quickly. The point of boosters + a good shield and SCB's is that you are trying to prevent them from ever going down.

 

[ocflyer]

Is it only me, or are shield boosters a bit of a mixed-blessing?

I fitted one and it makes fairly marginal improvement to shield strength but massively extends recharge time. I think any gain due to the increased strength of the shield is likely to be outweighed by how slowly it regenerates. Maybe if you have a really expensive power distributor they make more sense, but for me i'd probably get a better shield generator before bothering with the booster. For me I need to shields to pop back up after they've gone down. A tactic i've used against larger vessels is to charge in, hit their shields, boost out whilst mine recharge... when mine are back I charge in again, hitting theirs before they've fully recharged (larger vessels generally recharge more slowly). I might knock only 10 percent off a pass, but sooner-or-later i'm whacking their hull plates whilst they're whacking my shield!

Shield Cells in conjunction with boosters might be the answer although you have to activate them at least 5 seconds before the shield collapses, of course.

On my Vulture, I measured the shield recharge time (starting with shields offline) with and without the Shield Booster. I observed that the booster extended the recharge time exactly in proportion to the % shield boost. So, my recharge time increased 20% for my A0 Shield Booster. This seems reasonable given that the recharge time is constant and a booster merely extends the shield capacity. If you're using VoiceAttack, then you can create a macro to turn the booster(s) off and another to turn them on.

 

[bitstorm]

Shield boosters have no affect on the rate of recharge, only on the amount of time it takes 1 mj/s to take your shields from 0% to 50% (that's when they come online).

Turn your boosters off to lower the 50% threshold, then turn them back on.

All shields - big or small - recharge at the same rate. The bigger they are, the longer it seems to take because of the fixed rate. Definitely agree that SCB are a good idea to keep them from dropping, though.

I'm confused, shields "come on" when they're at 50% charge?

And cell banks will recharge a "downed" shield and bring it up? (i.e. one that's at say 49%)

 

[Hollis_Renatus]

I've used the technique mentioned of turning booster module off to bring shields back up faster. Works much better, then I use SCB to quicken complete restore, then turn module back on.

 

[-SOVEREIGN-]

He means that if you shield collapsed, it has to recharge of 50% of its max strength to come online again. Lets say 500MJ of 1000MJ.
If these 1000MJ max strength are with boosters, and you turn them off, you have lets say 700MJ max . Now you would only need 350MJ instead of 500MJ to reach the 50% treshold. After that happened, you can activate the boosters again and have 350MJ of 1000MJ, but now they are online (instead of 500/1000 needed).
What is the benefit? You now have shields online earlier, and can possibily fill them up with SCB earlier.

 

[jgm]

It's hard to tell without naming your ship, but for anything from a Vulture upwards shield boosters are generally cheaper and more power-efficient than upgrading the shield generator itself. As others have mentioned, they also allow you to use more advanced tactics to bring your shields back online faster than you could with an equivalent shield generator.

Their biggest downside is that they take up utility slots.

 

[Crowax]

I'm confused, shields "come on" when they're at 50% charge?

And cell banks will recharge a "downed" shield and bring it up? (i.e. one that's at say 49%)

No, SCB won't work on collapsed shields. Shields must firs come back up, then you can recharge with SCB if you want. Normaly you use SCB before they go down, not at a last second, because SCB needs some time to kick in

 

[Arithon]

I did an article on Shield Boosters, their effect and recharge times back in April (see here http://www.elite-dangerous-blog.co.uk/Blog/2015/3/18/shield-recharge-times-in-elite-dangerous)

They are most definitely NOT poo, however you need to think about how you use them.

Imagine your shields are a bucket used to put out a fire. Boosters make that bucket larger. That means you can fire-fight longer, but each trip back to the tap also takes longer. If you have shield boosters (extra water bottles in this analogy) you can quickly top-up your hypothetical bucket. The two used in combination are very useful, but there are power drain and distribution factors to consider.

Remember that your power distributor is what controls the flow of power to your weapons, engines and shields, so the recharge rate of your shields is controlled by the efficiency rating of your distributor (E to A) and the number of shield boosters you can have is reliant on the number of free utility slots. The boosters weigh more for each higher rating and the better they are, the larger Power Generator you'll need, which also weighs more, so you sacrifice jump range and speed for toughness.

A buffed Python will only jump 16Lyr compared to 18.5Lyr without the shield boosters.

It's all about careful selection of components and specialisation. A good trade ship makes a lousy fighter and a cracking good battleship is hopeless for trading. When you have the money for a trade ships (2MCr) so you can buy a Type 6, you next move is to trade another 2MCr for a Viper or better still around 6M CR for a Cobra and then run one ships for combat and missions and the other for trade. Multi-role isn't always multi-purpose.

I have an Anaconda for Trade, a Python for Combat, an Asp for exploration and currently a Cobra for fun.

 

[-SOVEREIGN-]

Anyone else who believes that shield boosters mainly harden the inner shield ring?
The reason I ask is that I'm using boosters for quite some time now and I'm still surprised how quickly the outer two rings vanish while equally surprised how long the inner ring holds.

More often than not the enemies' power capacitor is empty after burning the first two rings.

They just add up to the maximum shield strength. 1000MJ become 1200MJ with one A-booster, simple as that. With the fixed shield recharge rate you just will take longer to fill up the extra 200MJ. Also you need 600MJ instead of 500MJ to get the shields back online after they collapsed (50% rule). But you can deactivate them if your shields are offline anyway.

 

[jgm]

Remember that your power distributor is what controls the flow of power to your weapons, engines and shields, so the recharge rate of your shields is controlled by the efficiency rating of your distributor (E to A)

This is incorrect. The power distributor controls flow of power to your capacitors, not from them.

Recharge rate of shields is currently a flat 1MJ/s, unless your SYS capacitor is empty and your power distributor's SYS recharge rate is less than 1MJ/s.

- - - Updated - - -

Anyone else who believes that shield boosters mainly harden the inner shield ring?
The reason I ask is that I'm using boosters for quite some time now and I'm still surprised how quickly the outer two rings vanish while equally surprised how long the inner ring holds.

The rings are each 1/3 of your total shield capacity. I don't have a reference anywhere but it's pretty easy to test if you have a friend as they can see the % shield value for your ship on their contacts screen.

 

[NeilRoy]

Today I tried turning off all the other non-core modules to charge the shields more quickerer.... Figuring same power, less modules so higher recharge rate. Anyone else try this?

 

[hoppingdeth]

I have 3 A0 boosters on my Vulture. i can suck up quite a punch. I like having them.

 

[NeilRoy]

Ooh... Where did you get those from. I'm kind of envious!