Shield Boosters - are they really for traders rather than combateers?

[Fian]

I have installed shield boosters in the beta to try them out. They delay they cause in restoring shields is really long, if you fit multiple boosters you are going to spend significant amounts of time waiting for the shields to restore themselves slowly. This means multiple booster are not really viable for Combateers - if you are engaged in combat repeatedly your shields will be strong but will eventually get worn down and you will find yourself waiting around for them to restore. You definitely will need shield cells to supplement them, and imo you should be slow to fit more than one shield booster even with cells.

For traders on the other hand - you are not going to be in combat often. When you are interdicted you generally just want your shields to last until the FSD cycles through its cooldown. You probably have downgraded shield class for enhanced cargo space. shield boosters are a great mechanic to enable you to strengthen your shields so that they will not be devoured during an interdiction and give you the time to escape without damage. You don't need powerful weapons or an interdictor/ KWS so you have the power capacity to fit multiple boosters without too much energy concerns.

I can see myself fitting 4 sets of A rated shield boosters to my (trading) anaconda when 1.2 goes live. This new module will be far more useful for traders than combat ships imo, especially in multiple amounts. Shields will regenerate when docking or while trading back and forth, the delay in restoration time is not really an issue for traders.

 

[Quineloe]

My 7A shield on the Clipper already requires 4 minutes to recharge from single digit percentages. It makes no difference, I just supacruise out and back in to refresh.

The module is incredibly useful for combat ships as well, since you can now downsize your shields from A to D, and you save weight, power and money by doing that

I'd say 5A to 7A shields are obsolete now.

 

[Fian]

My 7A shield on the Clipper already requires 4 minutes to recharge from single digit percentages. It makes no difference, I just supacruise out and back in to refresh.

The module is incredibly useful for combat ships as well, since you can now downsize your shields from A to D, and you save weight, power and money by doing that

I'd say 5A to 7A shields are obsolete now.

Ah - does this mean that if you enter supercruise they instantly refresh to full? So you can restore them fully by popping into SC for a few seconds?

If so i guess that does change things significantly.

 

[Derath]

My 7A shield on the Clipper already requires 4 minutes to recharge from single digit percentages. It makes no difference, I just supacruise out and back in to refresh.

The module is incredibly useful for combat ships as well, since you can now downsize your shields from A to D, and you save weight, power and money by doing that

I'd say 5A to 7A shields are obsolete now.

What sort of slot do they use Quineloe, is it an internal or a utility? This is the one feature from 1.2 I know absolutely nothing about so if anyones got any brief info they want to share i'd appreciate it.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

The key strategy of an explorer is to survive - not to overcome, but to survive - and usually that means not engaging in combat and instead attempting to run from a fight. I'm tempted now to incorporate shield boosters on my explorer outlays now, especially as for the purposes of increasing jump distance they are lighter than weapons. On the other hand, the strongest shield boosters are more power-hungry than the standard energy wepons, so a bigger and heavier power plant may be needed, plus it will lower the heat tolerance of the ship - something that is more relevant now in 1.2. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Jay8ch]

The key strategy of an explorer is to survive - not to overcome, but to survive - and usually that means not engaging in combat and instead attempting to run from a fight. I'm tempted now to incorporate shield boosters on my explorer outlays now, especially as for the purposes of increasing jump distance they are lighter than weapons. On the other hand, the strongest shield boosters are more power-hungry than the standard energy wepons, so a bigger and heavier power plant may be needed, plus it will lower the heat tolerance of the ship - something that is more relevant now in 1.2. Decisions, decisions...

Yes, I think they are about escaping to live another day rather than for someone that intends to fight.

Slighty off topic, I'm sure I recognise your avatar. Was it off some C64 game, maybe Rescue of Fractalus?

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Yes, I think they are about escaping to live another day rather than for someone that intends to fight.

Personally, I just can't resist a fight. Most of my exploring to date has been in armed ships with beam lasers. It actually got me in a lot of trouble at one point on the return home from a short exploration trip to the R CrA Nebula. Stupid self-pride, getting my canopy smashed to 50%...

Slighty off topic, I'm sure I recognise your avatar. Was it off some C64 game, maybe Rescue of Fractalus?

Repton. An icon of BBC Micro gaming.

 

[lefty1117]

Pretty sure I remember seeing armor boosters in 1.2 as well - those might make more sense for combat, at least in the bigger ships where it's about firepower and less about maneuverability.

 

[Troa Barton]

I'm personally very happy that these and the hull packages are being added. Outfitting prior was just a checklist with little to really think about. Now there is variety, choices, and optimizations found previously only on the eagle or viper for any ship.
certianly they were more intended for traders as you say with their high power ceiling because with wings a T9 would otherwise be a piñata and wouldn't stand a chance. While the hull packages were more geared for combat and making it profitable even if you start taking damage. But that doesn't mean that a smart outfitter can't optimize their ship in any situation I'm really itching to get my hands on these more than anything else.
now if only we could get every weapon and type for every slot. I really want a class 4 multi cannon

 

[TheoZ]

My 7A shield on the Clipper already requires 4 minutes to recharge from single digit percentages. It makes no difference, I just supacruise out and back in to refresh.

The module is incredibly useful for combat ships as well, since you can now downsize your shields from A to D, and you save weight, power and money by doing that

I'd say 5A to 7A shields are obsolete now.

I mostly agree with you!

with bigger ships in general I think shield boosters will be a must! We need to boost our sustainability of our good shields.

I think that concerning smaller fighters, shield boosters will be in question as smaller crafts require a lot of energy related to the max available with best power plant, so the pilots will have to sacrifice possible firepower, a thing in question.

 

[Sandmann]

Yah I'm thinking shield boosters for traders and explorers. Not only is it a good way to get longer life out of shields without taking a heavier generator, but also the fact that they use utility slots meqns you can save your internal slots for cargo bays or advanced scanners. They could also be used for a first strike "zoom n boom" craft (vulture?) in a wolf pack wing, backed up by something heavier like an asp, fer de lance, etc to take out the weakened target.

Armour enhancements will work well for light fighter craft that are only operating short range as these give you a hit on jump range... eagles, vipers, vultures... probably still using SCB's too.

 

[TheoZ]

Yah I'm thinking shield boosters for traders and explorers. Not only is it a good way to get longer life out of shields without taking a heavier generator, but also the fact that they use utility slots meqns you can save your internal slots for cargo bays or advanced scanners. They could also be used for a first strike "zoom n boom" craft (vulture?) in a wolf pack wing, backed up by something heavier like an asp, fer de lance, etc to take out the weakened target.

Armour enhancements will work well for light fighter craft that are only operating short range as these give you a hit on jump range... eagles, vipers, vultures... probably still using SCB's too.

Concerning me at least, I will spam as many shield boosters as I can in my Anaconda, trade setup likewise combat setup.

Concering armor enhancements I agree on what you sayy!

 

[Sandmann]

On something the size of a Conda that's probably fine. By the time they get through your boosted shield you'll have taken out most of their wing AND be half way to supercruise. I believe there's a diminishing returns thing with them though. I haven't put them on anything big yet (lovin' my vulture too much, gonna miss it) but I seem to recall reading somewhere that they're more effective on small ships.

 

[TheoZ]

On something the size of a Conda that's probably fine. By the time they get through your boosted shield you'll have taken out most of their wing AND be half way to supercruise. I believe there's a diminishing returns thing with them though. I haven't put them on anything big yet (lovin' my vulture too much, gonna miss it) but I seem to recall reading somewhere that they're more effective on small ships.

If it is true that the Shield boosters increase by a % shield strength (15-20%), then it's good for big ships too.

Let's say they increase shield power by 15% for an example based on ED Shield Strength v1.1:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xq2fmxhjfNiwtR2fBR1MAZrwEcjFudSuSjTOLwfcqlM/pubhtml

Anaconda's A7 Shield Strengh without shield boosters: 595
Anaconda's A7 Shield Strength with 5 shield boosters, assuming shield boost a class % increase 15%: 1041.25

I do want!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please, if a Dev is around, can you clarify if shield boosters do increase in a % wise shield strength?

 

[Giskard]

... My 7A shield on the Clipper already requires 4 minutes to recharge from single digit percentages. It makes no difference, I just supacruise out and back in to refresh.

I was just wondering if people think that being able to do that, represents some sort of bug in the game? Or do you think the game is working correctly there?

 

[Quineloe]

I was just wondering if people think that being able to do that, represents some sort of bug in the game? Or do you think the game is working correctly there?

Not really a bug, they just don't have a good workaround for this. It's intentional you have full shields when dropping out of SC.

And the last time I endured many minutes of downtime, staring at my slowly increasing mana bar, was EverQuest more than a decade ago. Not doing it again.

 

[Kiblams]

I would say it's perfect for trade vessels that don't run weapons, the large power plants in the big traders are usually wasted if they dont have weapons fitted. Shield boosters are a great defensive use of the extra power that they can have, which would otherwise take away from offensive abilities of fighters.