Shield Cells OP

The easy thing is to add in a few extra ships as i mentioned. And well AI is an ongoing thing, we dont just do the easy things you know :D


Maybe read back through at my previous posts :D

What I got was:

-1Banks take proper timing to use
-2They add a level of complexity
-3We don't have all the ships so we don't know the balance.

1) Sure, but their benifit is way too much for the level of skill they require to use, and they cannot be countered by another equipment item or a sufficent level of skill from another player. If you want a First order operator tactic ( Explanation ) to give low-skilled players a chance to escape. , I think it should be one-use-only.

2) Don't conflate complexity with depth. More complex, sure, but it actually gives the game less depth and interplay because it can replace the defensive role of two other modules better than those modules. In this case, it lessens depth because it turns into a false choice--the choice between a dead horse or a live horse. Of course I'll pick the alive horse to get me to point B.

3)I don't think this is an argument. It's launch. Things should be more-or-less balanced. Frontier has been testing the combat since alpha. Everything else holds up besides this module.


Omg. Shield Cells are fine.

/Thread

Want to actually debate instead of off-handedly dismissing people? Come back when you want to have an actual discussion.
 
I disagree. Anything that makes combat stale, drawn-out and boring should be done away with.

The fight would not have ended differently. It just would have taken longer until the 'conda ran out of shield banks. If all that matters is star power then the person who brings more stars wins.

If that were true, than the same fight with neither side having shield cells would play out exactly the same, only that both ships lose their shields earlier than if both were using shield cells.
 
So whats the purpose of shield cells as a module. Make it that all ships has them at the start already installed as they are win or die thing. At least some kind of cooldown preventing spamming of those thing would be a start.
 
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I dont believe that video proves anything about shield cells, what it does prove is either the AI (anaconda) needs to be improved, or it needs some friends in the mix, say 1-2 ASP's and 1-4 Cobra's, and theres your balance :p

How exactly do you think the AI should improve? That was basically a slogging match face-to-face. I think it's fair that the AI Anaconda should just stay in the face of the Viper and expect to win.
And no, I don't think adding multiple enemies means ''balance''.

I just tried my shield cells in a pvp fight, against another Cobra. It was funny.
We were both fairly well-equipped. Not the best stuff, but we all had full weapon hardpoints and that kind of stuff
I'm not that experienced in pvp, and made several mistakes. I should have put pips into ENG at one point but didn't and this made it possible for my enemy to outmanuever me and put me in a position where he/she could bring all guns to bear while I couldn't fire back. I almost lost my shield, but then I popped a shield cell. Did I mention that my opponent didn't have any shiel cells, by the way.

After that, I put pips into ENG, managed to get into a frontal joust, then another manuevre, and I managed to get several shots on the enemy Cobra. At this point my shields were full while the other Cobra had half shields. Another pass and they were gone. The Cobra then had run away. I still had 4 shield cells left. Managed to put the other Cobra down to 75%, but my M-Cannon and missile rack was out of ammo, so I couldn't do very much and the pilot escaped into Sc.

I think it is fair to say that this one single shield cell use was enough for me to win the fight. And I could have done 4 more refills if I had the need...
 
But still the answer should not be to nerf shield cells - but to have more NPCs equipped with them (especially the higher ranked ones), and make them use the cells more often. Imagine the Anaconda would have been doing that, the fight might have ended differently.

So instead of balancing shield cells you want a 10 minute cell spamfest lead in to a fight?
 
Shield cells vary in effect,
let us say you have two asps facing each other with shield banks and the
same medium beam laser to drop shields.

Both ships have the same advantage.
If one ship now dumps the shield cell bank for something else,
it is a big advantage, given both pilots have the same "skill".
The shielded guy will just soak tons of fire.

Now the one without a bank is a better pilot and can more often outmaneuver the target,
the effect of the bank is reduced slightly, as the one pilot can dodge damage and the other one soak.

But if you field a smaller ship against the shield cell bank one,
the advantage increases exponentially, since small arms have allready a hard time
to break the normal shield of said target.

While a small ship with a shield bank doesn't have that big advantage.
It will discourage people to fly smaller ships and get good with them,
while the rest sticks to the money-busses.
I like my elite with the taste of diversity,
and without unification of ship choice.
 
Another elite anaconda, no npc to help this time.
I made the fight as simple as possible to demonstrate shield cells, no evasive maneuvers.

[video=youtube_share;a-nhC4vf6Ec]http://youtu.be/a-nhC4vf6Ec[/video]

I dont suppose you fancy tooling up a hauler to the gills with cells and having a crack at the ani ? :cool:
 
"Nerf this, nerf that, game is too easy, wah wah wah..."

Tell you what, don't use them then and let everyone play the game the way THEY want to. Sick of whiners getting things nerfed just because they think we all have to play their way.

Give me a single player game and no more patches. Thanks.
 
Any one piece of equipment (especially if inexpensive) which gives you such an advantage in combat that it becomes defacto for success in any one-on-one encounter with an otherwise equal opponent is clearly not good from a gameplay point of view.

I'm confused how people can argue it's not totally OP. For little cost, you can guarantee the defeat of a superior foe (as shown in the video) without the use of skill or tactics. No other module in the game comes even close to throwing balance out of the window.
 
I'm confused how people can argue it's not totally OP. For little cost, you can guarantee the defeat of a superior foe (as shown in the video) without the use of skill or tactics. No other module in the game comes even close to throwing balance out of the window.

Because I don't care about balance. I didn't buy this because it was an MMO. I wanted a single player game like in 1984 and the more people whine about 'balance' (which really is them crying because someone figured a way to beat them up in what they thought was their own OP setup) the more my game gets screwed up.

So, shut up about 'balance' and just play the game, like I'm trying to. If I wanted a stupid MMO that gets nerfed to hell and back every time someone whines I could go play EvE...
 
Any one piece of equipment (especially if inexpensive) which gives you such an advantage in combat that it becomes defacto for success in any one-on-one encounter with an otherwise equal opponent is clearly not good from a gameplay point of view.

I'm confused how people can argue it's not totally OP. For little cost, you can guarantee the defeat of a superior foe (as shown in the video) without the use of skill or tactics. No other module in the game comes even close to throwing balance out of the window.


Well said
+rep
 
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"Nerf this, nerf that, game is too easy, wah wah wah..."

Tell you what, don't use them then and let everyone play the game the way THEY want to. Sick of whiners getting things nerfed just because they think we all have to play their way.

Give me a single player game and no more patches. Thanks.

If you get your cake, i want my railgun without ammunition and a better damage potential back.

The module is not immersive in a believable way,
no heat, no strain on the shield gen (damage), nothing.
It simply needs to be more thought out and fleshed out,
like the rest of the bones.
 

ShadowGar

Banned
That didn't take long before PVP reverted into a discussion of what we can nerf to suit skilless players. Before you know it, we will have the game name changed to Elite:Carebear
 
As I said before, I think it should be removed as an item, but I don't see that happening.

A3 shields cost about 500000 cr and have a mass of 5T.

You can't fit 2 of them right now, but lets say that you could.

A3 shields need 2.52 MW of power. My Viper, as an example, uses 12.75 MW (out of 12MW).
So to be able to double my stopping power (if I could put on 2 shields) I would need to remove items that use 2.5 MW of power.

I can save 1 MW of power by removing my A3 thrusters and put in a D3 thruster.
I can also save another 1 MW by removing one of my beam lasers.
Getting rid of my wake scanner and kw scanner would remove about 0.4 MW, so thats my trade off.

Double the shield power, lose one beam laser, downgrade engines and remove 2 utility items.

The 2 shields would have to run off the one power distributor, so they would charge twice as slow, and the damage reduction for the number of pips in sys would probably be halved.

That using the current shield balancing.

Now there are shield cells. An A3 shield cells cost about 150000 cr.
A3 shields have 6 charges, so effectively double the amount of damage the shield can absorb 6 times.

After 6 uses they do nothing.

They both weigh 5 T, the shield cells take 0 power to run.
 
Any one piece of equipment (especially if inexpensive) which gives you such an advantage in combat that it becomes defacto for success in any one-on-one encounter with an otherwise equal opponent is clearly not good from a gameplay point of view.

According to that arguments, shields should be removed from the game, too. They are too good an advantage to not bring them to a fight. ;)
 
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