Ship Builds & Load Outs Shields and 4 pips in SYS

SergMx

SergMx
I always thought the theme did two things:
1. Keeps the SYS from being depleted when the shield is replenished.
2. Increases the amount of shield resistance.

But I am told that it does not increase the resistance of the shield and somehow increases the power of the shield, I do not quite understand it.
How do I understand it ?

LIGHTNING

Do I understand correctly that lightning does thermal damage? This I ask on the basis of two facts that I know: 1. The GHRP has acid and thermal protection, and I read somewhere that they help against lightning. 2. Lightning is very bad at damaging the hull and the shield well. That's right...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
 

Aleks Zuno

Aleks Zuno
Resistance here is a specific term, referring to reduced damage taken from a specific damage type, and it is derived from engineering your Shield Generator and any Shield Boosters installed.

Independently of that, your SYS power also reduces any damage taken by your shield, regardless of damage source. The reduction is 15% for each point, which becomes 60% reduction for all four points. More usefully for calculation, think of that as 40% = 2/5 damage taken, or lasting 5/2 = 2.5 times longer.

In full:
  1. Damage occurs.
  2. Any portions of that damage which had a damage type are reduced by your resistance to that type.
  3. The remaining sum is reduced by SYS × 15%.
Note that:
  • Damage with a type only comes from weapons. Some weapons have a damage portion without a type (Plasma Accelerators).
  • Negative resistance will increase damage portions of that type.
  • Collisions, overheating, and any other non-weapon damage have no type. Many Commanders call this absolute, although I prefer to think in terms of having no type to which a resistance could apply. Call it unspecified environmental damage, if it helps.
Also, given the AX topic you were reading, you will note the unavailability of Caustic damage resistance for shields. Combine this with the Lightning lacking a damage type, and you can see that any shield-based strategy should forsake resistances, maximise the shield power, and rely on SYS points for any mitigation.
 

SergMx

SergMx
Aleks Zuno said:
Resistance here is a specific term, referring to reduced damage taken from a specific damage type, and it is derived from engineering your Shield Generator and any Shield Boosters installed.

Independently of that, your SYS power also reduces any damage taken by your shield, regardless of damage source. The reduction is 15% for each point, which becomes 60% reduction for all four points. More usefully for calculation, think of that as 40% = 2/5 damage taken, or lasting 5/2 = 2.5 times longer.

In full:
  1. Damage occurs.
  2. Any portions of that damage which had a damage type are reduced by your resistance to that type.
  3. The remaining sum is reduced by SYS × 15%.
Note that:
  • Damage with a type only comes from weapons. Some weapons have a damage portion without a type (Plasma Accelerators).
  • Negative resistance will increase damage portions of that type.
  • Collisions, overheating, and any other non-weapon damage have no type. Many Commanders call this absolute, although I prefer to think in terms of having no type to which a resistance could apply. Call it unspecified environmental damage, if it helps.
Also, given the AX topic you were reading, you will note the unavailability of Caustic damage resistance for shields. Combine this with the Lightning lacking a damage type, and you can see that any shield-based strategy should forsake resistances, maximise the shield power, and rely on SYS points for any mitigation.
Click to expand...
Thank you.
It turns out that on the shield ship when fighting with Thargoids need to keep 4 pips always to reduce the damage from acid?
 

Aleks Zuno

Aleks Zuno
Without commenting about how an individual pilot chooses to allocate the Power Distributor, consider in general that the shield damage reduction from SYS power is considered at the moment that damage strikes. Points to SYS can also be set and removed instantly and there is no penalty for doing so as quickly or as often as one can. Together, it is quite valuable to set 4 to SYS for a brief moment just before large damage is about to occur.

If damage is striking constantly or too unpredictably, a Commander may choose to retain 4 to SYS, at cost of ENG and WEP of course. That being the plan, it follows that the starship loadout and attack strategy also need to take into account the distributor choice.
 

0threeleven

0threeleven
Aleks Zuno said:
Without commenting about how an individual pilot chooses to allocate the Power Distributor, consider in general that the shield damage reduction from SYS power is considered at the moment that damage strikes. Points to SYS can also be set and removed instantly and there is no penalty for doing so as quickly or as often as one can. Together, it is quite valuable to set 4 to SYS for a brief moment just before large damage is about to occur.

If damage is striking constantly or too unpredictably, a Commander may choose to retain 4 to SYS, at cost of ENG and WEP of course. That being the plan, it follows that the starship loadout and attack strategy also need to take into account the distributor choice.
Click to expand...
Did you write your thesis on this subject? Great information........ (y)
 

Aleks Zuno

Aleks Zuno
0threeleven said:
Did you write your thesis on this subject? Great information........ (y)
Click to expand...

You have my thanks, although that information is of the more relatively well-known variety, at least enough that many others could have answered similarly. It is also something I mentioned briefly to you some time earlier in a response to your call for combat starship examples.
 

0threeleven

0threeleven
Aleks Zuno said:
You have my thanks, although that information is of the more relatively well-known variety, at least enough that many others could have answered similarly. It is also something I mentioned briefly to you some time earlier in a response to your call for combat starship examples.
Click to expand...
Oh ya, that's right, I hadn't put it together. You killed a Corvette with a Mamba, that was an awesome video! I still talk about that. My son plays too, when I gave him a link to your video, he had a litter of kittens laughing so hard. It's as good as 'Sidey vs the galaxy' on YouTube.

Post Script: My combat ranking has came along very nicely thanks to all of you that helped me.
 
Last edited:

SergMx

SergMx
Aleks Zuno said:
Without commenting about how an individual pilot chooses to allocate the Power Distributor, consider in general that the shield damage reduction from SYS power is considered at the moment that damage strikes. Points to SYS can also be set and removed instantly and there is no penalty for doing so as quickly or as often as one can. Together, it is quite valuable to set 4 to SYS for a brief moment just before large damage is about to occur.

If damage is striking constantly or too unpredictably, a Commander may choose to retain 4 to SYS, at cost of ENG and WEP of course. That being the plan, it follows that the starship loadout and attack strategy also need to take into account the distributor choice.
Click to expand...
Not instantly. I made suggestions a long time ago that people could customize these 4 buttons at will, to a preset button position, but this was not done and people are forced to use third-party software.
 

SergMx

SergMx
0threeleven said:
Oh ya, that's right, I hadn't put it together. You killed a Corvette with a Mamba, that was an awesome video! I still talk about that. My son plays too, when I gave him a link to your video, he had a litter of kittens laughing so hard. It's as good as 'Sidey vs the galaxy' on YouTube.

Post Script: My combat ranking has came along very nicely thanks to all of you that helped me.
Click to expand...
The only way to kill a Mamba Corvette is if the pilot missed 5 torpedoes, otherwise it is not possible.
It may be the case that the pilot on the Mamba plays reverse in which case the Corvette simply flies away if it does not have enough long-range phased weapons installed.
 

0threeleven

0threeleven
SergMx said:
The only way to kill a Mamba Corvette is if the pilot missed 5 torpedoes, otherwise it is not possible.
It may be the case that the pilot on the Mamba plays reverse in which case the Corvette simply flies away if it does not have enough long-range phased weapons installed.
Click to expand...
Click the 'response' link, it's at the end of the 4th video, Mamba destroying a Corvette.
 

SergMx

SergMx
0threeleven said:
Click the 'response' link, it's at the end of the 4th video, Mamba destroying a Corvette.
Click to expand...
I'm a bad pvp pilot, and if they don't use torpedoes I'm ready to fight any Mamba and I don't think I'll lose.
Once again, if they shoot at me from a distance I will just fly away, but I do not consider it a defeat, because the Corvette does not have the speed to shorten the distance.
 

Frankymole

Frankymole
Four pips doesn't do anything more than 3 pips, bar bringing up the capacity charge quicker when it's reduced. Indeed, 2 pips is enough for the same effectiveness of shields in combat as long as you don't let them be brought down.
 

SergMx

SergMx
Frankymole said:
Four pips doesn't do anything more than 3 pips, bar bringing up the capacity charge quicker when it's reduced. Indeed, 2 pips is enough for the same effectiveness of shields in combat as long as you don't let them be brought down.
Click to expand...
No.
What I used to know.
These pips in all positions give you something other than charging.
Sys - is resistance.
Eng - maneuverability.
Weapon - heat.
 

0threeleven

0threeleven
SergMx said:
I'm a bad pvp pilot, and if they don't use torpedoes I'm ready to fight any Mamba and I don't think I'll lose.
Once again, if they shoot at me from a distance I will just fly away, but I do not consider it a defeat, because the Corvette does not have the speed to shorten the distance.
Click to expand...
Your absolutely correct, everything depends on how a ship as been equipped, engineered and most importantly flown. I've seen some that are completely clueless when it comes to handling their ship.
 

SergMx

SergMx

Alternative Power Management

Many have told me that in the game they use macros to control energy. Since I play with a gamepad and there are many people playing with consoles (PS4.XBOX1), that is, an offer. Make alternative energy management. In the settings of the game, the NORMAL and ALTERNATIVE switch is added. Normal...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
 

Aleks Zuno

Aleks Zuno
Frankymole said:
Four pips doesn't do anything more than 3 pips, bar bringing up the capacity charge quicker when it's reduced. Indeed, 2 pips is enough for the same effectiveness of shields in combat as long as you don't let them be brought down.
Click to expand...

You have no idea what you are talking about and should not be advising anyone about this.
Independently of replenishing its charge, each capacitor provides an additional passive effect which increases with the number of points allocated. Read my earlier response for the full description of this effect in the context of SYS power. As much as one may consider my strict approach here impolite, that type of misdirection causes far worse as it gets read and repeated.


SergMx said:
These pips in all positions give you something other than charging.
Sys - is resistance.
Eng - maneuverability.
Weapon - heat.
Click to expand...

Correct conceptually, although using the word "resistance" here was how the original confusion arose. Just to clarify descriptions, I find it best to reserve "resistance" to refer to passive reduction against a specific damage type, as granted by engineered modules. Unfortunately there does not seem to be a common single word to replace it, although saying "the SYS reduction" or "reduced by SYS" could be a start.


Additionally for @SergMx and @0threeleven , my concise Mamba/Corvette duel overview would be:
  • The Corvette cannot prevent a Mamba high-wake or escaping mass-lock, nor can the Mamba prevent the Corvette from a direct low-wake (short of Containment Missiles, to which the Mamba is ill-suited).
  • Otherwise, at close range the Corvette can not win, for it cannot strike something at which it cannot aim and the Mamba can use attenuated Landing Gear boosts to remain beyond reach indefinitely.
  • Depending on the Corvette integrity, it is also possible that the Mamba can not win either, at least not before ammunition is depleted.
  • I agree that Reverberating Cascade requires several Torpedo strikes to be more worth equipping than, for example, Fragment Cannons. The hull still remains and a wake is still difficult to prevent.
In short, I consider it a stalemate in general, so the decider will be pilot mistakes and the like. It is probably best not to introduce synthesis and elongate the encounter even further.
 

SergMx

SergMx
Aleks Zuno said:
Otherwise, at close range the Corvette can not win, for it cannot strike something at which it cannot aim and the Mamba can use attenuated Landing Gear boosts to remain beyond reach indefinitely.
Click to expand...
That's not true.
Have you flown a Corvette? I have no problem targeting with FDL fixes around here. And it's more maneuverable than the Mamba.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom