The Shield discussion thread

[Entropy1024]

When I started, the canons showed 4/100. After firing the first salvo they changed to 3/100. I guess they could have been damaged after that, does the colour on the HUD not give any indication of broken weapons/systems?

Looking at the video I do see a few 'Thermal Overload' warnings on the canons, so perhaps that's what's inhibiting their use. But as I mentioned earlier I thought as they were a projectile weapon it would not be effected by heat.

I know the shield cells have a limited usage but I thought you got 3 uses, the shield cell reads 1/3 whenever I selected it, so I don't think I got to use it even once. Please see video at 3:14.

Cheers.

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...I see that after 1 minute and up to 7 in your video, you were fighting with all pips in you shields, nothing on your weapons ....I think this explains it ...

Ah yes, could be, thanks. I was so scared to lower power to shields, that cracking sound of cockpit glass it not a good sound

 

[Urbanski101]

Yeah, you are firing your cannons, you can see the tracers.

Couple of issues though - power management - you need to divert power to weapons - you had all of your power in shields for most of the fight.

Your cannons are positioned on the underside of the ship which means to score hits on the target you need to keep the target roughly central in the lower half of the screen. If the target is above you the cannons can't hit it.

I tend to keep the target central and slightly under the ship so I can bring all weapons to bear.

With the shield cells I've assigned a keyboard function to it. I'm using a xbox 360 controller and it's a pain switching fire groups during a fight.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ben_BigBen]

You can't fire the Shield cells if you have no shield - looks like you are trying to use it while it's down/rebuilding (@ 1:28 and 3:14 in the vid) you need to use it before you get the "sheilds offline" message. The gimballed cannon won't fire if they would hit the underside/front of your ship - they are mounted quite low and far back on the Cobra so your target needs to be well into the lower half of your view (in fact almost out of your view).

Hope this helps !

 

[Entropy1024]

Yeah, you are firing your cannons, you can see the tracers.

I can certainly see the vapour trail on the initial shot at the very start of the video, Don't think I see them again. I beleive there was another ship firing on him so the tracers may of been from him.

However think my issues may all be to do with not enough power to weapons.

Thanks for tip on targeting.

Cheers

 

[Entropy1024]

You can't fire the Shield cells if you have no shield - looks like you are trying to use it while it's down/rebuilding (@ 1:28 and 3:14 in the vid) you need to use it before you get the "sheilds offline" message. The gimballed cannon won't fire if they would hit the underside/front of your ship - they are mounted quite low and far back on the Cobra so your target needs to be well into the lower half of your view (in fact almost out of your view).

Hope this helps !

Ah, perfect thank you. I thought you could use the shield cell to jump start the shields when they were down. So shields have to be in place. Guess the generator gives one extra ring of shields, unless you already have 3.

So any weapons on the underside of the Cobra would seem to be fairly difficult to use, especially if the target has to be almost out of view. Is any one weapon better than any other for use on the underside?

 

[excalibus]

Ah, perfect thank you. I thought you could use the shield cell to jump start the shields when they were down. So shields have to be in place. Guess the generator gives one extra ring of shields, unless you already have 3.

So any weapons on the underside of the Cobra would seem to be fairly difficult to use, especially if the target has to be almost out of view. Is any one weapon better than any other for use on the underside?

The shield cells will add a boost of energy to the shields bringing them back to full power quickly but they (as has been said) need to still be online for that to happen, there are some valid points about the gimballed cannons, where you need the target to be in the firing arc of the cannon and it can lock outside of the arc but wont fire until the target is in the weapons firing field.

and as I said before, you also do need power in the energy reserve or they wont fire even though they are projectile weapons

 

[Yanaran]

You can not fire the cannons if you are already firing your lasers and your weapons capacitor is empty. You can clearly see this around 6:30 when you try to fire the cannons several times and the text "overload" flashes where the ammo count is. You need to hold your laser fire for a bit and let enough charge build up for the cannons, more power to weapons helps do this faster.

Add to that the position of the lower guns as has already been mentioned, they will only fire if the target is roughly straight ahead or below you.

 

[Chris_t0f]

[BUG?] B4 Shield Cell Bank has 10 shields, A4 has only 6 but costs 400k more???

I think this doesn't look right. I would expect a A4 Shield Cell Bank to have more shields than a B4...

Only benefit for the 400k worth to get a A4 was increase jump by 0.08Ly... but 4 less shields... no way.

Please confirm this is a bug cause it doesn't make sense.
Thanks
:S

 

[Ironclad]

Hi
The B class banks hold more charges, the A class has less charges but restore more. The B class have larger weight than the A class one.

 

[NoshDaMinsk]

Shield Cells - sometimes don't work....?

Hey all,

So I have my Cobra Mk III now and enjoying the life of a pirate.......

.....and have got some shield cells (fitted only for absolutely last chance saloon stuff).

I have just been killed after the cells did't activate.

I have bound a key to them (joystick button 3) and added them to every fire group...

In the heat of the battle, I pressed the key bound to them and nuffin - boom I am dead.....they HAVE worked before but it seems hit and miss....

What do you have to do to get these to work when you want them to?

Is it a weaps ore systems setting (three pips on either for eg?)

Is it one click? Or do you have to hold the button down??

Thanks in advance.

Nosh

PS - what a great game!

 

[Aute]

Shield defense values

Has anyone done any testing about them? I have been googling it, couldnt find any much info except that 4 pips to shields seem to make them much tougher.

Basically I'm mostly curious how much advantage would be fitting class 6 shields vs class 5 for example, and how that scales vs A, B, C etc class of shields.

 

[Kalara]

Hey there,

Make sure you are using the shield cell when you still have some shields left.
Using them after shield depletion just doesn't do anything.

It's a replenishg shield, a boost to shields as you will that require some shields to activate.

 

[CMDR Sidewinder]

The reading I've done suggests that as long as your ships mass is under the shields rated optimal mass you get a 100% working shield. If your ships mass goes above the shields rated optimal you get a reduced shield. The 4 pips to sys mean that as a damaged shield recharged by itself it has an energy pool to pull charge from.

 

[NoshDaMinsk]

Hey there,

Make sure you are using the shield cell when you still have some shields left.
Using them after shield depletion just doesn't do anything.

It's a replenishg shield, a boost to shields as you will that require some shields to activate.

excellent - thanks - have some rep.

Nosh

 

[Aute]

ok, thats exactly what i was wondering about..cuz a lot of people seem to be fitting class 6 shields instead of class 5 in asp..turns out they most likely are just wasting extra space..thank you, have a rep :3

maybe anyone else has any input on this? : )

 

[Wedgetail]

Lots of info here
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=89770

 

[Aute]

that's great info, thank you..i feel a bit dumb now i did google it but it was like 2-3 days ago or something..just before that thread got put up : )

 

[Kalara]

Much obliged, and glad I could help !
Fly safe!

 

[simon terlecki]

Shield Cell Banks -- Numbers and questions

So I was tweaking my ship loadout and decided to check out the different shield cell banks available at my local retailer.

This is only a few minutes research, although kind of annoying to do what with taking off and on the rift every few seconds to type of my ipad, lol.

Anyway, these were all the cell banks available at the station up to Class 3 size (was testing on a Viper, couldn't be bothered to fly to my cobra for bigger options since it was a spur of the moment idea).

D1: 4 unit capacity, 0.5T @ 1293Cr
C1: 5 unit capacity, 1.3T @ 3231Cr
B1: 6 unit capacity, 2.0T @ 8078Cr
A1: Unavailable at station

D2: Unavailable at station
C2: 7 unit capacity, 2.5T @ 9048Cr
B2: 9 unit capacity, 4.0T @ 22619Cr
A2: 5 unit capacity, 2.5T @ 56547Cr

D3: 6 unit capacity, 2.0T @ 10133Cr
C3: 8 unit capacity, 5.0T @ 25333Cr
B3: 10 unit capacity, 8.0T @ 63333Cr
A3: 6 unit capacity, 5.0T @ 158331Cr


Okay, so my question is:

What's up with the A units, Less for more. Are they engraved and hand polished?

 

[Jason S]

Shield quality

Hi,

In my type-6 I upgraded my shields from E-3 to A-3.

I know A is supposed to be better quality, but can anyone quantify how?
Will they charge quicker now?
Are they stronger now?
If so then by what factor.