The Shield discussion thread

[FX2K]

Since C rated is worse than A rated it will likely have less power consumption, the more it consumers, the more it can withstand.

Looking at ED Shipyard ( http://www.edshipyard.com )
a 4-C has a power drain of 2.2, whereas a 4-A has 3.08.

So unless you have a special 4C shield, which I doubt, then it would just be a case of finding another 4C shield, if you don't want the A.

 

[Mikkel Toxwenius]

Since C rated is worse than A rated it will likely have less power consumption, the more it consumers, the more it can withstand.

Looking at ED Shipyard ( http://www.edshipyard.com )
a 4-C has a power drain of 2.2, whereas a 4-A has 3.08.

So unless you have a special 4C shield, which I doubt, then it would just be a case of finding another 4C shield, if you don't want the A.

Found both an A-rated and B-rated Class 4 in the system Im in nowd. As you can see they are both worse than my prefitted C-rated. The B-rated ones weighs more and uses more power.... the A-rated one 'just' uses more power. Are the game hiding some parameters that actually make the B- and A-rated better? Because from the screenshot they are worse than my C-rated...

 

[FX2K]

The more power it uses, the more powerful it is. As a trade off, the higher rated ones will sometimes have more mass. However the A rated ones usually have lower mass and higher consumption (longer lasting shields / more powerful)

It goes kind of like this

Rating / Consumption (more is better) / Mass
E - weak - heavy
D - weak - light
C - Ok - average weight
B - Strong - heavy
A - Strongest - average weight


Think of power draw as a positive rather than negative if thinking about the shields performance.
The more draw, the more punishment the shield can withstand / take.

 

[Mikkel Toxwenius]

The more power it uses, the more powerful it is. As a trade off, the higher rated ones will sometimes have more mass. However the A rated ones usually have lower mass and higher consumption (longer lasting shields / more powerful)

It goes kind of like this

Rating / Consumption (more is better) / Mass
E - weak - heavy
D - weak - light
C - Ok - average weight
B - Strong - heavy
A - Strongest - average weight


Think of power draw as a positive rather than negative if thinking about the shields performance.
The more draw, the more punishment the shield can withstand / take.

oh cool, thank you for the explanation . I think I can now safely remove it or downgrade it to get less mass, and less power consumption so I can downgrade powerplant and get even lower mass. IMO FD could do a better job at showing shields strength in game, like a parameter called "Shield Strength"

 

[Commander Jared]

In a Viper with A3 shields, is it better to have an A2 or B2 shield cell unit? With more cells on the B2, compared to the fewer more powerful cells in the A2, could the B2 actually be more practical?

edit: this is my Viper right now. http://tumblr.23x.net/post/108284257153/overloading-the-viper-when-the-hardpoints-are

 

[cwstad]

Shield Classes

I have an Asp that came with a E5 Shiled Generator. However i have swapped this for an A3 unit. Is this better, or am i just wasting money?

thanks

 

[PeeB4uGoToBed]

Check your optimal mass and all that, the shield might be too big

 

[BishopC]

Going with a class 3 shield, it is most likely too SMALL for your hull mass.
Think about it this way:
Number: The size of the shield.
Letter: How hard your shield is.

If you install a shield some sizes too small, it will be gone in a second when you are being shot at. Actually I am suprised you can install such a small shield.

 

[Kalara]

Using this tool :

http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=30g,mpW5QG5QG,2-8c8c8c72728c8I,08c7TM03wmpU02M2Uc (direct lnik to ASP loadout)
You'll see that the stock E5 Shield has an optimal mass of 405, and a maximum mass of 1013 T
If you switch it out for an A3 shield you'll see somme dramatic changes : optimal mass is now 165T, and maximum mass is 413T.

This means your shield (the A3 one) will not even be enough as the stock ASP with max fuel and mmax cargo already has a mass of 476T, thus exceeding the maximum allowed on the A3 shield.
With no fuel and no cargo the ASP has 406T mass, within the maximum of the A3 shield, but way over the optimal performance of that particular shield.

So in short, not a good idea to downgrade 2 classes.

 

[andyraptor]

A bit confused that you have progressed to a ASP and have not worked out the module rating system yet ?

follow BishopC's info

 

[cwstad]

exellent advice, thank yoy all

 

[Aernir]

Worth mentioning that according to the testing to figure out the exact shield amounts generated (Info here: http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Shield_Generator , these values are also shown in http://www.edshipyard.com/ as Str ) that only ship hull mass count, so it doesn't change based on how much gear or cargo you're carrying. So an Asp is always considered to be at 280 tons for shield calculations.

 

[OneAmongOthers]

My thoughts on shield cells and other defensive modules.

I feel after about a month of playing I have gotten a good feel for the game and I have a few opinions of it. I feel shield cells and defensive modules in general need a good looking in to.

Firstly point defense and the absurd amount of charged it's given. I mean really? 10000 charges? That's crazy and completely removes missiles from gameplay as surely most if not all will get shot down. Maybe a reduction in the amount? Say around maybe at most 500-1000? At least then missiles may be used more often. The only reason I use them is on PVE since AI doesn't seem to use it.

The next thing is chaff. Surely there should be a way to overcome the detrimental effect of it. Perhaps as your ship heats up it becomes less effective as your heat signature expands. this way heat sinks would become more viable a solution to avoid weapons locking on to you.

Lastly is shield cells. As mentioned before in many a topic they are woefully op and unbalanced. A ship fitting them can easily maintain shields even under the most sustained fire. I suggest moving it over to utility slots. Some opinions to change them:

Keep their ratings. E,D,C etc... And use this as a rating for how many charges they have. Also it can be used for the amount of heat they generate when a charge is used to bolster the shield. So say for example 5% less for E 10% less for D 15% less for C and so on and such forth. Repeated uses (say if you are stacking them) increases heat generation exponentially. Causing penalties such as weapons going offline due to excess heat, FSD requiring more time to spool up, or damaging your shield generator due to too much energy being put into your shield. I feel that placing this module in the utility slot also balances out the defensive modules as well.

Do do you want a strong shield or a wall of point defenses and chaff to keep enemy's from hitting you?

Please be constructive and dot flame me too much.

 

[SAB380]

Delete shield cells entirely IMO

 

[OneAmongOthers]

Delete shield cells entirely IMO

Hardly an option, but thanks for the constructive feedback...

 

[Aernir]

I strongly agree that shield cell banks need a good, thorough looking at. As it stands they trivialize most PvE encounters, can't really comment on how they affect PvP since I haven't gotten into it, but from what I've read they seem to basically force people to use highly front loaded damage sources. Likewise can't really say much about point defence. Don't see a problem with chaff however, since it has absolutely no effect on fixed weapons, and is you're running gimbals you can deselect your target and fire them as fixed to get around it.

 

[Hooplah]

Traders would like it to be easier to make credits. It's not going to happen.
Why should we then make it easier for Combateers to kill other players? There
is balance in the equipment and it requires proper usage to overcome an issue.

Point: Chaff - defeats gimbled weapons
Counterpoint: Fixed Weapons - defeats Chaff

Point: Point Defence Turret - defeats missiles
Counterpoint: All other Weapons - defeats Point Defence Turret

Point: Shield Bank - allows recharding of shields
Counterpoint: Shield Bank - useless when Shields are gone

Solutions? A Combat ship needs a combination of weapons to quickly take the
shields offline, keep them off, then massive hits on the appropriate equipment
or hull while the shields are down. Deal with it.

 

[dracotonisamond]

dont forget if you unlock the target that used chaff gimballed weapons revert to fixed weapons.

and point defence units arent very good at hitting dumbfire missiles.

 

[Defacto]

Traders would like it to be easier to make credits. It's not going to happen.
Why should we then make it easier for Combateers to kill other players? There
is balance in the equipment and it requires proper usage to overcome an issue.

Point: Chaff - defeats gimbled weapons
Counterpoint: Fixed Weapons - defeats Chaff

Point: Point Defence Turret - defeats missiles
Counterpoint: All other Weapons - defeats Point Defence Turret

Point: Shield Bank - allows recharding of shields
Counterpoint: Shield Bank - useless when Shields are gone

Solutions? A Combat ship needs a combination of weapons to quickly take the
shields offline, keep them off, then massive hits on the appropriate equipment
or hull while the shields are down. Deal with it.

Shield cells are horrible. There's another thread for discussing this. Here we can discuss how they can be made not horrible.
I would say that there's a problem if an item which was implemented for the purpose of prolonging combat between ships capable of rapidly taking down each other's shields instead forces anyone competing with other players to fit weapons capable of quickly (practically immediatly) taking down shields.

Personally, the solution I prefer would be to have SCB's refill from the SYS bar, and refill the shields by how much the SYS load would have regenned through slow regen. This can still be really strong, but constant use will be practically impossible.

For the PD: One usually isn't enough to deal with a single seeker unless you are flying away from the missile, and at close range the seekers usually get through. Several PD trueets give quite a lot of defence against missiles, but then you're binding up secveral utility slots.

For chaff, you can either use non-tracking weapons or revert to fixed... or just not shoot when the chaff is being dropped.

 

[Blackat]

remove shield cells from internals and put them as harpoints.. case solved ;P
more shields = less weapons and vice versa