Upgrades and Optimum mass

[JimmySav]

Hello all, I'm just getting stuck into this awesome game, and am loving it so far.

I'm flying my Eagle which im attempting to upgrade into a bounty hunting fighter, but dont really understand the upgrades and how they work.

A couple of questions:
1. POWER. Does a bigger power plant just mean more overall power, to fit bigger systems / guns etc, or does it also affect recharge and so on. I.e does having EXCESS power allow better recharge. My ship has an 8MW allowance, but only draws 7.3 MW or so. Does that overhead (i.e 0.7 MW) benefit me in any way, or only allow me to fit more stuff.
2. POWER. The distributor.... that is the only thing that affects recharge rates of various items, or does it combine somehow with the power generator?

3. Optimal Mass? Thrusters and Shield generators etc show Optimal Mass, but how does this work? Is having a ship lighter than optimal mass, good, bad or indifferent? My ships shields optimal mass is 135 while the actual ship weighs in at only 80 or so..... Also do thrusters help maneuverability or just top speeds?

 

[zaccheus44]

It seems indifferent in play, though everything is so opaque it's impossible to know for sure

 

[Ravenov]

AFAIK:

1 any excess is wasted, bit i think better power mods are more heat efficient.

2 don't think it combines

3 would love to know this one myself.

 

[Ceekay]

The power plant supplies power to the distributor and it has accumulators/capacitors (essentially rechargeable batteries!) that supply power to engines, weapons and systems (shields, sensors, life support etc), this means you need to upgrade the power plant and power distributor together to get the most out of them. Having an over-specified power power plant means it runs cooler as it's maybe running at 75% capacity not 90% or over in a stock loadout,
Better thrusters will give you small increases in speed (3-5 m/s) and subtle improvements to agility as well these changes really only become noticeable in combat allowing better target tracking, not that sure about shields myself TBH but as long as they're capable of providing a shield for your ships mass/size they got you covered (sry!)

Here's a decent loadout for an Eagle I had during the Gamma's capable of running three fixed pulse lasers

Spoiler

 

[Renegade Roach]

From what I understand from another thread (can't remember the name to link) shields will effectively be 'weaker' if your ship is over the optimal mass. Under this mass you'll see an improvement in shield strength. This relates to how much damage they can absorb rather than recharge rate.

Same applies to maneuverability gains from thrusters.

I stand to be corrected by somebody that knows more and actually did the testing, if that's wrong.

 

[Warbrand]

the closer You are to the optmal mass the Better the shield is.... better shields allways pay off, but need al hell of energy.

I spent most of my energy to defensive Systems (Shield, thrusters) and run low energy attack weapons (autocannons)
cost a lot of ammo, but works fine for me.

 

[Kubicide]

Only info we've had from the design folks (that I have seen) is with the thrusters. Apparently, "C" level thrusters will provide the intended flight or ship control characteristics - flight may not be the right word but is helpful to describe what I mean. Lower rated thrusters ("D" and "E") will reduce the intended flight performance while higher level gear ("B" and "A") will provide better flight characteristics. You can definitely feel the effects of top rated B and A thrusters: one can accelerate and decelerate / brake much better especially in SC, and climb or descend translationally with faster control response.

Part that hasn't been confirmed but seems to be true is the differences between "E" and "D", and "B" and "A". It feels like the two groups offer the same performance changes but the "D" and "A" gear feature less weight and power to make them different and more expensive.

The thread or dev's post should be buried in the beta archives.

Edit: to your point the effects of mass and optimal mass hasn't been well explained by the devs. Shields seem to be the big mystery to me along with the affects of shield cells. Suspect they have something to do with the base shield value you see when buying a ship - perhaps something to do with a recharging rate versus dps from the attacking weapon or object in a collision. Also suspect ship mass is in the calculation somewhere. FSD drives are pretty easy to figure out by seeing the increase in jump range. Same with power and distribution: they're both easy to understand.

 

[JimmySav]

ok cool. When you say the closer to optimum the better, does that include over and under, or just under?

i,e if Optimum Mass is 135, is 139 tons better than 82 tons?

We all have a lot to learn still which is good....