I was doing some bounty hunting in my viper and in the middle of a fight my shields went from near full to offline. What weapon does that and how do I avoid it? I got no you are under attack or a missle was launched at you just shields are offline. I had taken a few hits but was evading at the time and had popped a chaff. Do missles give a launch warning or is it best to always have a point defense installed or ecm?
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Newcomer / Intro where did my sheilds go?
- Thread starter paladin7
- Start date
You might have hit "silent running"? ..It's a feature designed to reduce your heat signature, but which switches your shields right off. Maybe a good idea to find it in control bindings and remove (or put it somewhere you won't accidentally hit it in the middle of a fight)
No I don't believe you get a specific missile warning .. could be a good add but to be fair they come in pretty quickly so not sure if a warning would help much. Point Defense is very effective, and automatic, ECM (needs a firegroup binding) is more difficult to use (probably also because you don't get a missile warning).
Hi Cmdr,
It is impossible to say which weapon took your shields down so quickly as there are many weapons that can do that depending on the calibre of your shields.
It is advisable to always have point defense fitted for protection against missiles.
Also sheet boosters are a good idea but only help when your shields are deplted not completely down.
The other question is what level of shields are installed as you need the best you can afford along with a power plant and distributor to cope with the full load of the ship.
It is impossible to say which weapon took your shields down so quickly as there are many weapons that can do that depending on the calibre of your shields.
It is advisable to always have point defense fitted for protection against missiles.
Also sheet boosters are a good idea but only help when your shields are deplted not completely down.
The other question is what level of shields are installed as you need the best you can afford along with a power plant and distributor to cope with the full load of the ship.
Larger weapons on bigger ships can single-shot a viper's shields. Rail guns on an Asp are a particular menace in CZs and those and PAs pack a real wallop on any ship. However, sudden shield loss can be the result of a collision. NPCs were in the habit of ramming, I don't know if they still use that technique. Also if you were in an asteroid belt, colliding with an asteroid will happily wipe out a viper's shields.
[alien]
[alien]
Some other things to consider/try:
- Check the combat rank of your opponent. So, especially if you are new to combat, whether to engage should be partially based on your previous experiences with NPCs of a similar rank.
- If it is high-rated then it's possible the NPC could have devastating railguns or to a lesser extent fixed plasma accelerators. You can check what weapons the NPC has from the left-HUD sub-targets tab.
- Generally it is better to target the Powerplant, as if you are able to hit that directly you can disable the NPC before you destroy it's hull.
- When you are taking fire having 4 pips in SYS makes a significant difference to your shield strength. (Actually in conflict zones I tend to spend most of the time with 4 pips to SYS and can stay in the fight for much longer). Demo using a small beam laser with the opponent having 4 pips to SYS:
[video=youtube_share;RrSXvCEergY]https://youtu.be/RrSXvCEergY[/video]
- Here's also a video featuring a Viper (MK III) in a High-RES showing you how to (and how not to) engage in combat although personal I would have a mix of lasers (thermal weapons better for shield damage) and multi cannons (kinetic weapons better for hull damage):
[video=youtube_share;M0JnMF5hDfQ]https://youtu.be/M0JnMF5hDfQ[/video]