Why can't I recharge my shields at a station again?

[Limoncello Lizard]

If there is a way to exploit something then someone will do it.

I can imagine two people fighting evenly matched both have no SCBs left, one loses shields, legs it to an outpost buy a new shield at full, thus bypassing the normal shield regeneration recharge time. Goes and kills the player who is waiting for their shields to come up.

Now that sounds like an exploit to me.

You have a point. But, the same ship at the station can be repaired, refuelled, reloaded, and even upgraded. So why not recharge the shields as well?

Maybe the answer is to have a spare ship at the station, fully loaded and charged. Same result as an instant repair/recharge. But this is an "exploit" that only those few who have a spare billion credits could afford to use for an anaconda.

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

...current system of shield recharge is the best FD could come up with, a few cheat and we all get smacked.

I don't agree with that. Everyone gets the same shield mechanic; cheaters and hackers bypass any mechanic given time and a peer-to-peer networking system, so whatever mechanic is in use by the honest players is meaningless.

And if this is the best FD could come up with, well, I'm sure they can do better.

 

[hoppingdeth]

It is the way it is because people DID exploit it, current system of shield recharge is the best FD could come up with, a few cheat and we all get smacked.

not true.do you actually know what the shields exploit was that they fixed?!

shields not repairing at stations the same way as fuel / damage gets repaired is not due to the sc recharge exploit that fd addressed. it's nothing to do with it.

the current mechanic of having pilots taking up platform or station slots, waiting for their boosted shields to charge is a design flaw / oversight because there is nothing to exploit. having a player go to a station and have their shields instantly recharge in the same way repair or refuel works is not an exploit. there is nothing to exploit using that mechanic. you might as well say that instantly repairing your ship at a station is an exploit.

stop trying to defend fd by implying that this mechanic had anything to do with the sc shield exploit, or any other exploit for that matter. just get it fixed fd!!!!

 

[kaivalagi]

Yep, just fully charge shields on docking a ship....simples.....

 

[nexxo]

Why does oxygen get replenished at stations and fuel refilled?
Isnt that a bit imba and prone to exploits?
Shouldnt oxygen only be replenished during atmospheric scoops and fuel recharged leeching at a suns?
Questions over questions and no answers from FD.

Why wouldn't you refuel and recondition your life support when you're docked at a station? Any pilot knows to never pass up an opportunity to top up fuel and consumables (because you never know when you'll next get the chance).

But you're all acting as if recharging shields is like filling a fuel tank. That's not so. Your ship already has the power to recharge the shields, right there in its humming reactor. It doesn't need any extra juice from the station. Problem is getting that power into the shields: there's a capacitor to charge and then a Ziemen matrix to energise to a critical state where a stable energy field lattice will form, and the projectors have a limited output. That takes time no matter how much power you throw at it. Try and force it, all you do is blow the capacitor and projection grid.

And dockers for some reason feel really nervous about walking around ships enveloped in an invisible energy field of several Terawatts' strength. It is station regulations to power shields down on landing and to not reactivate them until launch. So no charging while docked.

 

[Quineloe]

It is station regulations to power shields down on landing and to not reactivate them until launch. So no charging while docked.

Please don't make up fantastic lore reasons to justify the slow shield recharge rate that basically forces us to afk 10-20 minutes if we lose a big ship's shield.

My shields are indeed charging while docked, just at the same rate as they do now, and I do not have to power down shields to dock.

 

[Jerakeen]

I can live with the long recharge time. I don't like it but I can live with it.

What really winds me up though is the fact that I can log out of the game and come beck 24 hours later and my shields haven't recharged. Everything else goes on as normal when I'm logged out. My rep decays, the background simulation goes on, trade prices change but my shields won't recharge unless I'm there to watch them do it. That's ludicrous. Am I sitting there pumping it up with a handle or is it powered by a hamster wheel that won't work unless I keep on feeding the hamster?

 

[Hanatarashi]

IMO, it has nothing to do with exploits, and was implemented for the same reason as merit decay and rep decay.

 

[Kowboat]

IMO, it has nothing to do with exploits, and was implemented for the same reason as merit decay and rep decay.

Ahh, so it's because Frontier doesn't respect its players' time, then.

 

[CMDR RAY-ZOR'SHARP]

I don't understand this mechanic. At the very least let me use a SCB while I'm on the dock and then let me recharge the SCB!

Me neither it's complete and it drives me wild.

Because at some time, somehow, someone will find a way to exploit it, thus everyone is made to suffer today.

There will never be an exploit, you can limp in to a station will 1% hull and 1 click later instant repair, whats the difference having the same apply to shields, answer none.

Ahh, so it's because Frontier doesn't respect its players' time, then.

Exactly! sitting around like a lemon for 20 mins or buy SCB's fly out use and re-dock more malarkey.

As you can read I detest this needless time sink and Mr Brooks need to have a good long look in the mirror for implementing this shambolic game mechanic.

 

[nexxo]

Please don't make up fantastic lore reasons to justify the slow shield recharge rate that basically forces us to afk 10-20 minutes if we lose a big ship's shield.

For a game to be fun, it has to be balanced. For every weapon there must be a shield. For every measure a countermeasure. For every armour something that will pierce it. For every advantage a drawback. This is so that what makes the ultimate difference between victory and defeat is not the player's weapons, armour or ship size, but their strategy, inventiveness, reaction speed and skill. And that makes victory entirely the player's own, and thus so much sweeter.

So sorry: you got big-ass, near-impenetrable shields? That comes with a long recharge time. It's the Yin to your Yang, the counterbalance to your power. It's what makes the game challenging, and hence fun.

If you think it's a waste of your time, then perhaps you ought to stop playing computer games and go do something else with your life!

 

[nexxo]

I can live with the long recharge time. I don't like it but I can live with it.

What really winds me up though is the fact that I can log out of the game and come beck 24 hours later and my shields haven't recharged. Everything else goes on as normal when I'm logged out. My rep decays, the background simulation goes on, trade prices change but my shields won't recharge unless I'm there to watch them do it. That's ludicrous. Am I sitting there pumping it up with a handle or is it powered by a hamster wheel that won't work unless I keep on feeding the hamster?

It makes sense for that to be fixed, agreed.

 

[hoppingdeth]

For a game to be fun, it has to be balanced. For every weapon there must be a shield. For every measure a countermeasure. For every armour something that will pierce it. For every advantage a drawback. This is so that what makes the ultimate difference between victory and defeat is not the player's weapons, armour or ship size, but their strategy, inventiveness, reaction speed and skill. And that makes victory entirely the player's own, and thus so much sweeter.

So sorry: you got big-ass, near-impenetrable shields? That comes with a long recharge time. It's the Yin to your Yang, the counterbalance to your power. It's what makes the game challenging, and hence fun.

If you think it's a waste of your time, then perhaps you ought to stop playing computer games and go do something else with your life!

?? is this a troll post?

it's about keeping the game moving. Why? because it's a game. there is no paper / scissors / stone while having people hanging around in stations - effectively not playing the game.

 

[Zieman]

For a game to be fun, it has to be balanced. For every weapon there must be a shield. For every measure a countermeasure. For every armour something that will pierce it. For every advantage a drawback. This is so that what makes the ultimate difference between victory and defeat is not the player's weapons, armour or ship size, but their strategy, inventiveness, reaction speed and skill. And that makes victory entirely the player's own, and thus so much sweeter.

So sorry: you got big-ass, near-impenetrable shields? That comes with a long recharge time. It's the Yin to your Yang, the counterbalance to your power. It's what makes the game challenging, and hence fun.

If you think it's a waste of your time, then perhaps you ought to stop playing computer games and go do something else with your life!

All nice and dandy, but hasn't nothing to do with the fact that having shields recharge only at normal rate while docked is inconsistent. One should be at least be able to buy fast recharge, as one is able to buy instant hull & module repair, ammo restock and fuel fill up.

 

[nexxo]

?? is this a troll post?

it's about keeping the game moving. Why? because it's a game. there is no paper / scissors / stone while having people hanging around in stations - effectively not playing the game.

No, it's an argument about keeping the game balanced. It takes a long time to take an Anaconda's shields down. As such they should take long to recharge. If a player can just skip to the nearest station, recharge and be back in the fight in five minutes the game becomes a bit unbalanced. I can see the argument for charging them, say, twice as fast while docked, but instant recharge seems to me to unbalance things too much. Instant unloading and loading of cargo and instant hull repair is already a bit of an immersion breaker.

 

[Kowboat]

No, it's an argument about keeping the game balanced. It takes a long time to take an Anaconda's shields down. As such they should take long to recharge. If a player can just skip to the nearest station, recharge and be back in the fight in five minutes the game becomes a bit unbalanced. I can see the argument for charging them, say, twice as fast while docked, but instant recharge seems to me to unbalance things too much. Instant unloading and loading of cargo and instant hull repair is already a bit of an immersion breaker.

I see where you're arguing from, but I feel like that's a failure of how shields work in the first place. Elite's shield meta is deeply broken on account of SCB stacking.

 

[CMDR RAY-ZOR'SHARP]

No, it's an argument about keeping the game balanced. It takes a long time to take an Anaconda's shields down. As such they should take long to recharge. If a player can just skip to the nearest station, recharge and be back in the fight in five minutes the game becomes a bit unbalanced. I can see the argument for charging them, say, twice as fast while docked, but instant recharge seems to me to unbalance things too much. Instant unloading and loading of cargo and instant hull repair is already a bit of an immersion breaker.

What has balance to do with it? The time it takes to take down an Anacondas shields is irrelevant and entirely dependent on the weapons and ship used so from 20 seconds to several minuets, when I loose my Annie's shields it's time to get out of dodge ASAP hull damage is inevitable, the time I take to dock could be several minuets my shields will still be down but full repair is but a click away how is balance achieved sitting around twiddling your thumbs, it isn't, try suggesting a 5 second wait per ton of cargo and 15 seconds per % for hull repair for added immersion and see what happens, Time sinks that do and add nothing are the immersion breakers.

 

[nexxo]

On average it will take longer to take down the shields of an Anaconda than of a smaller ship. Hence the recharge time should be balanced against that.

 

[Zieman]

On average it will take longer to take down the shields of an Anaconda than of a smaller ship. Hence the recharge time should be balanced against that.

And it is, bigger shields do take longer to recharge, no problems there.

Still, having all the insta-repairs, refuels, cargo transfers etc. , but no accelerated shield recharge when docked, is really inconsistent, ridiculous even.

Refuel 30t - 300 Cr (or 3000 Cr ?, don't know exactly), so why not: charge shields 500 MJ - 5000 Cr?

 

[Soliluna]

non-RP reply.

The exploit of jumping into and then out of SC to get a full, instant recharge was quickly changed and rightly so. I can only assume a simple flag was changed (I do not know my pascal from my logo) to prevent this. That same flag controls the recharge when docked stat and would need more detailed changes to return.

It must have been a case of to stop the exploit, we lost the station docking charge and I can live with that for the moment. I'm sure that FD will find a way of restoring the shield charge whilst docked thingy but they have other, more important things to concentrate on.

I find, by the time I've reached the local CZ, after a swift 'Sir Robin', the shields are topped up (switching off boosters to speed this up helps too).

Now, what is that long pipe like thing I see waving around at the back of my python?

Haha they should bring back the station docking charge, then it will be more like what I expect the future to be. They should then also introduce a system tax that you pay just for being in a system, decided by the controlling faction.

And they should introduce a 'windscreen license' and have ships interdict you and say "are you paying your windscreen license?". That should be run by the biggest baddest corporation.