Shield generators vs Pirate faction.

[Pury (OP)]

While I obviously haven't seen them in action, I imagine fighting pirates to be more of a gorilla-style warfare for the AI. Where it will try not to commit itself to big battles (at least that's how i understand them) As shields are now implemented, there is no reason to just keep the turned on for all the time while clearing the sector from pirates. Wouldn't small MSP cost for operating shields that simulates Shield generators overheating (starting after 5 days) help make the Anty-pirate operations more interesting?

[Migi]

My vauge recollection is that in Aurora VB shields had a fuel consumption.
This was removed in C#, and IIRC the main reason for doing this was to make the whole mechanic less about attention/inattention of turning them on or off. (The rationale for the fuel change is not noted in the changes list, although the rationale for other changes are)

So while it might be nice to have a cost to keeping shields active, I think Steve would prefer not to introduce an 'inattention penalty'.

Also if you want to read about the raiders in action, they show up in Steve's latest campaign http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?board=310.0

[Andrew]

Not really any point, the shields come to full strength very quickly so it would only matter if a raider got to  beam range without being detected , which is unlilely if you have decent passives or left your anti-missile actives off. It would just be something else to forget before a battle which no commander would forget and so you would go back to a save if you lost the battle.
I do believe active shields raise your EM Signature so there is a reason to keep them off if you are being stealthy

[Pury (OP)]

Not really any point, the shields come to full strength very quickly so it would only matter if a raider got to  beam range without being detected , which is unlilely if you have decent passives or left your anti-missile actives off. It would just be something else to forget before a battle which no commander would forget and so you would go back to a save if you lost the battle.
I do believe active shields raise your EM Signature so there is a reason to keep them off if you are being stealthy

I was thinking more about missile attacks. They are way to fast and small to be detected fast enough for a ship to rise it shields.

[Pury (OP)]

My vauge recollection is that in Aurora VB shields had a fuel consumption.
This was removed in C#, and IIRC the main reason for doing this was to make the whole mechanic less about attention/inattention of turning them on or off. (The rationale for the fuel change is not noted in the changes list, although the rationale for other changes are)

So while it might be nice to have a cost to keeping shields active, I think Steve would prefer not to introduce an 'inattention penalty'.

Also if you want to read about the raiders in action, they show up in Steve's latest campaign http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?board=310.0

You have a point. I just wasn't sure if Pirate faction was considered during Shield changes, and wanted to propose some alternative for fuel consumption. Shield generators Failures would be much more visable than fuel consumption (Simple log in events related to system failure) Helping strike the balance between attention neediness and mechanical depth.

Thanks for the link ^^

[Andrew]

I was thinking more about missile attacks. They are way to fast and small to be detected fast enough for a ship to rise it shields.

I disagree.
With active sensors up it is hard to get to missile range without detection, then the attackers have to bring up active sensors before launching giving you EM warning all of which give you time to raise shields, and you will get signifigant shields even if only your res 1 or thermal sensors detect missiles

[Pury (OP)]

I disagree.
With active sensors up it is hard to get to missile range without detection, then the attackers have to bring up active sensors before launching giving you EM warning all of which give you time to raise shields, and you will get signifigant shields even if only your res 1 or thermal sensors detect missiles

You are right, Your own fleet EM detection will spot enemy sensors before missiles will fire. Hopefully Pirates will be centered around technologies that will allow them to explode ships sneaky, like Stealth and missiles with sensors.

[TallTroll]

It's not impossible to launch sneaky missile attacks by using 2-stage missiles with a weak engine on the bus (making it hard to pick up on thermals), then a 2nd stage missile with powerful actives to self-guide to a target, but to really make it work you'd need a pretty decent edge in tech... so why not just launch a full on assault? Pirates are one of the few cases where it might be a regular tactic, but even then, they leave their own unique traces, so a wise captain would know to always leave shields up while in a system where they might be subject to their attention

[kilo]

There are no civilian shield generators, which makes them a non-issue for raiding fleets. The only ships that can carry shields are warships and those should not be the target of pirates. Are ship designs of the pirate faction known by now? Are they using something like WW2 submarines, which are small, cheap, stealthy and numerous or do they use capital ships as raiders, which can slug it out with a small escort?
My last raiding design was a small fighter with a single shot 12 cm railgun, minimalistic power supply, short range active sensors, short range BFC and a speed that is good for hunting civilians and not running from warships. In combination with passive sensors like tracking stations or sensor ships, they could cause a lot of damage. The small size and acceptable speed allowed me to pick targets and evade fleets pretty well. The cost was significantly less than 100 BP, which makes them expendable. I bet that you can hardly defend your convoys economically against such a thread.