Shields vs. Armor

[nightlord84 (OP)]

Just wanted to know what more experienced players have to say about shields vs.  armor.  As I understand things one should only start moving towards a shield-based fleet once reasonably far down the tech tree.  What ratio of armor layers vs.  shield layers do you guys use at each tech level? I really want to move towards a predominantly shield-protected fleet (shields sound so much more sleek and elegant than armor  ) but I'm not sure exactly when it would be a good idea to start replacing armor with shields without negatively affecting combat performance. . .  Any helpful advice?

[Brian Neumann]

This is a juggling act where a lot depends on the cycle times of enemy weapons.  If they have a cycle time measured in just a few 5 second turns then you need fairly high tech shields to be better than the armor.  If instead their cycle time is more like 1-2 minutes then even low tech shields are really usefull.  I usually judge the point to start adding shields is when the cycle time vs shield recharge rate is such that I can stop at least 1 good shot from their weapons with the shields that have regenerated since their last firing per 5000tons of my ship.  This is because larger ships can have more shields that will effectivly recharge faster. 

Good Luck
Brian

[Charlie Beeler]

And I have a different approach.    imagine that!!

I don't replace armor with shields.  Instead I take the approach of having a standard minimum armor thickness, usually 3-5 at game start, and a minimum of 1 shield generator per 1000t of warship.  Yes a low tech this means that they don't stop much, but the plus side is that I have them accounted for in my designs from the start and don't have to consider compromises later.  As armor tech increases you'll see hull spaces become available for newer designs and that is the big gain down the road.

edited for correct shield/tonnage ratio

[Ashery]

Personally, I hold off entirely on shields until I've acquired the first several armor techs. The primary reason simply being that low level armor will take up an obscene amount of HS on even modestly armored vessels.

Can't contribute much to the debate about the effectiveness of armor/shields as I'm fairly inexperienced myself, but I'll give an example of a decision that I'm currently facing: On my 20k ton flagship, my initial design accounted for armor with a thickness of twenty. However, if I were to drop the armor down to sixteen, I can fit in seventeen shields. If I drop the armor to twelve, which is still pretty damn thick, I can up the shields all the way to thirty-five. This part of the debate is only taking into account the HS that was initially earmarked for armor, so I will probably be able to throw even more shields on the vessel.

Unfortunately, I don't currently have the shield techs researched and the wiki is rather lacking on data re:shields, so I can't really formulate a proper opinion on the theoretical effectiveness of my design quite yet.

[Andrew]

I fit shield to larger ships to prevent damage from leaking missiles so I aim for a shield strength of 20-40 , that way if one or 2 missiles leak through from a salvo there is a good chance the shields will absorb all the damage so I don't have to send the ships back for armour repairs