Author Topic: Shield Design: Strong, Slow Charging Ones vs Weak, Fast Charging Ones  (Read 3755 times)

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Offline xenoscepter (OP)

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So, as the title implies, which one do you think is better?

I'm tinkering with using shields on my ships, and have generally found myself doing one of two things:

 - A: Using low-strength shields with really high recharge tech.

 - B: Using shields that have 300 second refresh rates, regardless of strength.

I'm wondering what are the merits of weaker, faster charging shields vs really strong, but slow charging ones. My interest was piqued on this subject when I discovered that Alpha Shields with 10 Recharge Rate produced a shield point every 30 seconds. That means with a hundred of these you would have to deal at least a hundred points of damage within thirty seconds to breach them, and then do some more damage within 30 seconds to actually hit the ship itself. Unless you are using Mesons that is...

Also, what are you're design philosophies with regards to shields?
 

Offline amram

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Considering that all shields mass 50 tons regardless, I tend to ignore cost and focus on function.  To that end, all ships that I shield receive a set of maximum tech shields, research wise, I tend to advance the regen in step with the shields so that the regen stays 300 seconds for a full refresh.

Up until 8 hp or so, I tend to prioritise raising shield strength, but after that, I would pick more regen over more strength.  Either way though, unless I am under serious pressure, the refits usually wait for both to increase one tier.
 

Offline misanthropope

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with the way research costs scale, you gain very little in one tech even if you were willing to sacrifice *all* advancement in the other. 

now, in the component design stage, having a configurable parameter that slid between (double regen and zero strength) and (zero regen and double strength) would make the question interesting. 

 

Offline Garfunkel

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I'm the same as Amram - I always max both. I've never been in a situation where I would have to choose one over the other. But I generally play low-tech campaigns and often don't use shields at all.