Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition

[bankshot]

I'm building my first light cruiser size (22K tons) warships in C# and have some shields questions.  I'm at Epsilon, regen 3, max size 20.  Do shield generators stack like they did in VB?  re: If i wanted more than 85 shield strength could I slap on a second?  Due to the strength increase given to larger generators I assume there is no reason to build multiple generators until I hit the max size limit.  I know engines should be around 30-40% of the ship mass but is there a rule of thumb on how much armor/shield a beam ship should carry?  I'm at Internal Fusion and currently researching 15k-30k cost military techs.  In VB I was missile-heavy and only put the minimum shields on the ships - 1 or 2 missile's worth of damage absorbed to handle whatever leaked through the AMM and point defense.  This run I'm focusing on laser for offense and gauss for defense (12 lasers, 6 twin gauss turrets) so I expect my ships will have to take some abuse before they get in range. 

[xenoscepter (OP)]

I'm building my first light cruiser size (22K tons) warships in C# and have some shields questions.  I'm at Epsilon, regen 3, max size 20.  Do shield generators stack like they did in VB?  re: If i wanted more than 85 shield strength could I slap on a second?  Due to the strength increase given to larger generators I assume there is no reason to build multiple generators until I hit the max size limit.  I know engines should be around 30-40% of the ship mass but is there a rule of thumb on how much armor/shield a beam ship should carry?  I'm at Internal Fusion and currently researching 15k-30k cost military techs.  In VB I was missile-heavy and only put the minimum shields on the ships - 1 or 2 missile's worth of damage absorbed to handle whatever leaked through the AMM and point defense.  This run I'm focusing on laser for offense and gauss for defense (12 lasers, 6 twin gauss turrets) so I expect my ships will have to take some abuse before they get in range.

 --- Shields do in fact stack like in VB6, however while larger shields have more power per Hull Size, they lack the regeneration rate of smaller shields, so it's a trade-off. However, this matters more at higher tech levels that you are at... As for stacking only when at max size, there is also the fact that multiple shield generators regenerate concurrently and provide some redundancy if one or two get shot out.

[nuclearslurpee]

Admin rating can increase via experience, I had a look in my logs and found an example of it happening to an assigned administrator. I assume this means it can also happen via blind luck/evening college classes.

I'm not sure I've ever seen it happen... maybe it is quite rare and this could be tweaked?

[Garfunkel]

Admin rating can increase via experience, I had a look in my logs and found an example of it happening to an assigned administrator. I assume this means it can also happen via blind luck/evening college classes.

I'm not sure I've ever seen it happen... maybe it is quite rare and this could be tweaked?

I could've sworn I've seen it numerous times but maybe I'm confusing it with scientist's admin ratings and so it is rare - but I've definitely seen it happen.

[Black]

Admin rating can increase via experience, I had a look in my logs and found an example of it happening to an assigned administrator. I assume this means it can also happen via blind luck/evening college classes.

I'm not sure I've ever seen it happen... maybe it is quite rare and this could be tweaked?

I could've sworn I've seen it numerous times but maybe I'm confusing it with scientist's admin ratings and so it is rare - but I've definitely seen it happen.

I can confirm that administrators can get promotion, it should be visible in the table where officer history is shown (not sure what is the exact name, do not have Aurora at hand).

Edit: I checked my game and unfortunately promotion of administrators is not shown in their history in Commanders window.

[Migi]

Admin rating can increase via experience, I had a look in my logs and found an example of it happening to an assigned administrator. I assume this means it can also happen via blind luck/evening college classes.

I'm not sure I've ever seen it happen... maybe it is quite rare and this could be tweaked?

I could've sworn I've seen it numerous times but maybe I'm confusing it with scientist's admin ratings and so it is rare - but I've definitely seen it happen.

I can confirm that administrators can get promotion, it should be visible in the table where officer history is shown (not sure what is the exact name, do not have Aurora at hand).

Edit: I checked my game and unfortunately promotion of administrators is not shown in their history in Commanders window.

When I checked I went to the events window, increased the limits, filtered for commander events and started scrolling back, then I stopped when I found the first example, so I'm afraid it wasn't very scientific.
I believe it is rare, and I'm not familiar with the mechanics, but it might have to do with the number of types of skills that administrators can have, if one is picked at random to increase.

[Rince Wind]

I am probably blind, but can I somehow change my shipyards with the spacemaster mode?

[TheTalkingMeowth]

I am probably blind, but can I somehow change my shipyards with the spacemaster mode?

Yes. Turn on Spacemaster then open a new economics window. There should be an SM Modify Shipyard button next to the capacity expansion buttons.

[Rince Wind]

Thank you! I was not looking in the drop down menu, I was just looking for a new button in the window.

[Bluebreaker]

--- Shields do in fact stack like in VB6, however while larger shields have more power per Hull Size, they lack the regeneration rate of smaller shields, so it's a trade-off. However, this matters more at higher tech levels that you are at... As for stacking only when at max size, there is also the fact that multiple shield generators regenerate concurrently and provide some redundancy if one or two get shot out.

What you mean about the regeneration rate? isn't regeneration lineal to size?

[nuclearslurpee]

--- Shields do in fact stack like in VB6, however while larger shields have more power per Hull Size, they lack the regeneration rate of smaller shields, so it's a trade-off. However, this matters more at higher tech levels that you are at... As for stacking only when at max size, there is also the fact that multiple shield generators regenerate concurrently and provide some redundancy if one or two get shot out.

What you mean about the regeneration rate? isn't regeneration lineal to size?

Regeneration rate is linear with size, however shield strength varies as size*SQRT(size/10), or proportional to size^3/2. This means that larger shields will take longer to regenerate their full strength. This leads to some confusion, because a smaller shield will regenerate its full strength more quickly (Size 1: 95 seconds; Size 10: 300 seconds; Size 50: 675 seconds - assuming the shield strength and regen tech levels are equal). However, the net regeneration rate for a set of shields in terms of strength points per second is always the same for a given total size of shield generators regardless of their individual sizes.

This means that as long as a ship is large enough to carry them, the largest available size of shield generators is always optimal tactically, except for the case when you might want multiple generators for redundancy in case of battle damage. Strategically of course a larger generator will cost a lot more RP to develop, but shield generator research costs are generally pretty small compared to the tech research costs (unlike the case for, say, large engines) so this is rarely an important consideration.

[Migi]

I thought shield regen was fixed per generator, so it would increase linearly with number of shield generators.
But apparently I'm wrong. 

Using Gamma shield tech and RR2 (8k RP)

Code: [Select]

Generator A: Gamma S7 / R210 Shields
Shield Strength 7
Recharge Rate 10     Recharge Time 210
Cost 17    Crew 5      HTK 2
Size 5 HS  (250 tons)Development Cost 291 RP

Code: [Select]

Generator B: Gamma S20 / R300 Shields
Shield Strength 20
Recharge Rate 20     Recharge Time 300
Cost 40    Crew 10      HTK 3
Size 10 HS  (500 tons)Development Cost 447 RP
If you calculate the time to gain 1 point of strength you get 30 seconds for A, and 15 seconds for B, so two copies of generator A regenerates the same amount as a single copy of generator B.
RIP my treatise on the use of multiple shield generators to more effectively fight in high ROF situations. 

[nuclearslurpee]

I thought shield regen was fixed per generator, so it would increase linearly with number of shield generators.
But apparently I'm wrong. 

Using Gamma shield tech and RR2 (8k RP)

Code: [Select]

Generator A: Gamma S7 / R210 Shields
Shield Strength 7
Recharge Rate 10     Recharge Time 210
Cost 17    Crew 5      HTK 2
Size 5 HS  (250 tons)Development Cost 291 RP

Code: [Select]

Generator B: Gamma S20 / R300 Shields
Shield Strength 20
Recharge Rate 20     Recharge Time 300
Cost 40    Crew 10      HTK 3
Size 10 HS  (500 tons)Development Cost 447 RP
If you calculate the time to gain 1 point of strength you get 30 seconds for A, and 15 seconds for B, so two copies of generator A regenerates the same amount as a single copy of generator B.
RIP my treatise on the use of multiple shield generators to more effectively fight in high ROF situations. 

Don't feel bad, I'm not sure most people on the forum know how shields work mechanically...a lot of people have been saying that smaller shields "recharge quicker" lately...

I blame this on the fact that shields are rarely a starting system in most campaigns due to initial RP limitations, so a lot of people don't have a lot of experience with them.

[xenoscepter (OP)]

 --- I seem to have neglected an important fact, sorry I've been sleeping poorly as of late. Still am actually... anyhoo my lame excuses aside; Shield Regen varies at higher tech levels by combining low-strength shields with high regen tech. I cannot math good at the moment, so I might update this later, but multiple shield generators recharge separately AFAIK. So two shield gens with 1 recharge per increment will recharge faster than one big one that recharges at 2 every other increment. As by the time two increments have passed, the two smaller ones will have made four units of shield power and the bigger one will have made... well two. You'd think they might be equal at a glance since both produce 2 total strength per increment overall, but the bigger one is actually producing less than the two smaller ones because combined they are producing 2 per increment rather than 1 per increment. Basically, don't forget that shield recharge is additive.

[nuclearslurpee]

--- I seem to have neglected an important fact, sorry I've been sleeping poorly as of late. Still am actually... anyhoo my lame excuses aside; Shield Regen varies at higher tech levels by combining low-strength shields with high regen tech. I cannot math good at the moment, so I might update this later, but multiple shield generators recharge separately AFAIK. So two shield gens with 1 recharge per increment will recharge faster than one big one that recharges at 2 every other increment. As by the time two increments have passed, the two smaller ones will have made four units of shield power and the bigger one will have made... well two. You'd think they might be equal at a glance since both produce 2 total strength per increment overall, but the bigger one is actually producing less than the two smaller ones because combined they are producing 2 per increment rather than 1 per increment. Basically, don't forget that shield recharge is additive.

This is incorrect. If two shield generators have 1 recharge per increment, than another shield gen at the same tech level with twice the size will recharge 2 per increment. Not "2 every other increment" and I have no idea where that suggestion is coming from.

The mechanical definition for the shield recharge rate tech is that a shield of size H with regen rate R will recharge H*R points in 300 seconds. The actual strength of the shield is completely unrelated to this, and only affects the recharging time shown in the component summary which is simply how many seconds it takes to regenerate the shield completely. This varies because shield strength scales with size^3/2, not because the regen rate isn't directly proportional to size (because it is).

Example: using Delta Shields tech level as a reasonable early/mid-game standard (strength S=2.5, R=regen 2.5, max size Hmax=20), with regen = H*R and strength = H*sqrt(H/10)*S), you would be able to design shields of the following specs:

Size 1: Strength = 1 (0.79), Regen = 2.5, recharge time = 120 sec.
Size 5: Strength = 9 (8.83), Regen = 12.5, recharge time = 220 sec (displayed as 216).
Size 10: Strength = 25, Regen = 25, recharge time = 300 sec.
SIze 20: Strength = 71 (70.7), Regen = 50, recharge time = 430 sec (displayed as 426).

You can confirm this exactly in the game, but my point is that the numbers reflect the mechanics as I am describing them. The only exception is if there is some effect from discrete values of partial shield strength as you regenerate, but AFAIK Steve has coded things under the hood so that these effects are not significant on average. Otherwise, total shield regeneration is only dependent on the tech level and the total size of shield generators on the ship, there is no special effect to making the individual generators smaller or larger.