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[vladokapuh]

I'm not going to lie. no matter how many times i try. it just can't make Shield Shunt work on any ship. it always ends up getting deleted by "REDACTED" so I'm not even going to try doing it against "SUPER REDACTED".

thats because its a bad hullmod in general, and its usually not worth it. Shunt as a hullmod needs to get buffed

[gG_pilot]

It used to give 25% armor instead of 15% (along with armor skills being stronger), but it got nerfed. It's one of those cases where Alex just doesn't seem to want a playstyle to be viable and nerfs it if it sees any play at all. Another example is defunct civillian packages and high scatter amp.

Agree.  It looks to me there are options to choose from,  but they exist only to be advertised not realy used. Shield shunt is interesting option but is set right below it would be comparable. Althou it is possible to build a shield - less ship, it works on average performance only in very specific case (certain ship vs certain opponents ) in all other cases it is worst.
And on top you need special pilot, which cant fly a shielded ship. So special long time effort and  planing is required by player to bee able  to use this kind of features, then reward is average in best case. That is game  design problem.

Another example is the high scatter amp,  which I was not able to set a ship which could even reach an average performance of standard ranged ship. But at least, yo just re-equip a ship and that it. Dont need  re-train new pilot. i.e.>> Role Play Justification might work >> Well, not every technology works,  so it is ok. From game  design perspective, not every hull mode must be great or even usable.

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Simple buff from  15% to 25% is not good, it can take you to a point when ship is almost immune to damage.
Ideas how to buff up curreent shield shunt, I would like to see to add some(all) of these >>
- removing shield it allowed to redirect energy into engines so ship gets higher speed (plus of 10% speed or +5unit of speed whichever is higher)
- removing shield removed a lot  expensive electronics, so maintenance of the ships is 30% lower
- removing shield removed a lot of  internal equipment and electronics which took space. Ship get bigger cargo space 10/50/100/200
- shield shunt hull mod, adds a continuous armor and hull robots (like R2D2) which repairs 1%  of one armor tile per second (applyed  on the most damaged tile), when all armor tiles are higher than 80% then it repairs 1% of hull per 10 seconds up to 80%
---------------------
OR
- here is the radical option: keep current effect but make shield shunt OP cost  minus one OP. Yes, you will get 1 OP to  the pool for strip down part (shield) of  the ship.

[Grievous69]

I'm just salty because SO still works really well in lots of situations (and I hate it) while newer cool playstyle changing hullmods seem to be just for fluff. Shield shunt is not that bad but becomes super hard to play with later in the game. A single weapon that's a counter screws your whole strategy. HSA is even more of a joke, I honestly don't get the point of the hullmod. Whole thing going for beams is range and harassing opponents, why would I want it to turn into a subpar projectile energy weapon and still pay for it in OP?

[Megas]

I would not mind Shield Shunt getting all of the effects of Rugged Construction, or better yet, merge Shield Shunt with Rugged Construction.  Ships are expected to die, but it does not hurt as much.

If not that, then more EMP resistance so that Polarized Armor is not required for sufficient EMP resistance.

If not more armor, then a bit more hull and/or less crew loss.  Make it "More Blast Doors".

A single weapon that's a counter screws your whole strategy.

I also think about the (Reaper beam) Dragonfire bombs that will come.

HSA is even more of a joke, I honestly don't get the point of the hullmod

Mostly for Graviton Beam.

[Amoebka]

Mostly for Graviton Beam.

Right, paying OP for an expensive hullmod to turn your 1-3 medium energies into worse LACs. And that's the best use case.

[Megas]

Right, paying OP for an expensive hullmod to turn your 1-3 medium energies into worse LACs. And that's the best use case.

Sure, it is not a great option, but it is usable.

If Tactical Lasers were more efficient, I would consider them.  As-is, 1.0 efficiency and other downsides make it... bleh.

I used HSA Phase Lances on Harbinger, thanks to its QD's outrageously long recharge.  (Though, honestly, if I want to use Harbinger, I would get Neural Link and use two of them to mostly bypass the QD recharge.)

[Amoebka]

it is usable.

Yes, the game doesn't crash to desktop when you install it on a ship.

[Megas]

it is usable.

Yes, the game doesn't crash to desktop when you install it on a ship.

What I meant was it is not so bad that it is useless.  After all, anti-shield options for medium energy are horrible.  Best one being ePD+IPDAI+IR PL (assuming mount is energy and not synergy), if the officer has ePD and ship has plenty of mounts (likely).  If not, then it is either HSA Gravitons or Pulse Laser for shield bashing.  Neither are that good for the job.  HSA Gravitons cost too much OP and need missiles for support, and Pulse Laser is not efficient enough.

[BigBrainEnergy]

It's a simple case of math. Graviton with HSA has 600 range, same as the other energy weapons it's competing with and it does 220 shield dps for 75 flux/second as opposed to a pulse laser doing 300 shield dps for 300 flux/second. That's the best flux efficiency you're gonna get out of an energy weapon. It's very niche, but it has it's uses.

[Grievous69]

It's a simple case of math. Graviton with HSA has 600 range, same as the other energy weapons it's competing with and it does 220 shield dps for 75 flux/second as opposed to a pulse laser doing 300 shield dps for 300 flux/second. That's the best flux efficiency you're gonna get out of an energy weapon. It's very niche, but it has it's uses.

In a simple case of math you didn't even mention the obligatory OP cost. Also you still need to crack armour with something and slowly deplete hull. Pretty much every ship that could use this strat will be much much slower at killing anything than a normal build. Only thing you have going for it is good efficiency with meh DPS, and damage is everything on short range ships which have enough flux in the first place to fire normal weapons.

Only scenario where I saw it being useful is with Phase Lances, and even that's a gimped build that will rarely work as it should in theory. Calling it very niche is an understatement really.

[BigBrainEnergy]

In a simple case of math you didn't even mention the obligatory OP cost. Also you still need to crack armour with something and slowly deplete hull. Pretty much every ship that could use this strat will be much much slower at killing anything than a normal build. Only thing you have going for it is good efficiency with meh DPS, and damage is everything on short range ships which have enough flux in the first place to fire normal weapons.

Only scenario where I saw it being useful is with Phase Lances, and even that's a gimped build that will rarely work as it should in theory. Calling it very niche is an understatement really.

Wait wait wait, lemme fix my post kind sir:

It's a simple case of math. Graviton with HSA has 600 range, but I'm sure you already knew that. Of course, it does terrible hull damage and non-existent armour damage so you have to take that into consideration. And of course one must consider that while the efficiency is good the DPS is lower than other options, so what if your ship has enough flux dissipation to run those other options? You would look foolish with your meager graivtons, that's what! Yet we must also be aware that not every build has the spare ordnance points for HSA itself, which incurs additional cost that other energy weapons wouldn't! Another common point of contention is there are a great many ship that have NO energy slots at all, and what if you use THOSE ships? HSA would be utterly useless! It is for these reasons (and about 50 others) that this hullmod is ultra extremely mega hyper very uber niche.

Pretty much every ship that could use this strat will be much much slower at killing anything than a normal build.

True.

[Megas]

One ship where HSA Gravitons can work is Tempest.  In some SIM duels, Tempest has an easier time or at least no harder time winning with two HSA Gravitons instead of one Pulse Laser.  Against Lasher, kill times were generally in favor of Pulse Laser, although HSA was close.  Against Omen, Pulse Laser was better.  Against Brawler, Tempest had more trouble winning flux war with Pulse Laser than with two HSA Gravitons (because Brawler is firing Arbalests and missiles at Tempest that is trying to dodge some of the incoming fire), and HSA Graviton loadout had better kill time (Terminator drones did much of the finishing work).

Pulse Laser loadout was Pulse Laser, Heavy Burst Laser, and Salamander.  HSA Graviton loadout was two Graviton Beams and Swarmers.

Most other ships I would use HSA Graviton Beam on, either I do not use them, or I make sure the ship has an ePD officer so I can use longer ranged IR PLs.

[BigBrainEnergy]

Actually, back on topic about shield shunt, it turns the Prometheus into a respectable fleet anchor at 2000 armor (AWM and heavy armor), 10000 hull, and it gets the capital-grade range bonus from itu. 10 dp is a pretty competitive rate for all that, although I doubt buffing shield shunt would suddenly turn this into a meta-defining ship when really it's just a fun thing to throw in your fleet. Making shield shunt free makes logical sense as you are removing stuff from your ship rather than adding stuff, and even then it would see very little use. But that's okay. Shields and flux management are core to the game's experience and it wouldn't make sense if it was common for people to make builds that just ignore that aspect of the game.

[FooF]

Actually, back on topic about shield shunt, it turns the Prometheus into a respectable fleet anchor at 2000 armor (AWM and heavy armor), 10000 hull, and it gets the capital-grade range bonus from itu. 10 dp is a pretty competitive rate for all that, although I doubt buffing shield shunt would suddenly turn this into a meta-defining ship when really it's just a fun thing to throw in your fleet. Making shield shunt free makes logical sense as you are removing stuff from your ship rather than adding stuff, and even then it would see very little use. But that's okay. Shields and flux management are core to the game's experience and it wouldn't make sense if it was common for people to make builds that just ignore that aspect of the game.

Atlas Mk.II might also benefit from this treatment since its shield is so terrible anyway. Granted, it has half the armor but it's not like the shield was doing much!

As for Shield Shunt being free, I think that makes sense. You're sacrificing the shield for it so any additional cost is eating into the benefit Shield Shunt gives you (i.e. the armor buff). What's a shield worth in OP cost? Obviously that's relative to the ship hull and a bunch of other factors but, sizzling hot take: it's worth more than 15% more armor.

[Megas]

What's a shield worth in OP cost?

After Makeshift Shields, Hardened Shields, and maybe Extended Shields and/or Shield Conversion: Omni, plus more flux stats (than I need if I ignored shields)?  Lots.  I did this for Rampart, and while it a decent enough option, Rampart seems to work better without a shield.

With shields, player needs more flux, and being closer to flux neutral is important.  Also, ship needs enough capacity, so it does not turn chicken so quickly then try to run away.