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[RealFear]

I've awhile ago I noticed that I've found it preferable to not use a certain feature of my ships very frequently, my shields. I feel Almost like they're a flux increasing liability more then they help, the majority of the time. If you've not done the math already, I'm a hegemony kind of guy, their increased armor supports that kind of play-style. I can normally overwhelm most equivalent ship's flux before they overwhelm me because i'm taking no flux on my shields, and I never overload except on the rare occasions I'm forced to pop shields at a bad time to protect my engines from a missile.  Unfortunately, because of how I play, not only am I not very good at piloting high-tech/energy based ships, I'm also very bad at fighting them because of their superior accuracy that leads to them hitting the same parts of my armor multiple times.

Which leads to two questions:

Does anybody else tend to keep their shields off vastly more then they have them on? (Aka, am I being a suicidal mad-man?)

What kind of situations should I be needing to keep these things on, and when are they totally unnecessary, in your opinions?

[Midnight Kitsune]

You and me are completely opposite as in my mind taking hits on the armor = I'm doing something wrong.
Also, you can use the shields of the high tech ships to get the AI to fill up their own flux firing at you then force them to either stop firing or overload when you strike back!

[Gothars]

Welcome to the forum

I'm glad to be able to tell you: You're not a mad man at all! Shield management is actually a central part of advanced piloting in Sector, the game even has many mechanics in place that encourage you to turn of your shields.

- Shared flux pool: As you noticed, weapons and shields share the same resource. Which means you can greatly enhance your offensive/defensive potential by focusing on one of the aspects.
- Constant flux generation: Activated shields always produce flux, just not quite as much as you dissipate naturally. But your rate of dissipation is lowered. If, for example, you dissipate 300flux/s and have shield up keep cost of 100flux/s you will only dissipate 200flux/s with shields up, effectively reducing how much you can fire.
- 0-flux speed boost: Your ship is faster when it is not producing any flux. So if you want to travel fast, lower shields (and maybe silence weapons with "x").
- Damage types: Kinetic damage is does double damage against shields, but only half against armor. So it's usually safer to turn of shields when under kinetic fire on concentrate on your offense.
-Shields make you a bigger target, you can evade some shots by turning them off

So, in conclusion, shields are extremely situational. Learning when to activate and deactivate them, and being able to quickly switch between the two states, is the mark of a good player

[Megas]

Some ships do not need shields, other than to block torpedoes and the like, and work better without it.  Others badly need their shields.  Either way, I like to have shields now that missiles are faster in 0.65, and I try to get Applied Physics 3 for Front Shield Emitter and put it on normally shieldless ships (such as Cerberus) so that every enemy ship will not launch all Harpoons on sight.

[Histidine]

Also note that high-tech ships have much more efficient shields (less flux/damage) than low-tech ones, and much more flux capacity to use them with. Large low-techs like Dominator and Onslaught in particular generally want to just take the hits on the armor (unless there's a lot of HE damage incoming) and save the flux for weapons, while high-techs (especially the frigates and destroyer) should use the shield against pretty much any non-kinetic weapon (or dodge) and withdraw to vent flux as needed.

[CopperCoyote]

Some ships do not need shields, other than to block torpedoes and the like, and work better without it.  Others badly need their shields.  Either way, I like to have shields now that missiles are faster in 0.65, and I try to get Applied Physics 3 for Front Shield Emitter and put it on normally shieldless ships (such as Cerberus) so that every enemy ship will not launch all Harpoons on sight.

If i'm using a decent sized fleet i like to have a shieldless hound with flak and a vulcan just to bait out all the missiles early on.

Other than that shields are basically mandatory to catch missiles (or in hound v. hound fights).

The very low tech ships like enforcer can benefit from hardened shields if you're frequently fighting very high tech ships because of the plethora of blasters and emp damage, but getting that mod has a large opportunity cost. Both in skill points and in OP.

[WKOB]

I fly practically only the fastest ships like Hounds or Tempests, and so I often find shields just dead weight. Need that zero flux speed bonus.

There's the option to change your shield's configuration with hull mods, I'd like to see a hull mod to just uninstall the shield entirely.

[Linnis]

Does anybody else tend to keep their shields off vastly more then they have them on? (Aka, am I being a suicidal mad-man?)

What kind of situations should I be needing to keep these things on, and when are they totally unnecessary, in your opinions?

Yes, with almost all hegemony ships, having shields off and only protecting yourself from explosive type missiles is the best way to play them, especially if you have +armor mods and skills.

But with tritachyon ships, they practically don't have armor or hull, but they are often more maneuverable, so that allows you to use shields to take damage, then disengage when your hard flux pool builds up and then you can vent and re-engage the same target.

[Megas]

@ Copper Coyote:  Phase ships can bait missiles too.  AI will launch all missiles at the phase ship, then the phase ship cloaks (and the rest of your fleet might PD the missiles away).

The very low tech ships like enforcer can benefit from hardened shields if you're frequently fighting very high tech ships because of the plethora of blasters and emp damage, but getting that mod has a large opportunity cost. Both in skill points and in OP.

The cost is very high.  Usually, I do not even have Applied Physics 10.  If I do, I still probably do not have enough OP left to get it, especially if I get Missile Specialization (for Expanded Missile Racks) or Flux Dynamics 10 (for more vents).

When SP is stretched thin, getting Applied Physics 3 is a significant cost.  I only get it at the endgame, after I get +30% OP and Optimized Assembly, if I think I will use several Cerberus in a frigate swarm.  Cerberus are fairly common (available even in Open Market), are sturdy, have relatively high cargo capacity, and can snipe from long range with mauler and railgun.  They just need a shield to prevent AI from firing all Harpoons on sight of a shieldless ship.

[Squigzilla]

Shields are most useful on high-tech ships not just because they have the best shield efficiency but because their offensive potential actually increases as they gain flux. Energy weapons gain a damage boost based on how much flux you have in your pool, up to 50% IIRC when you are near max flux levels. Holding your shield up and letting your flux build when using energy weapons can provide a spike in damage output, so for optimum performance it helps to keep your shield up throughout prolonged fights and vent only when you're in danger of overload. This is a risky tactic and requires practice to get right, but it can give you an edge against generally more heavily-armed low-tech ships.

[Silver Silence]

I find it depends. Even as a high-tech ship with primarily energy weapons, I rarely ever raise the shields. I usually either fit my ships to be nearly flux stable with shields down (next to no build-up, keeps the flux levels cold for when I need the shields), or I go overboard and eschew stability for firepower which is hilariously easy to do on just about any vanilla ship by mounting a couple heavy blasters. Those things cripple stability of any high tech ship.

About the only time I raise the shields and let a ship blow off steam on me is the Paragon with it's fortress shield against an Onslaught. Onslaughts quickly burn themselves out after dumping a full "magazine" of TPC charges plus firing other main guns, at which point I might only be at 30-40% flux. Even then, this only occurs if I don't have long ranged weapons. I tend to fit the Paragon as a slow burner. HILs and Graviton Beams everywhere with annihilators and Pilums (both of which tweaked to have no ammo count because I find ships running dry to be a silly prospect when they magically refill after every battle) to provide hard flux damage. No pirate ship can withstand the gaze of my Paragon for long and for the most part, they're also completely outranged, what with the range boost from skills coupled with an ITU. I fit an Onslaught the same way. Maulers and Gauss Cannons off the black markets makes for a very dominant stand-off ship. Quadruple Pilums provide long-range missile support while a couple flanking Enforcers with Maulers and HVDs kite, distract and provide eyes for Pilum barrages.


On an off-topic note, I haven't played or posted in quite a while. I LOVE the new engine trails on missiles and how missiles fly in the general direction of a ship now instead of aiming directly for center of mass.

[Schwartz]

No matter which epoch, I find neither shield-only nor armour-only playstyles as fulfilling as a combination of the two. Even a low-tech Dominator will want to occasionally raise shields to withstand a torpedo hit, and likewise a high-tech Medusa will often have to decide whether to take everything on shields or to allow the less damaging (kinetic, fragmentation) shots to hit armour, particularly if they're outnumbered.

Granted, a properly set-up high-tech ship has other tricks up its sleeve - not to mention that it's kitted and skilled to deal with flux - and will seldom have to resort to armour tanking.

In my current run, my flagship is a Medusa. And she can take out 6-8 times her own weight in enemies easily. Could not do that with an Enforcer, not even a Combat skilled one. They'll just never be as mobile, which is another thing that gets low-tech ships killed. Granted, you could put 5 damaging long-range mediums on it, use burn drive and whatever else bonuses you got to be very competitive, but armour doesn't re-grow, it's always a race against the clock.

[Megas]

The main thing that hurts Enforcer is limited ammo.  No matter how good a player can be, a single Enforcer flagship does not have enough ammo to kill everything in big fleets.  Aside from that, Enforcer flagship can outrange, snipe, and kite many things.  Enforcer does not need to tank much if player does not want to.

When I play low-tech ships, I plan to either outrange and kite enemies to death or outgun and kill them before than they cause (too much) damage.

Medusa can take out anything short of a high-tech capital flagship with max Combat.

[Silver Silence]

Granted, a properly set-up high-tech ship has other tricks up its sleeve - not to mention that it's kitted and skilled to deal with flux - and will seldom have to resort to armour tanking.

I find the AI, especially of my own fleets, has a really good trick of maneuvering into enemy guns and not attempting to disengage until its flux is running way too high. By which time, whether I want to intervene or not, it's too late for my ships, they overload and promptly explode. They either have to be slow and extremely hardy to survive being dumb, or be hyper mobile like Tempests are. Prime example of my own Vigilance doing just that. Armed with Pilums and a Graviton Beam, it has more than enough range to stay back and pressure ships but no. Noooooo. It must get all up in their faces for the glory of exploding in a giant ball of fire. How people fly fleets in this game, I do not know. The "three orders and you're done" means I cannot advise my own ships. Just have to let them do their own thing and hope they're not stupid. Which they almost always are. They're too cautious with their shields and yet, they can be incredibly overzealous at times. If I tell them to escort me and stick with me, they so rigidly obey the order to stay by my sides that if I turn to bring guns to bear on an enemy ship that's done the same overzealous thing my ships love to do, one of my ships will float at my side and needlessly be a meatshield against the enemy guns, refusing to back down or get out of the way for fear of breaking formation. But if I don't tell them to do anything, one ship goes one way and the other ship goes the other way and I can't be in two places at once. And unlike the AI, I do not have infinitely replaceable ships. It's attrition that could be avoided with some micromanagement but this game opposes micromanagement. *ranting*


EDIT:

The main thing that hurts Enforcer is limited ammo.

For quite a while now, I've edited weapon_data to give ballistic weapons no ammo count and missiles regenerating ammo, or unlimited if they have a cooldown like Pilums, annihilators or Hurricanes. I don't like that "Welp, time to go home, boys, we're all out" mechanic, especially when ships then retreat and you can instigate another fight immediately and everyone's refilled in the split second you were *** around in the menu (because time does not advance during fights). If you're gonna fight, then fight. I might change it at some point to regenerating ammo for ballistic weapons instead so if you're low on combat readiness, then at least it looks like your ship is not combat ready by starting the fight with half filled guns, crew actively reloading them as you fly in to engage.

[SafariJohn]

For Vigilances stabilized and forward mounted shields help. A lot.

A group of them can tank so much damage by just spreading it between them.