energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

I used to think ETL helps fighters with shields - add extra shield points to each fighter stack. Some people argued ETL add points to each fighter.
Others say it is nonsense and fighters do not benefit from ETL. So, what is true ?

I had a big battle in simult. game. It was in my system with ETL. Still, fighters died like snowflakes in Hell http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Unfortunately, it is very difficult to assess what is really going on in simult. games battle replay http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

Tried this on a few occations, and I am pretty sure ETLs don't work on fighters.

Wich is kinda logic BTW as Shields on units are not treated as Shields, but as Armor (just as added hitpoints) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">But does it work on satllites ? Satellites have "normal" shields AFAIK. Any ideas ?

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The component is normal, but the shield effect is still like any other unit.

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

No ! PPB go through satellite shields and shield depletors work against satellites.

I was very surprised to learn about this in a thread here some time ago (sorry, don't have a link on hand).

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

What about shiled depleters able to be put on satelites ? just some ideas. And also when you launch mines in the game they look like sats is that a bug or what ?

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

Did a test and shield depleters works nicely on fighters. I didn't know that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

One stack of 25 fighters with a total of 1500 shield points:
- Takes 5 hits by a Large SD-5s to tap all shields (5 x 300), as expected.
I build an ETL and tries again:
- Same 5 hits still taps all the shields.

So it seems like ETL's don't work on fighters at all http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Did the test with sequential moves and tactical combat, dunno if that makes a difference.

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Could you send your tests to MM?

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

Didn't save the game, but it only takes 5-10 minutes to do such a test again. Not sure exactly what I should send though as its just a small map with one Crystalline race with a bunch of fighters and another race with one ship with a SD.

Not even sure I am unhappy with the result either. Crystalline is already the strongest racial in my opinion (yup, at least as strong a religious), and 60 extra points pr fighter would have been over the top http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

Incorparating ETLs on fighters in some way or perhaps even a variation effect is a good idea to explore - give MM all the results you find so it can be worked with.

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

The combination of Crystalline Armor and the shield-boosting "Energy Transmission Lense' does give Crystalline races a very strong defensive advantage. Even though the Shard Cannon is relatively weak offensively once shields are developed a few levels, it's so hard to destroy crystalline armor equipped ships that they are very likely to get the chance to exploit their special weapon.

I think that Temporal is about as strong offensively as Crystalline is defensively, though. The special weapons available to Temporal races are very nasty. If you can afford the points, taking both of these traits together would be truly evil -- if you get the chance to research all those tech levels.

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

You know combining say a branch of the crystaline defensiveness and the offensive temporal branchs is an idea for tech tree expansion. Perhaps offensive races could be limited to research only a certain shiled tech level or have shields weakened by 20% ?

Its good to have these variants as it makes the game interesting, i find that the cyrstaline and psychic combination is good - ie convert with heavily defended ships that are hard to destroy.

ETL and perhaps temporal techs could be on fighters but with some restricitons. Ie perhaps bigger size sacrificing movement of sheilding ?

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Actually, it is not http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif The idea is a "Sandwich Battery" (copy right by Oleg, 2002 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif ):

Normally, people put several SD first on ship and then normal weapons, say APB. But when fighting CA, rearrange weapons in this way: SD,APB,SD,APB...
When SD hits ship with CA, it saps shields but shields DO NOT regenerate from damage here.

It leaves CA ship naked to APB hit. Whatever shields are regenerated after APB hit are then removed by SD, etc. CA becomes a basically standard armor !
Notice that you don't even need to waste space using mounts on SD, decent SD with normal mounts take care of 6-9 CAIII

All together you get CA piercing weapon wich is only 30% bigger then large mounted APB (even better on larger ships)

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

Great idea Oleg, and coupled with a Talisman it would be devastating.
Not sure how well it will work with a more normal 50 – 70 % to hit chance though.

Hmmmm. Time for some more testing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

WOW, what a nice idea, thanx Oleg.

Re: energy transmition lens and fighters.
 

Interesting idea, Oleg. I agree that would be very effective against standard Crystalline armor. But not quite as effective against the way I have modded Crystalline armor. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I have added a little bit of 'emissive' ability to it (5/10/15 points to match the shield recharge) so it is extra resistant to damage. This makes it really, really tough. But of course 'skips armor' or 'skips armor and shields' weapons will still go right by it.

The 'standard' solution to Crystalline Armor, btw, is to use very high damage weapons because the shield recharge is per hit rather than a percentage of the damage done. So, High Energy Discharge weapons are a good choice. You could interleave those with SDs and have a real nasty Crystal Crusher.

Since Starfury actually has shield recharge proportional to damage this tactic will probably be useless in SE V. Coordination of weapons fire by the order of placement in the design might also become useless in a real-time combat system. The Sithrak use CA in Starfury right now and they are tough, tough, tough to defeat with conventional weapons. Pick up some Null Space after you manage to destroy a few of them, though, and you can start knocking them out like clay pigeons...