A poll on three components
 

Do you ever use :

1. Auxiliary Control. Not sure what is the point to this thing as it has the same cost of another Bridge component so you can just as easily use two Bridges instead.

2. Scanner Jammer. Any point in using these if your ships are already equiped with the Cloaking Device?

3. Shield RE-Generator. This one puzzles me the most. The most powerful Shield Re-Generator makes 25 shield points a turn. Instead of using one of those why not throw in a normal Shield Generator for 300 regular points or 375 phased points instead? It almost seems that in order to make these worthwhile they need to regenerate x number of points for all shield generators.

Re: A poll on three components
 

Aux Control - Sometimes you can only put one bridge on a design I think. I don't know what the use of this component is, other than a backup bridge.

Scanner Jammer - Stops Long-Range scanners which see components in your ship. Don't know how useful this is, given that "long-range" scanners have pathetic range (5 sectors come on, I want five systems!)

Shield regerators - Use them instead of self-destruct devices... however I would still rather use the self-destruct device. Maybe combine self-destruct with a shield regenerator.

Plus I'm new so don't listen to me.

Brian

Re: A poll on three components
 

1) The purpose of this thing is to help you keep more movement when your vehicle control components are being destroyed. Problem is, if you start losing bridges and the like, your ship is virtually dead, with destroyed engines, no defence left and few weapons remaining (if any at all).

2) Scanner Jammers counter Long-Range Scanning, and not claoking (they do not allow cloaking either). Scanner Jammers are however almost obsolete because the Scattering Armour offers the same ability, plus a +15% bonus to defence. Their only use is to have the ability within your ship rather than on the more vulnerable armour (armour might be destroyed in skirmished or even by wormholes).

I have only one example where it would have been somewhat important. In a 2vs2 game, Parabolize had sent warships behind our lines, and a couple of these had lost their Scattering Armour while running through a minefield or two and/or a blockade. It allowed the Crafty Ones (Slynky and myself) to scan one such vessel, which taught us the vessels in question had barely any supply left. If Parabolize had used the Scanner Jammer instead, we would have been unable to get this information. Does that warrant the use of the Scanner Jammer? I would say it doesn't if you are already using the Scattering Armour for its defensive bonus.

3) The highest level of Shield Regenerator is worth it if you expect your ship to Last for more than seven turns (or so; I do not recall the exact figure) once its shields have been damaged. Otherwise adding one more shield generator makes more sense. I believe it may be worth it when the odds to hit are very low (but if you are fighting in such circumstances, you should have another more crucial edge).

Shield Regenerators are also helpful to keep these boarders at bay, if you have been attacked by Shield Depleters. This is assuming the actual boarding ships do not have Shield Depleters of their own, and are relying on another vessel/ship to deplete shields. (Such strategies can be made to work, but unreliable, and more of an emergency remedy than a sound scheme)

And if you are really concerned of losing your ships, a Self Destruct Device and/or a Security Station or two will do the trick as well. A single Security Station V is enough to repel two Boarding Parties V, and two of them should be enough to make you safe from most "expendable" boarding vessels (Escorts, Frigates and the like, which are often used to trigger your Self Destruct Devices rather than for actual capture attempts). Likewise, a Self Destruct Device should do the trick against more "specialised" boarding vessels (Shield Depleters, many Boarding Parties and so on; these would actually try to capture your ships).

Re: A poll on three components
 

Whether or not aux control is worth using is a debatable. Answers will vary form person to person and situation to situation. But if you decide it's worth using, The point of aux control is that you can't "just as easily use two bridges". You cannot put more then one bridge on a ship. Can't remember if that's moddable, but in the stock game you can only put one bridge on a ship.

Re: A poll on three components
 

1. No.
2. Very rarely. Usually only when an opponent has the Talisman, and then only occasionally.
3. Very rarely. Maybe if an opponent is using a lot of weaponless ship capture ships.

Re: A poll on three components
 

I just discovered a problem based on what you told me. I have been putting BOTH a Master Computer as well as a set of Bridge/LifeSupport/CrewQuarter on most of my newer ships to help against ComputerVirus and the Allegiance Subverter (which I don't even know if this strategy will work at all).

Normally, when you try to add two bridges to a design you get an error. But, if there is a Master Computer there you don't get that error message.

Btw, I'd love to hear if it does any good at all to have both a 'manned' crew as well as a master computer on board at the same time.

Re: A poll on three components
 

If you have a MC, you can't be affected by psychic crew takeover. If you have a B/LS/CQ, you can't be affected by computer virus. Put all four on and your immune to both. Or so I've heard, I don't PBW much.

Re: A poll on three components
 

This is indeed a good strategy against Psychic races. See my post in the sticked Tips and Tricks thread which covers this issue. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A poll on three components
 

The only point of using both a Master Computer (which is not a Bridge component incidentally, and has a separate ability from Bridge/Life Support/Crew Quarter) and the regular components is if you are wary of Computer Viruses. Otherwise a simple Master Computer will do the trick.

Adding a Master Computer instead of only Bridge/Life Supports/Crew Quarters helps to reduce the space taken by such components, and to protect you from the Psychic special weapons. Having both the Master Computer and a set of B/LS/CQ is as expensive as having only a living crew for Baseships, and more costly for smaller ships, but it will save you some space on your ships.

Re: A poll on three components
 

Careful guys, bbq is still using pre-Gold. Destroyed MC doesn't protect against the Alliegence Subverter in his Version, IIRC

Re: A poll on three components
 

I believe Arkcon is correct.

Re: A poll on three components
 

Actually that is the case in Gold as well. It was fixed in Version 1.81 and released in the 1.84 patch. So pre-gold and also gold Version 1.60 up to 1.80 a destroyed MC does not protect against the AS.

Re: A poll on three components
 

1. no always use MC/B/LS/CC on ships at or above 800kt
2. No. Rather Place Armor there as your ship gets scanned as soon as you hear " Round 1 Fight"
3. only if crystaline http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A poll on three components
 

Yehabut...

Who went Gold and hasn't kept up with patches. I mean. Seriously. Why whould you do that?

Re: A poll on three components
 

Only on the very biggest ships. Suicide Junkie worked out the numbers a while ago, if the ship survives 7 combat turns, then its better off with a shield regenerator, than one more shield generator.

I've seen my heavy carriers and planet bombarding baseships, for example, live long enough to benefit from the shield regenerator.

Re: A poll on three components
 

I didn't say anyone does that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I am sure that everyone that has Gold has kept up with the patches just fine. I was just pointing out another fact regarding that issue. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: A poll on three components
 

You would be surprised... A lot of people either never bother looking for game patches, or are even afraid of installing them...

Re: A poll on three components
 

It should be noted that the math is based on ">7" turns of taking damage, not just ">7" turns. They do not generate shield points when shields are at maxumum. And there are some caveats.

The ">7" comes from the fact that in >7 turns, the shield regenerator creates >7 x 25 or >275 (or effectively 300) shield points. However, even if your ship Lasts >7 turns, if you get all your shields depleted before turn 7 and some of your shield regenerators or shield generators get destroyed, this does not work.

Clear as mud?

Slick.

Re: A poll on three components
 

The problem with shield regenerators is that weapons are too powerful.

In SE3 the damage/kt ratios were about half what they are in SE4, compared with shields and regen.

In SE3, regenerators were actually useful because ships did survive long enough.
Not only did weapons do about half the damage (relative to shields), but enemies were forced to divide their firepower a bit, since they couldn't change targets once the shooting started. (If any ships were told to shoot at a ship that subsequently died, they couldn't pick a new target until the next round)

Re: A poll on three components
 

Yeah, but there's the case of a carrier, that gets whomped at a warp point, then runs away launching fighters, will get it's seven turns to recharge, and be ready when ships are free to chase after it.

Likewise, the shields regenerate during the "missile dance" a heavily shielded ship does over a planet. More so for bbq, I think, because pre-Gold does the missile dance worse, do I recall correct?

Re: A poll on three components
 

I only use auxiliary controls in the early game when I haven't researched armor yet. Sometimes I design a ship and I have 10 kT of space left and the auxiliary control is the only thing that fits. Once I've researched armor, I put a piece of armor in that Last 10 kT space.