A poll on three components

[Suicide Junkie]

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)