Shield recharging components question...

[Taz-in-Space]

I have questions about those components that recharge a shield when hit by a weapon.
1)if you have a shield recharge component, say that gives 10 points back into the shields, do you get those points immediately or only at the end of a combat round?
2)will such a component work only when that particular component is hit or always work until destroyed.
3)what TYPE of shield energy is given: plain shields or phased shield?
4)does question number 3 depend on what kind of shields are present?
5)I've never used shield rechargers - am I missing out on a good thing?
6)Has anyone done a study on the usefulness of this kind of component?

[Fyron]

1) You get them after that shot damages your ship. So, the shields generated from shot 1 will be there when shot 2 hits the ship.

2) They work until destroyed, and multiple components stack.

3) I think standard shields.

4) I wouldn't imagine so.

5) Not really. Standard (unmodded) Crystalline Armor isn't worth 1500 racial points.

6) Probably.

[Baron Munchausen]

1) They seem to operate at the beginning of the combat round, actually. Although there's never any 'drain' on shields in the first round of combat so it's hard to tell. Between rounds, let's call it.

2) Shield Regenerators work all the time, unless they are destroyed by enemy weapons. It's Crystalline Armor that requires a hit to regenerate shields.

3) Whatever type you have. If there are only phased shield generators present, it's phased shields. Remember that the presence of 'normal' shields causes phased shields to act like normal sheilds. The 'normal' shields have to be destroyed before the phased shields get their 'special' quality back.

4) Yes. See above.

5) Yes. In the right proportion they add tremendously to the effectiveness of shields.

6) I think so. I don't have any references but I think someone has posted carefully though-out ratios of shield power to regeneration power as optimal.

[ September 04, 2002, 21:22: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Fyron]

BM, Taz's question wasn't worded very well. While what you have said is true, I _think_ he was asking about Crystalline Armor, not Shield Regenerators. Look at this line:

components that recharge a shield when hit by a weapon...

That makes me think he means Crystalline Armor, cause Shield Regenerators don't do anything when hit by a weapon; they add shields between rounds. I could be wrong, of course.

[Escaflowne]

In either case, whether it is Crystal Armor or Shield Regenerators, I think they are too weak by default and need to be upgraded.

Unmodded shield regenerators are a joke. You can't get any useful amounts of help from them because you would need to fill the ship with them in order to give you a useful amount of shielding in the middle of a fire fight.

In my game I modded them by boosting thier regen rate by a factor of 5. I put 3 of them on my ships and then they give a decent amount of output in the middle of a battle.

As for Crystal armor, I respect it for its low cost, high durablity, and light weight. But its shield regen properties are worthless. 25 points of shields from an incoming bLast isn't going to dull anything but the smallest and weakest weapons. Anything able to do a decent amount of damage will plow through the skeleton shields, rip through the armor, and tear into the ship.

But that's just me venting about the lack of usable shield regenitive abilites in an unmodded game.

[Wardad]

Just my 2 cents....

Boarding parties are obstucted by shields. Shield regen will restore some shields and keep the boarding ships from using the boarding strategy in strategic combat. This is true even if the shields are knocked down by the first shot of a combat round.

Of course security stations would be more useful. I once built an armor only Magnet ship to trap boarding ships. It had 4 security stations on board.

------------------------------------------------
Good flute, good sax, and a warm place for fiddlin.

[Suicide Junkie]

According to my calcluations, it turned out that for unmodded SE4, if your ship could be expected to survive 7 or more turns in combat after first being hit, then adding a regenerator would provide more protection than adding a shield generator instead.

So, unmodded regenerators are really only useful for small fleets or one-on-one fights, and/or for races with a significant To-Hit defense advantage

[Taz-in-Space]

Thanks Guys, now let me see if I understand.

Crystalline Armor will add to shields immediately
after a hit. While Shield Regenerators will only add to shields at the end of a combat round.
These components WILL stack. And most players think that in unmodded SEIV they are not worth the cost.

Seems to me that a combination of Emissive Armor and Crystalline Armor might be somewhat effective. (in the latest Version of SEIV)
Emmisive reduces by 30 and say Crystalline adds 20 to shields for a reduction of 50 each hit.

[Suicide Junkie]

Emissive and Crystalline will stack somewhat.
Emissive will get first shot at reducing the damage, and crystalline will add the remainder to the shields.

Crystalline is basically delayed-action emissive armor, since it reduces damage from the next hit, rather than the current hit.
Crystalline also provides a maximum protection of 50% damage absorption to low-hitpoint components. (Low hitpoint components = more than one destroyed with a single shot: vs WMGs, pretty much any component is a LHC.)
...Plus the boarding party defense...

If you combined Emissive and Crystalline, small-damage weapons could sap your shields and leave your ship open to boarding.

[ September 04, 2002, 21:02: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[oleg]

Originally posted by Taz-in-Space:
Thanks Guys, now let me see if I understand.

Crystalline Armor will add to shields immediately
after a hit. While Shield Regenerators will only add to shields at the end of a combat round.
These components WILL stack. And most players think that in unmodded SEIV they are not worth the cost.

Seems to me that a combination of Emissive Armor and Crystalline Armor might be somewhat effective. (in the latest Version of SEIV)
Emmisive reduces by 30 and say Crystalline adds 20 to shields for a reduction of 50 each hit.

Don't forget that crystalline armor stack. 8 CA III + EA III makes you impregnable to weapons with less than 150 damage. Even against bigger guns, it will prolong you survival immensely