Shields & Armour --- what's the point?

[Texfire]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but Null Space Weapons are in the unmodded game and skip both armor and shields.

Texfire

[geoschmo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
[QB} especially when you consider that in the unmodded game there are NO shield-skipping weapons, but there *are* weapons that skip armor.
[/QB]

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There may be no weapons that skip shields and hit the armor (I can't remember honestly) but there are plenty that skip armor AND shields. And there are the shield depleters and the temporal "Quad damage to shileds" weapons.


Geoschmo

[Zarix]

Emissive armor is totally useless. Stealth and scattering armor gives defensive modifier that stacks so with both you can have +30. That is a lot.

Choice between normal and phased shields depends on your enemies. It is good to remember that if your enemy uses phased weapons normal shield become totally useless. I agree with you on that normal shields shoudn't be replaced by phased in the design window.

Also armor stops mine damage but shields don't.

Yes, Null Space skips both armor and any shields.

[Jon Brave]

All interesting, but before we lose the point:

* Aren't phased shields a bad "upgrade" for normals? Don't you find you cannot afford to use "Hide Obsoletes" or "Upgrade" if you accidentally research them, which is ?

* Armour: I can see this area is complicated; other Posts seem to think emissive, at least, is broken, non-modded. Persuade me the horrendous drop in size/damage + vastly increased cost is worth it...

I could just do with clarification on how these work. For instance, is 75 phased shields *really* pointless compared to 300 normals against most weapons?

[Gandalph]

quote:

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Originally posted by Jon Brave:
<snip>* Aren't phased shields a bad "upgrade" for normals? Don't you find you cannot afford to use "Hide Obsoletes" or "Upgrade" if you accidentally research them, which is ?
<snip>

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I have to agree with this to the point that I modded the families so that both will show up in the design window even with only latest selected.

[Jon Brave]

Zarix, you may have summed it up. Emissive pointless; other armours maybe worth the bonus, but I'm not convinced; phased shields great against non-phased weapons but too risky for "general" use, and, yes, my designs are a pain if I ever research them... So basically I don't want to use these areas 99% of the time. Shame...

[Wardad]

I noticed that a lot of player written AI use armor and maybe one shield generator. I think these experienced players tweaking the AIs (example TDM mod pack) know a thing or two.

The phased shields will eventually be stronger than the normal shields. The Scattering Armor and the Stealth Armor both have a 15% (ECM like) defense bonus. Using both types adds +30% defence.


The Shield Depelter weapons are very effective. Firing order is important so mount it before (to the left) of your other beam weapons.

Shield and Armor skipping weapons can be effective also. Mount these before the Shield Depelters. The Ionic Disperser (Engine Damage) can be very nasty, by killing the engine it kills its supplies too. I generally don't use the other skipping weapons, except in SAT stacks

Only the Crystal Tech race trait has an armor (only) skipping weapon. This weapon is greatly underpowered when used against shielded ships.

Boarding Parties could be considered an armor skipping weapon. Pretty effective for worm hole defense against unshielded ships.


Anyway, I suggest that you try the Combat Simulator on Auto and play barenaked ships against ships with shields and/or armor. Spice up the sim with some fighters and SATs.


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Paper, Rock, Scissors

[ 07 May 2002: Message edited by: Wardad ]