Well, sheild take a LONGGGG time to recharge so after one battle they become useless.

I think the % solution is the only one that can include current modules and keep their value. I think if shields were better, people would still decide on one or another vs. hulls. It seems fitting somehow. In battlestar galactica there are no shields. In star wars it seems to be an all or nothing deal. In star trek that is pretty much everything; on some sliding scale for dramatic effect. My only gripe might be how overwhelming energy (err time?) plays the primary role as opposed to a computer actuated defense system. The actual concept, though possible, is essentially outdated sci-fi.

In BSG, a viper's guns wouldn't be able to take out a human Battlestar or Cylon Basestar, simply because it doesn't have the penetrating power to do so.

In Star Wars, IIRC, the Rebels couldn't damage the Death Star's or Endor's shields even with capital shps, so they had to use a crew to go down and destroy the shield generator. Another examle is the Millennium Falcon couldn't take out a Star Destroyer or a Super Star Destroyer on its own. Its guns weren't powerful enough.

In Star Trek, the Federation's Miranda class destroyers, Akiras, Defints, or Oberth science vessels woud get torn apart if they went up aganist Romulan warbirds, Klingon Negh'Var battleships, Cardassian Galor / Keldon battleships, Borg Cubes, or any "heavy" warships in that universe.

The point I'm trying to make is that I believe that shields should have "stopping power" (likewise for hull- see my BSG example). If the shield is too strong in comparison to the attacker's weapons tech, the weapon would do very little to no damage. Conversely, if the weapon is more advanced than the shields or hull, the weapon should rip through the shield / hull faster.

Under the current system, a viper fighter could theoretically kill a Battlestar / Basestar by firing everything, get hit, repair (magic repair), then rinse and repeat until the Battlestar / Basestar is destroyed. Plus the Battletar / Basestar doesn't repair because the player commanding it is sleepig or away from the computer. Ditto if a X-Wing fighter destroys a Star Destroyer, or a Oberth science vessel destroying a much superior Borg Cube or Romulan Warbird.

If there is a "stopping power" feature- such as shields preventing damage from weapons 4 or more tech tiers lower than them or hull armor reducing damage from more "primitive" weapons (lower tier than the hull equalivent) by 50% or more- then such situations won't happen in-game. Yes, I know the defense modules reduce damage, but doesn't provide immuniy to peashooter weapons. In the current battle sytem, a ship with 400 defense could still get destroyed by a ship with 20 attack or something similiar to the examples I cited above.

I think star wars had the most realistic shields. They were infallible. The reason why would be that they would only even exist if they had to. Between computers and emerging "defensive shield" technologies, that is probably how things would work. I'm not a star wars freak so that is a total guess.

In BSG, the cylons had organic compounds in/on their hulls. The BSG borrowed the technology much later on after collusion with the cylons that had rebelled. The weapons seemed feeble when compared to other universes. The BSG only survived because it was a low-tech ship and I don't think the cylons wanted humans (or whoever was on-board) absolutely exterminated. I think babylon 5 made a bigger deal of this but had the same idea.

Star trek had shields for mere dramatic effect and to show how fragile anything really is compared to a weapon when any given series was concieved. They are really my favorite. They lit up only when they were hit, like they were "kinda smart". Star trek probably had the best message, BSG probably had the best plot, and (freakishly) star wars was the most realistic.. Warbirds are supposed to be mega-huge-gigantic

Solid objects can usually pass through a field though; that was part of the rationale of BSG physics I suppose. With how many tiers are in the shields category I would kinda doubt it. BSG was a ship for luddites.

Heh. I wouldn't think Star Wars is most realistic one.. They don't keep their thrusters on all the time for SAME speed.. Space has no resistance (well extremely very little resistance) at all. They shoot like WWII air combat does.. Space fighters are supposed to have advanced computer targeting system that always hit in first place unless enemies have jammers to block targeting.. Star Wars that fights like WWII planes are purely for enterainment THAT our generations who experienced WWII can fully understand. After all, lot of Star Wars concept borrowed from WWII that Empire is actually based on NAZI.. Old and New Republic is based on USA corrupted structure..

Star wars is sci-fantasy. Almost everything in it is ridiculous. I just thought it was weird that it's concept of shielding is what seems the most congruent with emerging technologies where computers make essentially everything more efficient. The shields in Star Wars are invisible. I see it as they are only "on" when something is actually attacking them and it is only "on" in that particular spot. Computers aren't smart, they are just high speed idiots and they're only getting faster. It would be exactly the type of idiot I would want in charge of a defense system though. That type of system might only fit on those huge cruisers even... I was just shocked that something in star wars actually had what seems like an ounce of realism. I'm not really a Star Wars freak, so I would guess that the real explanation of their shields is something along the lines of "magic" or "because George Lucas said so".

The thrust would have to be on for a very long time for a larger vessel to accelerate to a decent speed and leaving them on would only increase the velocity until it reached some max-speed where the fuel isn't efficient enough to push itself any faster. The acceleration for something as large as a star destroyer would probably be impossible to notice. The "atmospheric" quality of some flight paths could be explained by computer actuated mitigation of G-force. But, yes, Star Wars is ridiculous. To be fair, there is no way in hell 'fighters' in space would actually have pilots. In the real universe, the issue is almost always G-force. You would have to withstand several G's for years to get anywhere near light speed. Once a speed is achieved it takes just as much force to stop it since there is no friction. If we ever travel to another star system, we will probably be living on the ceiling for half of the trip while we are actively decelerating. Sci-fi makes it so we don't have to think about this stuff really.

Well, if you think of the energy it takes to power even a simple magnetic sheild, no it is not more realistic. It would take so much energy to deflect multiple shots, your other subsystems wouldnt have enough power.

Shield changes went live! You now gain 2% of your total shield every tick, with a minimum of 1 per tick. This means that, no matter how big your shield is, it will recharge in 1 hour and 40 minutes. It will recharge in 1 hour, 31 minutes, and 40 seconds if you have a Harmonic Resonator.

New patch update!

"Shields now recharge at a rate of 2% of your total shield capacity (or 1, if greater) per 'tick', instead of just 1 per tick.
This makes shields a great option even for higher Rank players."

Yes! I'm glad! No more waiting on recharge FOOOORRREEVEER!! It actually goes up on reasonable speed now! Shield now is attractive for high rank players! Of course, it makes no difference on any fast combats anyway but the whole point of upgraded shield recharge is to allow off-line high rank players to recharge their shield at an acceptable speed! Time to research more into shield tech tree heh. I think hull (maybe max cost is too cheap. It's nothing at my rank and mining production) and shield are now balanced..

Happy for the update, as at 2% it takes about 2 hours to get full shields. The small reductions in recharge time shorten that (from tier rewards and rare NPCs). So yes it is a good upgrade.


Energy update might help lead to more of that tree being added. As it counts how much per hour, which means it count can go above one and you just get the total count.

I love the new update, make a huge difference for me and I reinstalled my shields.

With 2 of the NPC drop shield recharge items and the new changes I get 1800 shields recharged in no time. It's crazy how fast they come back. I have almost all of it back in a little over an hour.

That's freakin' awesome.

Oh yes, it's awesome. Only way to kill is to do the battle quick before shield recharges.. Hull and shield have their benefits..

Hull
Pro
1. Bigger hull per decksize compared to shield
2. Can repair every 5 minutes which is very handy for offensive players and online players who are on often..

Con
1. Repair cost
2. Hull doesn't recharge during your offline time for defensive purpose.

Shield
Pro
1. No cost
2. It recharges naturally which is very handy for defensive players who aren't interested in battles and also for those players who aren't on often..

Con
1. Smaller shield point per decksize compared to hull
2. No control over refill shield like hull repair does unless you have recharge artifact

As for offensive players who are on often... Focus on hull.
As for defensive players who don't fight and/or not online often.. Focus on shield..

The shield recharge items would be a third pro for the shields in my opinion.

Oh, and i've got three +8 charge and one +5 shield recharge now.

I am very happy for the new shield update. it makes shield research a playable option for me. thank you dan.