Forums » Suggestions

Increase shield strength

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Feb 25, 2014 Kierky link
The shields as they stand are pretty meek. Two fighters can energy it to death easily.
Increasing them to 40k strength, and 6k regen would not be overpowered, and not so weak that it's laughable. They would still be half of what the NPC tridents are now.

That being said, there needs to be new shield countermeasures for players. But that's for another thread.
Feb 25, 2014 vanatteveldt link
-1, I think it is intended that two fighters can take down a trident. Two fighters will have difficulty deshielding a trident while being harassed by your escort.

Let's fly them around for a couple weeks and then see how well they work.
Feb 25, 2014 Kierky link
"while being harassed by your escort."

This is the trident alone, not with an escort. I'm not foddling with the regen, so the fighters can still take it down, but it will take a bit longer. This stops the easiest method to knock a shield down, a rag3 with 2avalons.
Feb 25, 2014 CrazySpence link
It protects you from basic storm encounters while not making low population combat annoying so this is a big -1

The shield strength is fine you don't need to be invincible
Feb 25, 2014 abortretryfail link
A couple of strike force Vultures with their dual infinite-powercell LENBs knocks this shield over like its a joke. I think that's more of a problem with the SF than the shields though.

Two fighters will have difficulty deshielding a trident while being harassed by your escort.
No, just one fighter, and your escort won't even come close to stopping me. :)

6k regen would be a huge nerf from the 8k we have now. That recharge rate is what makes it stand up to sustained fire.
Feb 25, 2014 Kierky link
Oh it's 8k? Someone said we had 6k. What do the NPC's have?
Feb 25, 2014 Dr. Lecter link
It's not a HAC or a Terradon, you twat.

-1
Feb 25, 2014 vskye link
-1.
Feb 25, 2014 greenwall link
I have no problem increasing shield strength and regen to equal half of what NPC tridents have... no real argument not to except that some here are professional nay-sayers.
Feb 27, 2014 Faceof link
+1.....40k is very good shield....
Feb 27, 2014 abortretryfail link
Regen is 8000/sec right now. NPC Tridents are 9000/sec... I think?

I like the idea of a weak, quick charging shield.

I do think the recharge time needs to be shortened to match that of a static queen. That way sustained weapons fire is required to keep it down. Right now it's at 400s, which takes even longer than a NPC Trident to recharge. They're only 5 minutes, 300s.
Feb 27, 2014 TheRedSpy link
They should be equivalent to the NPC shields, they do feel a little weak.

It's also odd that PC blasters work through them. They're.. shields.. which means they.. shield... If we're going to have weapon effects go through the shield then why do we have shields?
Feb 27, 2014 Dr. Lecter link
Because we have so many other weapons that don't go through them. Making a PCB an anti-shield weapon makes perfect sense. If trident pilots want to be able to sport serious shields, they should remain vulnerable to weapons that prevent their over-shielded toys from doing what they do best: running.
Feb 27, 2014 abortretryfail link
The PCB is already an anti-shield weapon. It totally ignores shields and still drains the ship's power cell, preventing turbo and making it a super easy missile target.

The only way to avoid missiles in a Trident is to turbo. It strafes too slow to dodge them.
Feb 27, 2014 Pizzasgood link
Good. Let's keep it this way.
Feb 27, 2014 Dr. Lecter link
My phrasing was unclear, but TRS's post wasn't: yes, we know how it currently works. No, it doesn't "not make sense" the way it is. No, it shouldn't be changed. Anyone using a PCB on a trident had to give up a weapon to do so -- making them easier pickings for the fighter escort.

You do have a fighter escort, right? No? Guess you'll consider that next time, in case you run into someone or someones who's making use of the PCB/missile/DPE combo.
Feb 28, 2014 TheRedSpy link
"Anyone using a PCB on a trident had to give up a weapon to do so -- making them easier pickings for the fighter escort."

You might have a point if the PCB was a heavy slot weapon that weighed 1500kg so that you actually had to protect it and/or it actually made the ship you were using it on difficult to manuver, but you can put this on a centurion superlight and just buzz around the escort will spend all day chasing you.

In either case, the relative difficulty/ease of defeating a fighter carrying a PCB is irrelevant to the point. At this stage the shields don't provide an important tactical obstacle for the enemy team to overcome - that is the initial stack. So they provide no protection from just any light ship stopping it in its tracks while it waits for its team to arrive and deal the damage.

In other space combat games a capship requires a bomber to assault the ship with extremely heavy weaponry in order to disable the ship - apparently in vendetta we're cool with it just being a pissy little light fighter. Combine this with the weaker shielding and you basically don't want to pick the bomber at all.

Light fighters that avoid missile fire well with a few PCB's and maybe a megaposi on a hog and vioala, you have your best trident fighting squad; no bombers in sight and no tactical finesse required.

I'm all for things being easy to destroy, but this is just a case of Lecter and Pizza supporting changes about gameplay they only ever intend to experience from one angle. And while ARF didn't directly come out with his opinion in this post yet, you can bet whatever it is, it will be au contraire to my own.
Feb 28, 2014 CrazySpence link
All other games have lots of players, the shield strength is fine for the current player activity. You don't need to be invincible. The PCB working is good, It keeps the solo loner players having to be social and make friends with people who can save them.

There's enough -1 on here already to keep it from happening so i don't see why you're resorting to speeches. Wasted effort.
Feb 28, 2014 TheRedSpy link
Didn't actually take me that long to write. I've seen enough things around here to know that it doesnt matter how many -1's you do, things can still be implemented if they were meant to be in the first place.

Update said that the shield strength was the same as the NPC trident, which apparently it is not. The update also said that it would work the same way as it works for the NPC tridents, which are completely unaffected by PCB's. We can only assume that it's a bug that it works that way at all in the absence of any indication otherwise.

If it's not intentional but beneficial, thats fine, but it neither A) makes sense, or B) is justifiable as a good balance choice. So i'm struggling to see why they are designed that way except that you, lecter and pizza asked for it to be that way and nobody was there to oppose.
Feb 28, 2014 Kierky link
You're just a ray of sunshine aren't you.