Diminishing Shield Power on a Graph?

[Panpiper]

Has anyone graphed the diminishing returns in shield strength we get for quantity of shield modules in a ship? I can handle arithmetic and much algebra in my head, but when we get into negative exponents, I need something visual to properly understand. Does anyone have a link to such or perhaps an online graphical calculator that is intuitive enough for a non mathematician to understand?

 

[Scypio]

Is this what you're looking for ?

 

[Panpiper]

Is this what you're looking for ?

It is indeed. Unfortunately it didn't clear up as much confusion as I thought it would have. I understand that each extra shield module you add to a ship gives a smaller and smaller amount of shields. This is not a rapid diminution, of little consequence to smaller ships, but it becomes extremely noticeable if building really big ships. I was trying to get a handle on how much extra shielding one would get from say, doubling the number of shield blocks on a large ship that already has say, ten million or twenty million shields. Is there a point where adding more shields becomes less useful than adding armor blocks or simply increasing survivability by increasing weapons or something else instead?

Of course I could just physically try it in creative and see for myself, but my game is broken right now and I don't have the energy to read through all the tech support at the moment. I thought maybe there might be something on the Wiki (or on a chart you so generously linked) that would dispel my confusion.

 

[TBterra]

The precise formula (the wiki has an approximation) is 220+110*blocks^(48/49), the important part is 48/49 which is the growth factor. a factor of 1 would be perfect linear scaling, where if you double the input then you double the output, with shields if you double the number of blocks you get 1.972 times the total shields (excluding the very low end where the +220 makes a difference), In effect it is only slightly less than linear, unlike thrust which is much more diminishing returns

Somewhat dodgy graph (log scale for both axis)

 

[Panpiper]

Thank you very much TBterra. My confusion is dispelled.

 

[Scypio]

Wooopsy someone answered while i was writing.