Experience in combat and some possible solutions.

[PIE_OF_DOOM]

(disclaimer I suck at spelling and English in general so don't harass me about it.)

First off I'm talking about shield recharge.

A few days ago I agreed to a free for all with 4 player including myself where one player supplied the same ship for everyone. The ship was about 60000 blocks, has about 1000000 shields and a shield reign of about 40000/s. This is considered a light to heavy frigate on a server with a max block limit for ships of about 1000000.

The problem we encountered was that thou the weapons where not that bad we could not get past the shield reign. We tried having 3 ships fire at only one and also tried adding a lot more cannons mid combat and even then we had problems dropping shields. The shields would seem to drop and then glitch to 100% again every so often. This brings to light a problem that I seen in combat even back when shield recharge and capacity was one block. The problem is that if your reign is higher then the enemy weapons DPS then you are invincible. There is absolutely no hope for you to beat the other guy as he could just ignore you. There is one exception to this and that is using an alpha damage weapon as then you don't have to care about the shield recharge if you just down them in one shot.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that the Titan you worked on should be able to win in a one on one agents a small ship with a small gun. I don't think it fair at all that said Titan is completely invincible to said weapon no matter how small it is. As it stands there is no reason for the Titan to have any other defenses agents smaller ships (smaller ships could even include cruisers) once there shield recharge is large. As for trying to swarm the Titan, well the Titan will most likely just jump out and then you have to pick up your swarm. (never mind the lag to your computer and to the server.)

Reducing the shield recharge in combat only changes at what size ships that the problem occurs.
There for I would suggest that passive shield recharge in combat should be removed. I'm going to list a few ideas on how without making you shield recharge useless in combat.

• As a default when you are attacked your shield recharge is deactivated for at lest 5 sec assuming that you are not attacked again in that time interval. This should be changeable in a config file. All weapons including missiles will activate this. I'm going to refer to this as Combat Recharge Delay or CRD for short. After the CRD you will get your full recharge rate back.
• If shield capacity is reduced to zero then your shields are down for about 30 sec and like the above it should have a changeable config. I'm referring it as Shield Disable Time or SDT. (Optional: on top of the SDT for every 1% lost to structural HP 1 sec is added to the SDT.) After the SDT the shields will reactivate with a % of there total capacity. I will call this the Shield Reactivation Boost or SRB for short, and a good value may be 25% of total Capacity but this could be subject to change and should also be a changeable config.
• A negative effect to be added when you take lots of system damage (and maybe more likely if the damage is towards shield systems) is that your shields are considered permanently destroyed. In this case you have no more shields in till you reset your ship. This is a possibility that could occur in the SDT so as to convince you to not risk it just so you can get the SRB. This could be one of the more common effects that can happen when you take system damage but that could be up to debate.

OK now comes the good part. Your shield recharge rate will act like a shield hardener. (think like ion effect) This Harding will be applied before any other effects are calculated so you don't get over 100% damage reduction when using ion effect.

The amount of damage reduction will be based on 2 things. (3 if you consider weapon combo effects but that's latter.) Your ships Total Shield Recharge Rate (or TSRR) and the Shield Damage Per Second (or SDPS for short) of the weapon output shooting you. An example of what I mean by weapon output, the shot gun AMC has assuming full support has 9 weapon outputs. There for the SDPS/output for one output would be the systems total SDPS divided by the number of outputs (in this case 9). Many weapon groups would also count as outputs. The SDPS is different then normal DPS for example where ion effect may give you the same DPS as lets say explosive, its SDPS would be twice that of explosive.

Short forms so far and possible config values if applicable.

Combat Recharge Delay: CRD = 5 sec

Shield Disable Time: SDT = 30 sec (with possible 1 sec added for every 1% system HP lost)

Shield Reactivation Boost: SRB = 25% of total shield capacity.

Damage Per Second: DPS

Total Shield Recharge Rate: TSRR

Shield Damage Per Second: SDPS

Here's how it would work.
The SDPS/(that output) would be a peace of information sent with the shot and on impact is compared with the TSRR assuming shields are up. If the SDPS/(that output) is greater then the TSRR then there is no Harding effect and said weapons will do full damage to shields (unless theirs an defensive ion effect which would be applied after the Harding effect).

If the SDPS/(that output) is less then the TSRR then there is a 50% damage reduction to the shot.
(maybe make this a weapon config as the value I listed is mostly for cannon but missile or beam may need different reductions).

Now if the TSRR is over 2x the SDPS/(that output) then there is a 75% damage reduction to the shot.
(needs weapon config)

The final interval would be if the TSRR is over 10x (could be 5x but that's up to debate) the SDPS/(that output) then there is a 90%(or 95%) damage reduction to the shot. (needs weapon config)

Most Titan players would be almost invincible still as the smaller ships would have to take a vary long time to get thru your shields(never mind the armor) but at least they could have a fools hope. Also to thous who just use one shot alpha weapons (with many weapon groups or outputs) would now have to watch there SDPS/output as they could have a large part of there alpha disappear if the damage is spread over to many guns. There also could be a min damage set of at least 1 per shot so as to not have damage go completely to zero.(exception could be piercing effect)

OK now on to the next topics which should be shorter.

The space breaks SUCK to put it lightly. :|

OK so I like the Idea that thrust is based off of physics but now even in small ships we can't turn or change drift that fast. The Shift key needs to be almost as effective or as effective as the V key rotation break or we wont be able to maneuver that well at speed even with fighters. It would still take time to re-accelerate even if we could stop on a dime and it would allow fighters to properly out maneuver other ships rather then o god I crashed into you or, o god I can't stop for 2 sectors. At the vary lest give a server config to how effective the Shift key is so that servers with high speed limits don't have a Titan crashing into a planet at 600 m/s.

OK next topic.

We need more AI options for the turrets and secondary list that include, shoot closest target, shoot furthest target est. A 3 list could include shoot target with highest shield/lowest, shoot largest target in blocks, shoot smallest target in blocks est. It would also be nice to declare a secondary job for the turret with its own secondary list and tertiary list.

And Finally.

Look I know this game is an Alpha and I know that you guys work hard. BUT one of the largest problems for pvp and for the game in general is that it need to be optimized. My computer is a good custom built and when I was in the 4 way free for all with only 60 000 block ships there was horrible lag to the computer. This lag is glitching out shields and damage values and makes pvp near impossible. A part of the reason for my suggestion on shield recharge is that even in this lag environment it should not randomly glitch back 100% of the shields due to consent recharge (which tends to be a kill joy in pvp). Also by not having to contently be accounting for recharging I'm hoping that it would reduce the lag a bit. I'm normally a PVE player but that is not completely by choice but more because of the state of PVP. I went to the fight because of how worried I am about the state of PVP and coming out of it had come up with some of the suggestions above. The fight I was in is being considered one of the few proper PVP fights the server has had in months which makes me one of a few players who's done PVP there. As a PVE player I think the shield recharge suggestion would actually help a lot of PVE players as we at least can do some damage back if we are ambushed, and maybe have fun when at it. :D

I am on the server GenXnova which is one of the stable ones so that is not the reason for this lag.

I thank you all for your time If you are reading this and I encourage people to do organized combat more often. Even if you just do PVE try to support some one who is PVP or join organized fights where someone is supplying the ships.

Good luck.

 

[NeonSturm]

I don't like the interval-part, else I agree.

However, you should make a thread per topic or at least add a poll to separate likes (and put shorter ones first).​

If shields were only 30% of hull, but take 15s to get down (near-equal weight opponent) and alpha weapons have 30s to 1min reload, it would be closer to what most games do for balance.

"Dreadnoughts - Alpha", most MORPMPGs.

Less than 15 sec coverage is very low to react. More than 30% shield would make hull useless. Less than 30s reload would take the uniqueness from alpha weapons.

I would even add 5-10 seconds to that.​

I would like the damage of more than 50% shield at once to penetrate, to make alpha weapons even more distinguished without making them op. (you fire, penetrate, but 50% remains).
​

Now you know my opinion on shield vs hull, shield vs weapons. My preference has changed in the last 2 years, but for a reason.

 

[PIE_OF_DOOM]

I don't like the interval-part, else I agree.

However, you should make a thread per topic or at least add a poll to separate likes (and put shorter ones first).​

If shields were only 30% of hull, but take 15s to get down (near-equal weight opponent) and alpha weapons have 30s to 1min reload, it would be closer to what most games do for balance.

"Dreadnoughts - Alpha", most MORPMPGs.

Less than 15 sec coverage is very low to react. More than 30% shield would make hull useless. Less than 30s reload would take the uniqueness from alpha weapons.

I would even add 5-10 seconds to that.​

I would like the damage of more than 50% shield at once to penetrate, to make alpha weapons even more distinguished without making them op. (you fire, penetrate, but 50% remains).​

Now you know my opinion on shield vs hull, shield vs weapons. My preference has changed in the last 2 years, but for a reason.

For the interval thing its moslty for when your DPS is horribly out mached by Shield recharge. But maybe we could have it where the values a alittle less. The first could be 30% the second value would then be 50% and the last could be 75% if recharge is 5x or 90% if 10x.
As for the reaction time turrets would likely keep the shields recharge down for you so you don't always need to react but i would say that no lower then 5s and no larger then 10s. We got to give some time to players who manage to doge behind another ship or a plant to get back some shields.

 

[NeonSturm]

PIE_OF_DOOM
Interval : You got me wrong. I want a soft transition, not a hard gap. That's all
The 15 seconds coverage and the 5-10 I want to add (20-25s) meant that the fully charged shield holds weapon fire off that long, not the shield-recharge's downtime.

 

[PIE_OF_DOOM]

PIE_OF_DOOM
Interval : You got me wrong. I want a soft transition, not a hard gap. That's all
The 15 seconds coverage and the 5-10 I want to add (20-25s) meant that the fully charged shield holds weapon fire off that long, not the shield-recharge's downtime.

A soft transition could work but it would take more calculations to do. As most other things in this game are a soft transition I was thinking it would be nice to simplify it. Maybe the values I listed could still be right at thous points but theirs a transition gap in-between(thou the first value must still happen as a hard cap). Due to even alpha weapons being effected by a hard gap thou then that should help capacity last longer and with a hard gap you know that any ship with SDPS below a point will only do a part of its damage. This could help define the gap between large and small as small could still do damage but in a way they still bounce some what. If it was a soft gap then I would also suggest a 2x to 3x increase to shield capacity and a less harsh decrease in its value added per a block. Also the soft gap must have a max at 5x or 10x TSRR and a max reduction in damage of 75% to 95% respectively. I would also have it where you could have a config to change between having it as a soft cap or hard cap and of course being able to set the values at 2x, 5x, and 10x TSRR. There is also the bit that there would no longer be a in combat shield recharge as the TSRR is what is used so most guns unless they are way larger are going to fall between just lower then TSRR but still not be dealing with a TSRR that's 2x there DPS. To simplify a soft cap i would still have its slope based on the damage reduction values at SDPS<TSRR, SDPS<=2x TSRR, and SDPS<= 5x(or 10x)TSRR.

 

[Dire Venom]

Shields are already ridiculously easy to take down.
Just spam some missiles then send a couple of alpha missiles their way.
Interesting points youve got though, ill keep reading

 

[PIE_OF_DOOM]

Shields are already ridiculously easy to take down.
Just spam some missiles then send a couple of alpha missiles their way.
Interesting points youve got though, ill keep reading

Shield capacity atm is easy to take down. But recharge could lead to invincibility if you try DPS weapons(which is what most small ships are stuck using). What I suggested would likely make it harder to down capacity with alpha weapons because there DPS would have to also pass the TSRR or they receive a massive decrease to there alpha power. Part of the reason so many use alpha weapons it due to the fact that alpha weapons could out right ignore recharge by just one shooting the shields. I hope my system would not only make DPS weapons more favorable but also limit alpha weapons a bit unless they are truly so massive that they out do the capacity and that there DPS beats the recharge. In that case I think your dead no matter what system is being used but hey maybe you did at lest some damage to shields before you are just a bunch of particles. :D

 

[Dire Venom]

Ah I get it now!
Very nice ideas, itd be quite nice to see this in-game.
There are other ways to get past regn though, one of my ships has turrets which deal 50 million damage PER SECOND to the targeted ships energy banks.
Thus within seconds theyre imobalaised, have no power and soon will have their shields stripped down : ) And I can keep them there as long as I like :D

 

[NeonSturm]

A soft transition could work but it would take more calculations to do. As most other things in this game are a soft transition I was thinking it would be nice to simplify it. Maybe the values I listed could still be right at thous points but theirs a transition gap in-between(thou the first value must still happen as a hard cap). Due to even alpha weapons being effected by a hard gap thou then that should help capacity last longer and with a hard gap you know that any ship with SDPS below a point will only do a part of its damage. This could help define the gap between large and small as small could still do damage but in a way they still bounce some what. If it was a soft gap then I would also suggest a 2x to 3x increase to shield capacity and a less harsh decrease in its value added per a block. Also the soft gap must have a max at 5x or 10x TSRR and a max reduction in damage of 75% to 95% respectively. I would also have it where you could have a config to change between having it as a soft cap or hard cap and of course being able to set the values at 2x, 5x, and 10x TSRR. There is also the bit that there would no longer be a in combat shield recharge as the TSRR is what is used so most guns unless they are way larger are going to fall between just lower then TSRR but still not be dealing with a TSRR that's 2x there DPS. To simplify a soft cap i would still have its slope based on the damage reduction values at SDPS<TSRR, SDPS<=2x TSRR, and SDPS<= 5x(or 10x)TSRR.
[...]
Shield capacity atm is easy to take down. But recharge could lead to invincibility if you try DPS weapons(which is what most small ships are stuck using). What I suggested would likely make it harder to down capacity with alpha weapons because there DPS would have to also pass the TSRR or they receive a massive decrease to there alpha power. Part of the reason so many use alpha weapons it due to the fact that alpha weapons could out right ignore recharge by just one shooting the shields. I hope my system would not only make DPS weapons more favorable but also limit alpha weapons a bit unless they are truly so massive that they out do the capacity and that there DPS beats the recharge. In that case I think your dead no matter what system is being used but hey maybe you did at lest some damage to shields before you are just a bunch of particles. :D

OMG. IF you put in a hard-cap, you break consistency!

IF you nerf alpha weapons or boost constant-damage weapons, alpha-weapon lovers would blame you.
They don't need a nerf or buff, neither constant-dps weapons need or shield or hull.
What these things need is a scissor-rock-paper mechanism (up to a magnitude of 50%…200%). An unique field they are good in.

You should choose:

1. alpha weapons to do hit&run only, or penalize those who do.
2. constant damage weapons only at close range or many smaller targets.
   
3. burst weapons (constant damage and then a longer reload) should be used to focus weak points without much hit&run.
   
4. delay weapons should be used for finishing-weapons and against big targets.

And apart from that you should be able to choose the weapon-GFX freely.

1. Cannons, Railguns, Warp-cannons -graviton-vortex effects possible
   
2. Missiles, Rockets, Beams -either with glowing head or glowing tail or both.

 

[PIE_OF_DOOM]

OMG. IF you put in a hard-cap, you break consistency!

IF you nerf alpha weapons or boost constant-damage weapons, alpha-weapon lovers would blame you.
They don't need a nerf or buff, neither constant-dps weapons need or shield or hull.
What these things need is a scissor-rock-paper mechanism (up to a magnitude of 50%…200%). An unique field they are good in.

You should choose:

1. alpha weapons to do hit&run only, or penalize those who do.
2. constant damage weapons only at close range or many smaller targets.
   
3. burst weapons (constant damage and then a longer reload) should be used to focus weak points without much hit&run.
   
4. delay weapons should be used for finishing-weapons and against big targets.

And apart from that you should be able to choose the weapon-GFX freely.

1. Cannons, Railguns, Warp-cannons -graviton-vortex effects possible
   
2. Missiles, Rockets, Beams -either with glowing head or glowing tail or both.

kinda what I'm trying to do in a way. DPS weapons are out matched in most cases and when you can use them it would probably be better to use the alpha as it dose not have to deal with the recharge as much. Removing the continues recharge will hopefully help DPS weapons be useful and the shield Harding is there to account for the little impact that recharge has on alpha. Also thous that do use alpha would mostly only be effected if there alpha is based on many outputs (looking at you death swarm or multi sniper missile :| ). Thous alpha tend to do better agents hull (in most cases vaporizing the ship) and take out shields but in my system the DPS of each output has to face the recharge most likly meaning they would have a damage decrease (there using many pistols which are less effective then equivalent mass in one 50cal ). On the other hand if thous people put the same number of blocks into one output (aka nuke or a really strong single sniper missile) then they most likely will beat the shield recharge and don't have to deal with the shield Harding (thou they will effect less blocks as there is only one missile output and also be more venerable to anti missile). This would force alpha player to decide between being more effective agents hull or shield. This would also account for using many computers on turrets to cheat the energy increase due to many outputs. And hey said alpha lovers now could also use fast shooting weapons for shield (which could be on many turrets and look really cool shooting at there opponent :D ) and they save there favored missile for the hull.

 

[Shaker]

i dont think shields or regen are out matched by weapons, that ships weapons were just out blocked for the size of the ship it was on.

ion destroys shields, doesnt matter which weapon system its on. easiest ive found is beam/beam/ion, its pretty much GG to anyones shields the same size or lower.

in the end its all testing out what fits for you, jumping into someone elses ship your always going to find flaws that dont suit your playstyle

 

[NeonSturm]

i dont think shields or regen are out matched by weapons, that ships weapons were just out blocked for the size of the ship it was on.

ion destroys shields, doesnt matter which weapon system its on. easiest ive found is beam/beam/ion, its pretty much GG to anyones shields the same size or lower.

in the end its all testing out what fits for you, jumping into someone elses ship your always going to find flaws that dont suit your playstyle

The problem is that 1/8 should have a chance against 8/1. Or maybe count 1/4 and 4/1 if 2 smaller ships attack.

Any ratio less, and everybody will just build the biggest ship possible again. You need peoples in the same weight class, to get this, the weight class has to span over 4 times size difference (depending on turret placement and weapon directions)

 

[Benevolent27]

There is a problem with the logic that since the ships could not outdamage the shield regen, there is something wrong with the game. To me, that indicates that the ships were not built right. They should have had stronger weapons. Ion damage does 4x the damage when it's at 100% effect. When I build ships, they have ION weapons to take the shields down for this very reason. My turrets will take down a ship with 50 million shields and with 60% ION effect - in a single hit, because my ships are made to do that. Anybody who crosses me figures it out pretty quick. To take shield regen out during combat is to sacrifice a part of how people can balance their ships.

That said, a different way of doing shields may or may not be better. Your system seems interesting, but it seems to have the shield regen blocks do pretty similar things to ION effect, so it wouldn't really add much to the game. A fools hope of bringing down a titan in a small ship is not really an improvement over having no hope. And anybody who builds a titan should have adequate firepower to bring down a small ship, because if they don't, what the heck is the purpose of having a big meatbag ship that size anyhow?

Now for your next statement about titans not needing any defense against smaller ships. First off, this is not true. A small ship can ram the titan with warheads, which will damage the titan without needing to take the shields down. Secondly, small ships should NOT be able to take down a titan anyhow. They really should be insignificant. If someone wants to kill a titan, they need to build a larger ship. You can't just mine one asteroid and expect to kill everybody.

But, this brings me to an idea, which would be status effects. A small ship could have certain purposes, if they specialize. But this idea really is something a bit different than what you are suggesting here, so I'll keep it under wraps for now.

As for optimizing the game, well yes, it is a big problem with PVP when everything lags insanely. I think there needs to be some sort of balancing that helps make people WANT to use smaller ships to fight, rather than being hopeless every time someone with the largest ship rolls in. This sort of game mechanic really encourages people to build very large and very laggy ships. But it is fair, right? If someone takes the time to mine like crazy and they build the biggest ship, they should have a lot of firepower. What the game needs is a way for SKILL in combat to also play an important part of victory.

Though I don't agree with your post entirely, I appreciate you taking the time to write it. Keep writing.

 

[PIE_OF_DOOM]

There is a problem with the logic that since the ships could not outdamage the shield regen, there is something wrong with the game. To me, that indicates that the ships were not built right. They should have had stronger weapons. Ion damage does 4x the damage when it's at 100% effect. When I build ships, they have ION weapons to take the shields down for this very reason. My turrets will take down a ship with 50 million shields and with 60% ION effect - in a single hit, because my ships are made to do that. Anybody who crosses me figures it out pretty quick. To take shield regen out during combat is to sacrifice a part of how people can balance their ships.

That said, a different way of doing shields may or may not be better. Your system seems interesting, but it seems to have the shield regen blocks do pretty similar things to ION effect, so it wouldn't really add much to the game. A fools hope of bringing down a titan in a small ship is not really an improvement over having no hope. And anybody who builds a titan should have adequate firepower to bring down a small ship, because if they don't, what the heck is the purpose of having a big meatbag ship that size anyhow?

Now for your next statement about titans not needing any defense against smaller ships. First off, this is not true. A small ship can ram the titan with warheads, which will damage the titan without needing to take the shields down. Secondly, small ships should NOT be able to take down a titan anyhow. They really should be insignificant. If someone wants to kill a titan, they need to build a larger ship. You can't just mine one asteroid and expect to kill everybody.

But, this brings me to an idea, which would be status effects. A small ship could have certain purposes, if they specialize. But this idea really is something a bit different than what you are suggesting here, so I'll keep it under wraps for now.

As for optimizing the game, well yes, it is a big problem with PVP when everything lags insanely. I think there needs to be some sort of balancing that helps make people WANT to use smaller ships to fight, rather than being hopeless every time someone with the largest ship rolls in. This sort of game mechanic really encourages people to build very large and very laggy ships. But it is fair, right? If someone takes the time to mine like crazy and they build the biggest ship, they should have a lot of firepower. What the game needs is a way for SKILL in combat to also play an important part of victory.

Though I don't agree with your post entirely, I appreciate you taking the time to write it. Keep writing.

At the vary least what I want to see is configs that would allow for the system I proposed to be possible. The closest I could get to my system atm is to disable recharge for a set time after being shot. I would not be able to add the other things needed to make a complete alternate system work. If we are at least given the configs then servers could deside on what type of shield setup they want.

 

[godmars]

EDIT: I got this thread confused with another, disregard

 

[Winterhome]

As a faction leader that almost exclusively uses DPS-based weapons for everything to ridiculous effect...
I'd like to just say that your belief that alpha weapons are superior is horribly misplaced and at minimum very incorrect.

Also, it's possible to engineer an "instant stop" device to deal with the "space brakes" thing you're talking about. We've done it, and we use it a lot.

the AI issues and the lag issues are really the only things that would help anything

 

[Benevolent27]

At the vary least what I want to see is configs that would allow for the system I proposed to be possible. The closest I could get to my system atm is to disable recharge for a set time after being shot. I would not be able to add the other things needed to make a complete alternate system work. If we are at least given the configs then servers could deside on what type of shield setup they want.

I think when they finally get the modding API up and running, we'll be able to have the kind of control you'd like. If and when this happens, I wouldn't mind testing out your system.

 

[Comradecolonel]

Ion damage does 4x the damage when it's at 100% effect.

Just to confirm with everyone, Ion is 2x not 4x. not sure if it changed or if there's some PVPer who vandalizes the wiki to misinform people. Anyway, if you want pure damage against shields and soft squishy hull, overdrive ftw!

 

[Benevolent27]

Just to confirm with everyone, Ion is 2x not 4x. not sure if it changed or if there's some PVPer who vandalizes the wiki to misinform people. Anyway, if you want pure damage against shields and soft squishy hull, overdrive ftw!

I said it that way because it's said that way here: https://starmadepedia.net/wiki/Ion_Effect_Computer

Though I can see how that would seem misleading. It is correct that the damage output becomes 4x times the normal weapon damage at 100% effect, but the total module count is 2x, taking into account the ion modules attached. So for example, if you have 1 cannon and it does 10 damage, attaching an ion effect computer and module will make it do 40 damage to shields. This is 4x the damage of one cannon module, but it uses twice the modules in total. Two cannon modules would do 20 damage, so it is 2x damage of what it would be if simply the weapon modules.

Overdrive does 2x damage as well, right? But doesn't it use 5 times the amount of power? To me, I'd rather just make my turret 5 times bigger to do 5 times the damage.

 

[Comradecolonel]

I checked in the block config to get the 2x for on ion. Doesn't matter but looking at the wiki confused me a little when i first started building weapons so i want to make sure the newbies are on the same page. Overdrive is 3x damage but like 12x more power. Definitely not energy efficient but pretty space efficient.


As for as the actual shield recharging mechanics, maybe the recharge penalty could add up as the ship is shot consecutively. The penalty would add up a percentage of the damage being done and is slowly dissipated over time. The could also be combined with a ship shield resistance to alpha weapons (especially large waffle array type weapons).

DPS would wear down ships shields and alpha to destroy systems. The idea is that the shields would protect you from from crippling blows but could be overwhelmed at once with enough power. Alpha would then only be truly effective at eliminating shields when it is well above another ships weight class or equipped with powerful anti-shield weaponry. Slow, large ships would then have more vulnerability to sustained fire and their shield would slowly be unable to recharge.