Shield problems

[Kyoretsu]

I built a large shield array to encompass my ship, made sure I had enough power generated to power it and put a bunch of capacitors to give me a decent buffer but I can't seem to get the shields to activate. What am I doing wrong?

 

[PromisedPossum]

Assuming its a single array, I would guess you have exceeded the cap to charger ratio. The server I play on will not allow more than 10 to 1. Since shields now require energy just to maintain their charge. Others may be able to provide better alternatives.

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

There is now a *minimum recharge rate* necessary to even start filling shield capacitors. The more capacity you have for a given shield bubble, the higher this minimum recharge rate will be, so you will need more rechargers to be able to charge it at all. In other words, we can't put too many capacitors into small shield bubbles.

Also, you can't have a recharger group inside the bubble generated by another recharger group.

Another thing to note is that if we have several shield bubbles, you can actually monitor each of them separately from the Stats Window, under the "Shields" tab, changing between them with those "Previous / Next" buttons (sometimes only some of them fail to activate, while others work fine).

 

[Kingofanime]

From my recent lurkings I have heard the following things...

1. shields do not recharge under fire
2. you're better off maximizing shield capacity as a result
3. there are new rules forcing you to have a minimum amount of recharge per capacity

It seems to me like the whole system would be a whole lot simpler, if they combined shield recharger blocks and shield capacity blocks into a single block that gave both recharge and capacity. I mean, if everybody is going to be using maximum capacity and minimum recharge in the future, what the heck is the point of keeping them as seperate blocks? It only results in having an excessive amount of rules. Or am I wrong, and shield recharge still has some kind of value in combat?

 

[Captain Fortius]

So, instead of admitting their mistake and bringing back the old system, they rather produce workarounds for the workarounds of workarounds.

Now, I'm not as good with coding as I am with handyman projects, but I believe some of that experience translates pretty well:

-"If you have to add the Nth level of ducttape and string to hold it together, you're better off scrapping it all and starting fresh."

 

[Nosajimiki]

I built a large shield array to encompass my ship, made sure I had enough power generated to power it and put a bunch of capacitors to give me a decent buffer but I can't seem to get the shields to activate. What am I doing wrong?

While this may be an asymmetry issue between gen and cap, in many cases, this just means you need to restart your game because you are desynced. You may also have multiple capacitors built and have a disabled secondary one selected.

There is now a *minimum recharge rate* necessary to even start filling shield capacitors. The more capacity you have for a given shield bubble, the higher this minimum recharge rate will be, so you will need more rechargers to be able to charge it at all. In other words, we can't put too many capacitors into small shield bubbles.

Also, you can't have a recharger group inside the bubble generated by another recharger group.

Another thing to note is that if we have several shield bubbles, you can actually monitor each of them separately from the Stats Window, under the "Shields" tab, changing between them with those "Previous / Next" buttons (sometimes only some of them fail to activate, while others work fine).

Shield capacitors have a maintenance drain they put on your generators; so, if they become to asymmetrical, the drain becomes more than you can regen; so, space mechanic is right about this one.

From my recent lurkings I have heard the following things...

1. shields do not recharge under fire
2. you're better off maximizing shield capacity as a result
3. there are new rules forcing you to have a minimum amount of recharge per capacity

It seems to me like the whole system would be a whole lot simpler, if they combined shield recharger blocks and shield capacity blocks into a single block that gave both recharge and capacity. I mean, if everybody is going to be using maximum capacity and minimum recharge in the future, what the heck is the point of keeping them as seperate blocks? It only results in having an excessive amount of rules. Or am I wrong, and shield recharge still has some kind of value in combat?

Nah, they just need to go back to old under-fire mechanics. They were only broken cus ppl kept using docked armor, not because it was a bad baseline system. By using 2 component shielding, it made for different flavors of shields which makes the game more interesting for builders and pilots alike. I would if anything suggest going to 3 component shields by adding Projectors to define your bubble size independent of regen or capacity. I'd also like to see the parts have to be piped together like reactors, instead of the auto detection garbage, but that's just me.

 

[Kyoretsu]

While this may be an asymmetry issue between gen and cap, in many cases, this just means you need to restart your game because you are desynced. You may also have multiple capacitors built and have a disabled secondary one selected.



Shield capacitors have a maintenance drain they put on your generators; so, if they become to asymmetrical, the drain becomes more than you can regen; so, space mechanic is right about this one.



Nah, they just need to go back to old under-fire mechanics. They were only broken cus ppl kept using docked armor, not because it was a bad baseline system. By using 2 component shielding, it made for different flavors of shields which makes the game more interesting for builders and pilots alike. I would if anything suggest going to 3 component shields by adding Projectors to define your bubble size independent of regen or capacity. I'd also like to see the parts have to be piped together like reactors, instead of the auto detection garbage, but that's just me.

This is my first runin since the new power and shield update, but I don't entirely understand the symmetry that you are talking about. Does there have to be an equal number of capacitors and rechargers?

Also, through some tinkering, I did learn very quickly that multiple capacitor banks lead to problems, so I used just one. If that help narrow the problem at all?

 

[Nosajimiki]

They don't need to be equal. I believe true equilibrium is about 10:1 by default as PromisedPossum said, but you want to go a bit above that or you will be waiting forever for the shield to actually charge after undocking from your base, or if you plan on using tactical jumps as part of your military doctrine.