Questions from a new player

[Count Sessine]

Gents,

I just discovered this wonderful game, and am looking forward to the real mccoy. In the meantime, I have a couple of questions.

At the moment I primarily interested in ship vs ship combat. It seems to be the most unique aspect of the game.

1/ When a starship starts taking damage, the shield bar doesn't seem to degrade or diminish. Only the hull indicator. When the hull indicator reach zero, the ship explodes. Is it a bug, or does the shield work differently than I think it does ? I would have assumed the shield would go down first, then the hull.

2/ I can see that initially, the ship flashes blue when hit, and after a while, it flashes red/yellow. I assume this means the shield is down. It seems that the game registers where the shield is down, ie. on what part of the ship, because if I turn the ship, and it's hit in a different area, the blue glow reappears for while. Does the game register which parts of the shield are up/down?

3/ When in a multi-ship engagement, can you as a player jump from one ship to another, ie command different ships or are you bound to full command of one ship and ordering the others?

That's it for now

[smaff]

ORIGINAL: Count Sessine

1/ When a starship starts taking damage, the shield bar doesn't seem to degrade or diminish. Only the hull indicator. When the hull indicator reach zero, the ship explodes. Is it a bug, or does the shield work differently than I think it does ? I would have assumed the shield would go down first, then the hull.

In the starshatter physics, the shield is up and deflects a proportion of incoming damage, possibly only from energy weapons, I'm not sure if missiles count quite yet. The way a given shield works can be altered so it behaves more like you're used to by using mods.

2/ I can see that initially, the ship flashes blue when hit, and after a while, it flashes red/yellow. I assume this means the shield is down. It seems that the game registers where the shield is down, ie. on what part of the ship, because if I turn the ship, and it's hit in a different area, the blue glow reappears for while. Does the game register which parts of the shield are up/down?

Not sure how the glow logic works, but as far as I can tell unless the shield unit is itself damaged, it provides full coverage in any location, regardless of how much its been hit recently.

3/ When in a multi-ship engagement, can you as a player jump from one ship to another, ie command different ships or are you bound to full command of one ship and ordering the others?

Probably the latter. Be nice if you could take a quick spacewalk or something, though :> Also interesting that the game (as far as I can tell) puts you in command of the squad you're in, so you don't get to command a frigate in the campaign without getting both destroyers, well destroyed :>

[Pheonix Starflare]

ORIGINAL: Count Sessine

3/ When in a multi-ship engagement, can you as a player jump from one ship to another, ie command different ships or are you bound to full command of one ship and ordering the others?

You can only directly control the one ship you start on. However, you can issue radio commands to other ships, and when you are in a capship you can issue Homeworld style move/attack commands with the mouse, only to the ships under your command, however.