Engineer School, teach me about stuff...

[Larsenex]

First up, please teach me about shields. Lets use Humans as the base since thats what I play but please use other races proprietary ones as reference.

What is better? A larger shield value? or a recharge rate?

Teach me how to understand the recharge value, it is confusing. Seems that a larger number is better vrs a smaller value. Why/how?

Do I want Decaulos or Corvidian?

How about the nice Kitty shields called the Megatron X?

Next tell me about Hyper Drives..I always wanted faster BUT seems that they are fuel hogs. Which is best or should I be strving for?

Thanks much!

[Data]

I did some tests at some point on both shields and engines in general and came to realize that....it doesn't actually matter that much to me
one fun fact, put two hyperdrives on your ship; one with the fastest jump initiation and another with the fastest actual speed.....the ship will use the fuel consumption from the first one, the fastest jump initiation and the fastest actual speed
never found a use for it but it's fun to watch this ship perform the best on all counts

[Data]

also, shield recharge rate is not that relevant in big battles for me so i go for the largest blocked damage

[Krob]

There isn't necessarily a better shield, it depends on how you use them. If you have the room, you can stack as many on as you can fit to create a larger buffer, if you're low on space, you might want to use quicker recharge so that you've a bit more functional shield from the recharge. I usually play the Ferrox and switch over to the non-special line when I've capped out the shield tree, at that point the recharge isn't as good as all the extra capacity.

As for Hyperdrives, again it depends on what you're trying to achieve. The faster drives may be energy hogs, but they'll move you faster. I tend to go for the quick drives since I like to be able to get out of Dodge quickly if needed. And it helps keep the civilian ships alive.


K

[Sabin Stargem]

When placing hyper drives on a ship, would a combo of Efficiency/Initiative/Speed be used, or just Initiative and Speed? I like using high-speed drives, but I would also place one NovaCore on my ships if it is used to calculate the Fuel-to-Energy ratio.

[Data]

NovaCore is a reactor isn't it? Not sure what you're asking exactly but both reactors and hyperdrives are bulcky so the most efficient is to use one hyperdrive - at least I ended up with single hyperdrive designs

[Sabin Stargem]

Ah, sorry. Got mixed up. What I meant is if Reactors use their best properties like the Hyperdrives, or if only one is dominant. One of the drives I use is an high-end version, but the fuel efficency is something like 2.5, opposed to the NovaCore's 2.0, but the NovaCore is worse in all other respects.

EDIT

Made some quick checking, the reactors are calculated independently. Using a NovaCore & Hyperfusion results in something like 2.3, and adding more Novacores decreases by 0.1. In short: Don't mix the cores, because the NovaCore doesn't offer the fuel capacity or power generation to make up for fuel efficiency.

Also checked the Hyperdrives, and they have three properties: Speed, Fuel Cost, and Jump Initiation. Of the three, the best hyperdrives are:

Speed - 36K, VelocityDrive
Fuel - 75, Calista (Other drives are in the 100+ range)
Jump - 3 seconds, Kaldos

Haven't confirmed if the fuel costs is used with the best drive, or if they are calculated separately.

[Data]

Nice tour de force, Sabin
It's interesting that these findings tend to reapper from time to time, I remember at one time one of us ordering all the hyperdrives based on these factors. The thread is buried in here somewhere [:)]

[Sabin Stargem]

With some further examination, I found that in the case of Fuel cost, it either uses the most fuel-expensive engine, or the one that initiates the one with a lower jump time. So you have to pair only the VelocityDrive with the Kaldos. The Calista is dead weight, since it isn't used. (according to the design screen, no field testing.)

The Kaldos costs 125 fuel, while the VelocityDrive is 113. Considering that faster initiation may save your ships from being demolished, the increased price for fuel is worth it.

[Raap]

I always go for the quicker engines and the highest strength shields. It's kind of sad really that the jack-of-all-trades highest-tier component very often beats all the other specialized components, thus rendering the choice a non-issue. It usually even beats the racial techs, though they have the advantage of requiring far less research to get.

[Larsenex]

So two jump drives in one design?

[Sabin Stargem]

Yup. Jump Initiation and top speed.

On shielding, my guess is that you would want Capacity for your smaller ships, and favor a high Recharge rate on the bigger ships. The reason has to do with how many shields you pack on a ship and how long you expect it to last. Escort vessels are small and relatively delicate, so they can't have many shields nor can they take much damage before biting the dust. A capital ship takes more damage, hence more recharge time. Furthermore, a large ship has more shield components, thus higher capacity and a need to regenerate more quickly.

[Data]

I did those tests back in the pre-expansion era, not sure how feasible they are now with the advent of researching improvments that increase tech abilities without retrofiting