Build version: v1.1.6.4 (Beta)
Severity: Medium
Annoyance factor: Medium
Confusion for new players: High
Saved game:
Having read a few times in the forum that shields are more important than armor, I’ve been trying designs with shields only. And it seems to work well, especially once you have rapidly recharging shields.
But there’s a problem...
The tactical settings [Retreat When] “Shields below 50% or any armor damage” and “Shields below 20% or armor below 50%” do not work well with designs that have no armor. The end result is that for designs without armor, it’s as if there were not tactical settings in the game, because none is appropriate for those designs (the attached save showcases the problem very well; see screenshots below).
With “Shields below 50% or any armor damage”, it looks as if the ships retreat as soon as they’re attacked, even if the shields are almost at full strength (I presume it’s because there’s a check when initially attacked, and since the armor are non-existent, it retreats).
As for the other settings (“Shields below 20% or Armour below 50%”), it’s no good (in my opinion) for designs without armor because once shields reach 20% and there’s no armor, the ship will almost certainly be destroyed.
Here’s an example from my current game:
I’ve ordered GrabFleet 2 (manual capture fleet) to capture a Dhayut mining station (Isseun 3 Mining Station). After the capture had started, a Dhayut fleet arrived. Not super strong, but stronger than my capture fleet. Watching the situation, I checked on Mauler of Kuurembos, which was attacked by a few Dhayut ships. Its shields were getting pretty low, but it wasn’t retreating (was set with “Shields below 20% or armor below 50%”). I changed that to “Shields below 50% or any armor damage”, and it immediately retreat.
Noticing that 2 of my other ships were also attacked, one of them being “Bastion of Kuurembos”, I’ve set all the capture frigates to “Shields below 50% or any armor damage”. And immediately, the 2 ships being attacked retreated. The problem is that Bastion of Kuurembos shields are almost at full power. It shouldn’t be retreating at this point.
- Retreat problems.png (784.92 KiB) Viewed 338 times
I suggest adding another tactical setting, called “Shields below 50%” (or maybe even 40?), that wouldn’t react to not having any armor when attacked.
