I have posted on this topic before but did not get any satisfactory opinions or answers really. What are the use of shield enhancers? They cost .5 millon, and they give only 5 extra in shields. So what is the big advantage? Do they affect shield recharge in some way by adding shields but not increasing the total recharge time. An example would be adding 4 S. Enhancers to an azdara giving it an extra 20 in shields and a total of about 40. By doing this did the player ineffect double the shield recharge rate because the total recharge time stays the same. Or would I be mistaken, and the total shield recharge changes accordingly.

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Why are there no maroon ships?

Shiled Enhancers (same as capacitors in EV) increase your overall amount of shielding. They do not affect your recharge rates. All they do is add to your shielding in terms of capacity.

Basically, they're worth it because that extra 20 in shielding does come in handy.

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If Murder Were Legal, You'd Be Dead.

10/31/96

To Forge:

Are saying that they do not effect the shield recharge rate or the total recharge time. Its the time that is in Resedit I believe and not the rate. Could you please clarify on this point.

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Why are there no maroon ships?

I thought they were worth 50 points in shielding.

(This message has been edited by Z (edited 11-15-2001).)

50 is res edit units, 5 in ship yard units. Example Bronev plating say 1000 in resedit but if applied to a ship only adds 100. This topic has been discussed in quite some detail in the past so I am positive on this point.

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Why are there no maroon ships?

Shield enhancers aren't that good. Armour does more, for less money.

The only problem is, it's instinctive to run at low shields, so mentally shield enhancers are better.

Espy

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Word.

Quote

Originally posted by Jubee:
**To forge :

Are saying that they do not effect the shield recharge rate or the total recharge time. Its the time that is in Resedit I believe and not the rate. Could you please clarify on this point.
**

Your overall shield recharge time will increase from 0% to 100% since your recharge rate remains the same but you have more shielding to charge up. What they increase is your total shield capacity. They are worth 5 units each and you can buy four of them. If your shielding was 500 units and you bought all four then your total shielding would be 520 units.

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If Murder Were Legal, You'd Be Dead.

10/31/96

Quote

Originally posted by forge:
**Your overall shield recharge time will increase from 0% to 100% since your recharge rate remains the same but you have more shielding to charge up. What they increase is your total shield capacity. They are worth 5 units each and you can buy four of them. If your shielding was 500 units and you bought all four then your total shielding would be 520 units.

**

Or would it seem that the recharge time remain constant?
By adding 20 (shipyard units) of shielding to a ship that already had 20,
you would be regenerating points twice as fast?
(40 points in the time it took for 20?)

(Thinking this from experience tacking on huge 200SU plugin shield upgrades on
quickly recharging fighters)

Quote

Originally posted by Starfish:
**...by adding 20 (shipyard units) of shielding to a ship that already had 20,
you would be regenerating points twice as fast?
**

Some moths ago, I postulated that shield enhancers would improve only your max shield level. If you fight like me, you regularly lose your shields. I felt that once reduced to nothing, shield enhancers were effectively dead weight.

It's ilke the difference between a fuel tank and a fuel scoop. I suspected that fuel tanks were like shield enhancers, because they increase your maximum capacity, but don't influence the rate at which your fuel level is topped up. Fuel scoops increase the rate at which you regenerate fuel, but don't add any capacity.

EV has devices of both kinds, of course: shield boosters and capacitors. EV:O only has the enhancer. Does it do the work of both? Does it influence recharge rate AND allow a higher shield level? I thought this seemed unlikely, but some folks seem to think that a ship with 20 natural shields and four shield enhancers would recharge in the same time as a ship with just 20 natural shields, because a ships' shield recharge rate is expressed as a single numberic time value. Me, I'm a player, not a res-editor, so I couldn't tell you.

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(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/evodude2001/home.html")Old & Unimproved: Cerberus Station!(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by VoinianAmbassador:
EV has devices of both kinds, of course: shield boosters and capacitors. EV:O only has the enhancer. Does it do the work of both? Does it influence recharge rate AND allow a higher shield level? I thought this seemed unlikely, but some folks seem to think that a ship with 20 natural shields and four shield enhancers would recharge in the same time as a ship with just 20 natural shields, because a ships' shield recharge rate is expressed as a single numberic time value. Me, I'm a player, not a res-editor, so I couldn't tell you.

The enhancer doesn't influence recharge rate. Your ship will, however, recharge to its full level with 20 natural sheilds and four sheild enhancers. If Override had boosters, they would increase the rate of recharge, but all shields in EV can recharge to their full level regardless of their source. You may be thinking of games like Ares, where shields only recharge to half strength.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/mc/")An Upcoming EV Override Mission Editor(/url)

No that is not exactly what I am saying. Starfish is on the same wave of thought I am on. It is the very fact that shield capacitors do NOT effect shield recharge TIME in either a good or bad way. EXAMPLE: If my ship has 20 in shield and it takes 5 seconds to recharge them then my recharge rate is 4 units per second. If I add another 20 in shields but the total time to recharge stays the SAME then 40 divided by 5 equals 8 units per second. This would mean that you have just Doubled your shield recharge rate. I do not have my mac with me at the moment. I will have an answer to this question in a week and a half. But in the mean time the way to easily check this is to take an azdara and put a cloak on it. Hit the cloak and see how long it takes the shields to recharge. Add 4 shield enhancers and repeat the process. If it takes the same amount of time then you have just DOUBLED the recharge rate for your azdara.

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Why are there no maroon ships?

If you have twenty shields and they recharge in five seconds at a rate of four units per second then if you have four shield enhancers then it will take you forty seconds to go from 0% to 100% since your recharge rate does not change.

Shield capacitors ONLY increase your shield capacity. Shield boosters such as the type you can get by working for the Adzgari incrase your rate of recharge.

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If Murder Were Legal, You'd Be Dead.

10/31/96

I have a feeling this string is arguing about differing things...
Shield regen rate in shipyard units, vs shield regen rate as a measure of time.

Anyhow, quoteth the EVO bible when referring to ships:

Quote

ShieldRe Shield recharge speed, in number of frames per shield
percentage point regenerated; bigger numbers here make for
slower recharging. 30 ? 1% per second.

The interesting point here is that the regen value specified for ships is the number
of frames for one percent of the ships' shield to regenerate. The example
being a value of 30 frames, or one second, for 1% of shield.
(100% would regenerate in 100 seconds.)

This percentage can be applied to whatever maybe the ships' shield strength.
If you increase the ships shields through the commonly acquired shield
enhancers, the 1% of that total will be greater than the 1% of your not-upgraded
ship.

The example used above with putting 4 shield enhancers on a crescent fighter:

Crescent fighter has 20SU (shipyard units) of shield.
Via resedit, it would seem to have a ShieldRegen of 30 (frames) or 1 second.
So, the actual rate of regen is 0.2SU per second.
(1% per second * 20 shields * ( 30 frames in a second / 30 frames ))

Add 4 enhancers (+20SU) of shields for a total of 40.
Shield regen value is 30 (1 second), so actual rate of regen is 0.4SU per second.
(1% per second * 40 shields * ( 30 frames in a second / 30 frames ) )

Example 2: Put the buyable shield upgrade (from Azdgari) (ShieldRegen -10)
on a stock crescent fighter.

Crescent fighter has 20SU (shipyard units) of shield.
The ShieldRegen is now 20 frames from due to the outfit's -10 modification.
The actual rate of regen is 0.3SU per second.
(1% per second * 20 shields * ( 30 frames in a second / 20 frames )).

So if each of these two ships were hit with a blast that caused 12SU of damage,
the first one's shields would be completely recharged in 30 seconds, while the
second ship's shields would be fully recharged after 40 seconds.

I hope this doesn't seem too mathy (and hopefully I didn't screw up)...

Sorry I am on another computer in which my password is not set and I don't have the time to find it. Starfish, that is exactly what I am talking about. Now here is what I think is so important about what you wrote. Can you find out if the shield recharge is what sets the armor recharge? I am just saying that a voinian heavy fighter could get an insane recharge because it only starts of with 2 in shields. Just a thought that this ship would really benefit as well as the frigate maybe.

Hmm... I don't know for the shield enhancer problem, it's hard to make experiments on this subject, and, sorry, I don't want to buy a Voinian Heavy Fighter. IMO, the recharge rate in terms or quantity of shield per time (and not in percent of total shield per time) keeps the same, because, if you buy some shield enhancers to a ship that has no shields (though it does not exist, it could easily be done and is theorically handled by the engine), it would recharge its shields intantaneously if it was the second that would keep the same.

And, I do agree, Shield Enhancers are almost uninteresting; if it was only their price...but I thought of adding some on a krait (yes I was mad) and there wasn't enough space for both sufficient weapons and the enhancers.

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M'enfin!
Y'a personne qui parle français ici?

I don't think shield recharge affects armor recharge in the original EV, but it
does affect it in EVO. This the big reason why outfitting an adzara (which
regenerates shields very fast) with dospect armor makes you practically invincible in the Crescent.

Crescent ships can't damage armor with their phase weaponry faster than that
ship/outfit combination can regenerate it.

Here is another question for Starfish. If you have say a azdara with has a value of 4 under regeneration and you put a a shield recharger on and that subtracts 10 then that makes a value of -6. Or is the lowest value you can have 1. I which case there would be no extra benefits to having the exp gen. Or if the value goes below 0, is it (the upgrade) just ignored?
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Why are there no maroon ships?

(This message has been edited by Jubee (edited 11-19-2001).)

Yes, I do agree that shield enhancers are expensive. But, they might just come in handy when you encounter a fleet of renegades! Though, you should lean towards buying armor, like Silverdragon said, it is cheaper than shield!

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I would assume that as far as outfits that affect "Shield regeneration" in EVO, there is no added benefit/penalty for going below 0. A value of 1 is probably the lower limit, as getting the Azdgari experimental shield generator on a crescent fighter
has no ill effects. (Regenerates quite speedily).

The field that I've seen problems with is getting too much shields or armor. This really is an issue that only occurs with plugins. It behaves really strange if you increase them somewhat beyond 3200 on the shipyard scale, as the actual value appears to have a limit of probably 32767 (approx limit for signed integers). Above this, I'm guessing the values go negative, thus the bad luck if you are hit with negative/no armor or shields.