So how exactly do shields work?

[Mirrowel]

I have made myself a shieldcraft in a patch before particle cannons were added.
Purpose of the ship was to be a heavy frigate to deal with everything(except subs maybe), but i ran into a one problem: Shields sometimes don't block(or reflect) projectiles(i have various shields from 90 to ~30 degrees relative to the side they are supposed to be shot at.
My main front shields vary from 45 to 70 degrees yet they still let shells to come through them. All of my shield run at 10 power rating. If the shields let these projectiles(tested it with my own 3 barreled heat round cannon) through they are almost useless.

Can this be improved in any reasonable way?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=732686609

[xchrisx88]

idk excactly, since the new update shields got "nerfed" in terms of they will only reflect high velocity shells, or atleast it depends on the velocity of the shell,
like I said idk much about the new shields

[Lincrono]

Shields are very good against high velocity shells and you can get that good performance with fairly low power. however that is not to say they suck vs low velocity. you still have a 50-70% chance to deflect a slow cram shell assuming it hits at a fairly normal incident angle.

That being said, many champaign enemies use HE CRAM shells with inertial fuses. what this means is that when the shell senses an angle change (like when your shields deflect) they will detonate. because cram shells have such large explosion radii (on the order of 10 meters) unless your shields are that far from your ship you will still suffer damage.

[Mirrowel]

I know about inertial fuses. But only a "chance" of reflecting shells is a really bad gameplay mechanic. Shieldcrafts can't survive a battle now. Even my Heavy frigate with 1 metal block armor everywhere and 2-4 blocks of metal at front and in vulnerable areas and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of shields covering everything my craft can be OHK through the side ignoring all of the shields. So yeah. Shields are almost useless now.

[Lincrono]

Originally posted by Mirrowel:

I know about inertial fuses. But only a "chance" of reflecting shells is a really bad gameplay mechanic. Shieldcrafts can't survive a battle now. Even my Heavy frigate with 1 metal block armor everywhere and 2-4 blocks of metal at front and in vulnerable areas and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of shields covering everything my craft can be OHK through the side ignoring all of the shields. So yeah. Shields are almost useless now.

what are you fightingshields are weaker, but they are far from usless, they still give a lot of protection at not much cost, but a ship using 1m metal with 2-4 reinforcement still isn't going to do well against 1000mm-2000mm HE CRAMS unless the shields are layered and 10m away from the main hull. And your shields are far too close to the main hull to offer any protection from Inertial fuses, They will however stop kinetic rounds cold.

I understand why a 'chance' seems cheap, but since the chance is often 50-90% it's a good deal, not many games offer stats like that at such low costs,

[Mirrowel]

In the campaign i did not face any enemies, that use 1000mm-2000mm HE CRAMS with inertial fuses. If i met them i would another ship, which would be protected against them.

They should stop kinetic rounds 100% of the time until they have a charge to do so.
I don't care how much my ship costs. It is already too much. I want a ship, which can Survive a battle in one piece.
I have 6400 energy to power shields and propulsion.
only about a 700-800 goes to propulsion. Rest goes to shields. And shields wont even stop shells from OHK my ship.

Read carefully: i said i tested it with my own 3-barreled heat round cannon. 157mm
Shields are made to protect smaller ships from taking damage in the cost of HUGE amounts of fuel. My ship needs 50000 (or more) fuel per battle. And i usually have fleets with 5+ of them.