Power Distribution

[Belven]

So I've been trying to understand what differences are caused by asinging different levels of power to each sub-system and so far all I know is that it, increases the rate the capacitor charges and if you assign it all to engines, your top speed increases.

What do it do for the others, for instance what does give 4 power to the system power do? recharge FSD and shields faster?

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

4 to systems makes your base shields strength to be 2.5 times stronger - a great position when somebody shoots at you. The shields regeneration speed is not affected, and is a constant for the generator you use (you still can engineer it).

4 to weapons cools your weapons faster, allowing you to shoot for longer.

4 to engines makes your thrusters to work faster and also recharges the boost capacitor faster.

[Belven]

Ok, that's good. thanks, I wish they split up your modules or something into those groups in the UI to make it clearer.

[Agony_Aunt]

Not just capacitory charge.

Putting pips into SYS increases the resistance of your shield meaning you can tank for longer. When WEP drops below something like 20%, your (thermal only?) weapons do reduced damage. Pips in ENG increases your turn ability, not just top speed. ie: You can do a 360 quicker with 4 pips in ENG than you can with 1 PIP, even if in the blue zone in both scenarios.

[Belven]

Ohhh

[HamakiBCN2]

I should add, while shield regeneration rate is constant, the regeneration process drains whatever power you have in your SYS capacitor. So if you have 0 pips on SYS for too long during an engagement, it's perfectly possible for your SYS capacitor to deplete completely, in which case your shields will stop regenerating altogether.

[Single Player]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

4 to systems makes your base shields strength to be 2.5 times stronger - a great position when somebody shoots at you. The shields regeneration speed is not affected, and is a constant for the generator you use (you still can engineer it).

4 to weapons cools your weapons faster, allowing you to shoot for longer.

4 to engines makes your thrusters to work faster and also recharges the boost capacitor faster.

Wrong info, if the shields are down and is recharging while the SYS pips have 1 or 0 on it, the recharge time is affected. Hell, if there's 0 on it, shields won't even charge, therefore, turning down or turning up the pips affect the overall shield charging.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Ischyro Max:

Wrong info, if the shields are down and is recharging while the SYS pips have 1 or 0 on it, the recharge time is affected.

It is not affected by pips. It's affected by energy in the capacitor. If 1 pip will produce enough of energy for a recharge, then 2 pips, 3 pips, 4 pips there will not change anything - the recharge speed is still the same.

[TiberiuS]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by Ischyro Max:

Wrong info, if the shields are down and is recharging while the SYS pips have 1 or 0 on it, the recharge time is affected.

It is not affected by pips. It's affected by energy in the capacitor. If 1 pip will produce enough of energy for a recharge, then 2 pips, 3 pips, 4 pips there will not change anything - the recharge speed is still the same.

This.
You will usually need 2 or 3 pips in sys to recharge the shield, unless you have a giant capacitor or tiny shields. The time it takes for them to recharge is the same unless you run out of power in your capacitor

[Single Player]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by Ischyro Max:

Wrong info, if the shields are down and is recharging while the SYS pips have 1 or 0 on it, the recharge time is affected.

It is not affected by pips. It's affected by energy in the capacitor. If 1 pip will produce enough of energy for a recharge, then 2 pips, 3 pips, 4 pips there will not change anything - the recharge speed is still the same.

I understand what you're saying. SYS Capacitor -> Affects -> Shields, but SYS Pips -> Affects -> SYS Capacitor. Therefore, they stil affect each other, like a chain, because if there's no pips, the capacitor won't charge, therefore the shields will experience energy starvation, and they won't charge too.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Ischyro Max:

SYS Capacitor -> Affects -> Shields, but SYS Pips -> Affects -> SYS Capacitor.

And your joystick -> affects SYS Pips, and you -> affect your joystick, and your food -> affects you, and so on. All these affections are secondary and aren't affecting the shields recharge speed directly. Unless you agree that the food you ate affects the shields recharge speed.

[Single Player]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by Ischyro Max:

SYS Capacitor -> Affects -> Shields, but SYS Pips -> Affects -> SYS Capacitor.

And your joystick -> affects SYS Pips, and you -> affect your joystick, and your food -> affects you, and so on. All these affections are secondary and aren't affecting the shields recharge directly. Unless you agree that the food you ate affects the shields recharge speed.

I wonder, because you're talking about recharge speed, and speed has relation with time. You're saying that shield regeneration is constant with the type of generators installed in a ship. And you're saying that the pips DO NOT affect the regeneration speed, and again with relation to time. Okay, then you're saying that just because the pips don't affect them directly, then it's okay to leave it at 1 pip, and yeah, the regeration speed will still be constant and the time it takes to recharge the shield will still be the same. But no, this is not the general case, because the regeneration is not CONSTANT, it becomes variable when the capacitor reaches energy starvation due to the pips. It is variable because the regeneration speed becomes ZERO. Therefore, to say that the regeneration is constant is not correct, because still, the time it will take the generators to fully recharge will increase. Another one, the regeneration of the shields is not constant after regaining energy in the capacitor. If you studied electrical engineering, then you'll know how DC transient works. The same applies to the technology in the pips, capacitor, and generator. If the capacitor is suddently fed with energy, then the genration speed of the shields won't INSTANTLY go up to its original speed but would GRADUALLY increase until it reaches its maximum speed value at a certain time.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Ischyro Max:

<snip>

Ok, just make sure not to eat fresh cucumbers with milk before playing Elite, or your shields will not be able to recharge, at all.

[Turd Ferguson]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by Ischyro Max:

Wrong info, if the shields are down and is recharging while the SYS pips have 1 or 0 on it, the recharge time is affected.

It is not affected by pips. It's affected by energy in the capacitor. If 1 pip will produce enough of energy for a recharge, then 2 pips, 3 pips, 4 pips there will not change anything - the recharge speed is still the same.

this is right. recharge speed is determined by the type of shield and size (and engineer mods). pips only determine if you are providing enough power for recharge to happen. you can see the recharge rate and power draw in the module info.

when shields charge they draw power from the capacitor. if there is power they charge /regenerate. the ectra strength you get from having more pips in sys is completely separate from charging.

[Single Player]

Yeah, I tested it, the same regen time applies from 2 to 3 pips, with 1 and 0 pips makes regen time longer due to the capacitors having no energy. So yeah, you're right about the speed being constant. It seems electrical laws aren't totally implemented in this game. Well, it's just a game though, no big deal about it.

[Turd Ferguson]

Originally posted by Ischyro Max:

Yeah, I tested it, the same regen time applies from 2 to 3 pips, with 1 and 0 pips makes regen time longer due to the capacitors having no energy. So yeah, you're right about the speed being constant. It seems electrical laws aren't totally implemented in this game. Well, it's just a game though, no big deal about it.

Im sure there isn't an electical engineer on the FD dev team.

the model is more like a bucket with a hole. the hole is your charge rate and changes with the shield. the pips are how fast you pour water into the bucket. the "bonus" you get to shield strength is unrelated except that it determined by the same control and are locked together.