Are shield generators useless?

[ojek]

I built my ship, put two shield generators both directly connected to a small reactor, and I seem to loose every battle I encounter, after the initial shield goes down, the generators say they have no power and are useless. It seems it'd be better to just invest in big cannon guns as I think they will act as a better shield? Or am I missing something here?

[CptnRedstone]

Shields are extremely useful but can require a significant amount of power. They're best used in conjunction with armor, and if possible should *not* be used against electro-bolters. Consider adding a second reactor or capacitors to help keep them powered.

[Netaris]

Short answer : No.
Longer answer : It depend. What type of shields ? At what distance from the enemy ? Facing what kind of weapons ? Etc. If you have two non-stacked shields at close distance while facing disruptors, yeah, you don't gonna last long.

[bbq]

I ve build one Shield Generator in my Starting Ship model C and it reduced Damage Cost

[amimai002]

Shields are useful as long as they aren't EMP-ed.

there are some clever tricks you can pull with armor+big shield to protect them somewhat and they are definitely worth it early/mid game. unfortunately late game EMP nukes will eat you alive so armour is best for late game ships.

[OKOK]

Small shields is fine as long as u have enough crew to top them up with battery.
U will notice Small power generator give 1 unit per trip.
Mediums is 2 and large is more. Using larger generator reduce number of trips to top up shields.

U can forget about large shield it junk. Emp kill it fast and destroy it very fast. Making a big hole in the ship. Usually large shield is close to power generator
Chain effect is this generator will be exposes and get destroyed.

[CptVodka]

I feel like the big shields are utter garbage.
They require space in front of them to work, and the radius depends on how much space is free. That means no armor in front of the shield. You can put it behind and make a tiny pathway to the shield, but that decreases the logistics efficiency of keeping the shield running, while also still leaving a gap in your armor.
Furthermore, it often upsets the design quite a lot.
Small shields? Amazing.
Block up as much armor as you can in front of them, and they'll do wonders.

[Netaris]

Originally posted by OKOK:

U can forget about large shield it junk. Emp kill it fast and destroy it very fast. Making a big hole in the ship. Usually large shield is close to power generator
Chain effect is this generator will be exposes and get destroyed.

I disagree, I have great results with some efficient large shields configurations. I can even tank the sun damage to half distance with minor damages on exposed armor on ships not designed for this. Used correctly, large shields are awesome.

And these configurations of large shields can also take several EMP missiles hits without falling completely. What's great considering EMP missiles are focused on shield damages.

This for example : https://steamcommunity.com/app/799600/discussions/2/3471738893386652744/

It survived 4 EMP missiles hits on the same spot (in the shields), it survived sun damages halfway and can take entire HE missiles salvos without falling. I've never had a prism to repair with this design so far.

[Fluffy]

The shield uptime increases drastically if set up next to a power source and an entire bunk of crew set to assist only it. You can set crew to assist it by going to crew management and selecting the work teams icon. The more crew you have lodging next to a shield with a reactor to it, the faster it can get restocked.

[amimai002]

Originally posted by CptVodka:

I feel like the big shields are utter garbage.
They require space in front of them to work, and the radius depends on how much space is free. That means no armor in front of the shield. You can put it behind and make a tiny pathway to the shield, but that decreases the logistics efficiency of keeping the shield running, while also still leaving a gap in your armor.
Furthermore, it often upsets the design quite a lot.
Small shields? Amazing.
Block up as much armor as you can in front of them, and they'll do wonders.

Large shields are more effective on flankers and fast attack ships, they are light for the amount of defence they give, there are a few ways yo overlap them on diagonal ships to make a forward attacker but in most cases they aren't as useful as a brick or armour for soaking damage (mind that brick will be slow AF and rail boats will probably eat you alive late game)

[TheLuckyAce]

Get into the creative mode and test around with it. I found the "Icarus" ship of the Cabal with 6 big Front-Shields to be unkillable mostly, only missle spam or extrem more costly ships bring it down (in tests I destroyed a 2.9Million worth Flaggship) as the Shields regen faster then most enemy's can destroy them if layered. The AI try to focus the Energy-Source behind the Shield and never gets to it...

It is a good learning for later own projects I guess.

[Yaddah]

Originally posted by TheLuckyAce:

Get into the creative mode and test around with it. I found the "Icarus" ship of the Cabal with 6 big Front-Shields to be unkillable mostly, only missle spam or extrem more costly ships bring it down (in tests I destroyed a 2.9Million worth Flaggship) as the Shields regen faster then most enemy's can destroy them if layered. The AI try to focus the Energy-Source behind the Shield and never gets to it...

It is a good learning for later own projects I guess.

Yeah, the Icarus seems to be a really strong ship. It has almost everything - super strong shields, good point defense, good offense. But there's one thing it doesn't have, which it has sacrificed to squeeze all those other advantages into its moderate budget: speed. The Icarus is terribly slow and you can easily get into Disruptor range to overload the shields.

[TheLuckyAce]

Originally posted by Yaddah:

Originally posted by TheLuckyAce:

Get into the creative mode and test around with it. I found the "Icarus" ship of the Cabal with 6 big Front-Shields to be unkillable mostly, only missle spam or extrem more costly ships bring it down (in tests I destroyed a 2.9Million worth Flaggship) as the Shields regen faster then most enemy's can destroy them if layered. The AI try to focus the Energy-Source behind the Shield and never gets to it...

It is a good learning for later own projects I guess.

Yeah, the Icarus seems to be a really strong ship. It has almost everything - super strong shields, good point defense, good offense. But there's one thing it doesn't have, which it has sacrificed to squeeze all those other advantages into its moderate budget: speed. The Icarus is terribly slow and you can easily get into Disruptor range to overload the shields.

I never said it is perfect ;) but it shows off that a good setup of shields can be amazing.
It can withstand the combined non-missle fire of a 3Million ship without getting touched, due to AI abuse and good shield layering.

Will it be "the solution" to everything? Nope. I thought it would be after my first 10-15 tests, but soon someone stated "get into a Missle fight and you lost" so I found weakness after weakness. As long as you "manual target" against the AI, you can just focus Disrupters asap and be good most time. AI vs. AI it is a different thing ;)

BUT, as a learning ship how good shields can be, it is a prime example from what I could see. (Smaller ships only)

[amimai002]

its worth saying you can take the Icarus and improve on the design.

this is just a slapped together tester but it can easily take even heavy EMP spam ships and win in testing, literally no armour on the thing beyond a structural bit on the back

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2883350529

[hellatze]

Originally posted by ojek:

I built my ship, put two shield generators both directly connected to a small reactor, and I seem to loose every battle I encounter, after the initial shield goes down, the generators say they have no power and are useless. It seems it'd be better to just invest in big cannon guns as I think they will act as a better shield? Or am I missing something here?

to be honest. armor overpower shield.

shield just useless on late game

[TheLuckyAce]

Originally posted by hellatze:

Originally posted by ojek:

I built my ship, put two shield generators both directly connected to a small reactor, and I seem to loose every battle I encounter, after the initial shield goes down, the generators say they have no power and are useless. It seems it'd be better to just invest in big cannon guns as I think they will act as a better shield? Or am I missing something here?

to be honest. armor overpower shield.

shield just useless on late game

Even without played any "late game" I can already say its plain wrong :D, the mix make the winning ship.
I've watched some AI-AI battles from the Community and nearly every ship used shields to protect vital parts. In a 1-2 Million range, I consider this late game?