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Shield defense mode bug? |
Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
|  Posted: 2011-11-12 01:05
I'm assuming this is a bug, but running defense mode at 100% shielding drains at the same rate as it is when damaged.
I thought shields (should) only drain energy while charging?
If this were fixed, you wont start draining energy like mad until your shields are actually damaged, and when all arcs have sustained damage, you'll be losing energy like mad.
If only one arc is damaged, you should really only be spending the energy to recharge that single arc unless you choose to spread the load onto the other 3 so as to repair it faster at the cost of increased energy use.
Just saying, the ICC are getting jipped on their energy bill.
[ This Message was edited by: Fluttershy on 2011-11-12 01:06 ]
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*FTL*Soulless
Marshal
Joined: June 25, 2010
Posts: 787
From: Dres-Kona
| Posted: 2011-11-12 01:08
It is not a bug. Think of it this way, If you have a battary fully charged but keep it plugged in it will keep sucking power from the outlet even though its fully charged.
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2011-11-12 01:23
Yes, that's true, but on that same point, plasma televisions constantly use power just being plugged in, but use a significantly higher amount of power while powered on according to how brightly lit the screen is.
So yes, shields SHOULD have a 'standby' power drain.
If the shields are not under load, though, they should not be causing a consistently high drain.
Defense mode should simply mean that more power is diverted for shields... WHEN THEY NEED IT.
I should hope that a city sized starship would have better energy distribution management than some cheap AAA battery charger.
[ This Message was edited by: Fluttershy on 2011-11-12 01:25 ]
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Fattierob
Vice Admiral
Joined: April 25, 2003
Posts: 4059
| Posted: 2011-11-12 02:18
A quick rundown on shields:
Every tic (currently 1/20th of a second) the following happens for shields:
I the device is active, the current energy cost is calcuated (it's 8x as much when in defensive mode). If the ship has enough energy for this cost, it's subtracted from the ships current energy amount.
If the ship had enough energy, it then looks to charge the shield if possible - it calcuated the amount of energy required to do so (8x as much in defensive mode) and then adds charge back to the shield accordingly (4x as much in defensive mode)
I don't believe i'm allowed to disclose the exact values, but active shields require twice as much energy per tic to be active, but 1/3rd the amount to recharge. The amount recharged per tic is more per reactive but it's not anywhere as energy effecient as active shields are. Auxillery shields are half the energy cost per tic of active but double the cost to repair shields per tic. They charge at the same rate.
TL;DR: Active shields cost more to keep active but are most energy effecient to repair compared to reactives, auxillary is extremely energy effeciency but paper thin.
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2011-11-12 02:38
Wait... Auxiliary shields? I only see two types, active and reactive.
OK, so let me get this straight-
Active shields:
High energy use while on
High capacity
Slow but efficient recharge
Reactive shields:
Low energy use while on
Low capacity
Rapid recharge, but poor efficiency.
And defense mode just multiplies these values? Including multiplying the energy needed just to have shields up?
That's somewhat reasonable, but I'd like for defense mode to at least be a 1-2 toggle, not this 1 2 3 1 nonsense. Powering shields off entirely should be a separate button.
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Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2011-11-12 08:56
We're happy with the way it is now.
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Fattierob
Vice Admiral
Joined: April 25, 2003
Posts: 4059
| Posted: 2011-11-12 12:27
Quote:
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And defense mode just multiplies these values? Including multiplying the energy needed just to have shields up?
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Yes.
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NoBoDx
Grand Admiral
Joined: October 14, 2003
Posts: 784
From: Germany / NRW
| Posted: 2011-11-13 16:55
the only other idea that comes to my mind would be something like this:
you can turn defense-mode on/off with a single (extra) key, but then you turn defense on for all shields (eatin' through your energy nom nom)
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Incinarator
Chief Marshal
Joined: May 24, 2010
Posts: 237
| Posted: 2011-11-13 18:56
I never had a problem with it when I was playing as ICC. Just manage your shields wisely and you are fine. It's one of the quirks of learning how to play ICC as well as it possibly can be played. Just turn your shields off if you think that they consume too much energy and learn how many toggles you have to hit on the shield mode button to swap between the different modes.
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2011-11-13 20:00
It's not so much that defense mode sucks up so much energy, but that to toggle it off then on again leaves your hull vulnerable for sometimes several seconds because of lag.
It's really sloppy, and the system would be better off split into two buttons.
Shields Off and On, and Defense mode Off and on
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Incinarator
Chief Marshal
Joined: May 24, 2010
Posts: 237
| Posted: 2011-11-13 20:43
First of all you can toggle right back into shield being on, and you can also let your armor take some damage. You DO know you have armor right? Let the armor take some so it can regenerate slowly.
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NoBoDx
Grand Admiral
Joined: October 14, 2003
Posts: 784
From: Germany / NRW
| Posted: 2011-11-13 22:15
scout and border cruiser have no armor
afaik dread & station player go into combat with their shields off, and turn them on, when the enemy is through their armor
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Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2011-11-14 09:54
FYI, we'll probably move defence mode over to the out of combat timer. It was always intended to speed out of combat regen up (and those of you using it in combat, it's not intended for that, so there's no point arguing the point).
It'd remove the power cost and just improve the regen. There may be a possibility of having the timer lowered too.
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NoBoDx
Grand Admiral
Joined: October 14, 2003
Posts: 784
From: Germany / NRW
| Posted: 2011-11-14 12:26
why not something like this:
when you turn on the defensemode, weapons & engine shut down (cause the energy get redirected to the shields) so you cant fire / move / turn while recharging
something like this would serious cripple the combat abillity but ships could rejoin combats faster (maybe increase the shieldregen even more
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BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2011-11-14 12:51
We have the out of combat timer, and my original intent was to move a few things over to it (as they made more sense). Shield recharge is one of those, and removes the annoying three-stage shield button things.
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