Shield regeneration rework

[Uthael]

I just made a ship with 1 accurate weapon having almost 9 range. And a whole bunch of random weapons slapped on it from the top of the DPS list. I usually start the combat by rushing in, parking myself so I can be accurate and unloading hell on my enemies while they do the same to me. Then I boost away when my shield is low. I use that one weapon to keep the enemies' shields from regenerating while I regenerate mine. Repeat. Not boring like kiting and much faster. Low risk.

 

You also shouldn't be able to destroy a shielded station with 1 Iron-quality machinegun. Shields should regenerate all the time. If you deal less damage than it can regenerate - too bad.

 

When it's down, to prevent big cannon hits being wasted on 10 hitpoints of shield, the shield won't reactivate until it has regenerated 1500HP or 5% (whichever is bigger).

[WSY]

Honestly I like how it is setup.

 

To your point on shield Regen. Starmade had this problem when they had implemented what you are suggesting. They had giga Titans that couldn't be destroyed because their shields we're able to regenerate too fast.

 

Honestly one fighter should be able to take down the shields. That is if the station is completely undefended, and the fighter somehow had however many years to so. The AI would likely summon a small defense group by this point - well if you were in system anyway. Like any game mechanic, it can be abused.

 

If you had Regen, pvp would probably turn in to pulse weapon and a ramming meta. As for pve, you would basically be able.to become a god in ship form as nothing could so enough damage to you to get past Regen and for some, pve is already easy. Now some people enjoy that, but some of us don't. Does it make stations or ships easier to kill, yes, but I feel something else could be done to address that.

 

Shield disruption drones or something that can chase up 2000m/s or fleets that can chase or microjump or land on top of you. Think of it from another perspective, what would you do if you were stuck in a station and saw someone doing that?

 

Maybe your right but I think it is a dangerous slope, and best avoided.

[Uthael]

I think kiting and poking to prevent shield regen is a much bigger problem.

Very annoying in PvP. Even more unfair in PvE because you don't even need to invest in anything. This is my problem, not the shields themselves.

 

For PvP, I see bonus damage to shields actually becoming a valuable stat.

 

I don't know what you mean by pulse weapons, but ramming can't really be meta. You're either too heavy to be agile, too small to kill the enemy before the collision kills you or too poorly equipped to close the distance with enough durability left to win the ramming.

 

With the current AI, I don't even need shields to make a "god ship". A huge armor plate as a shield with weapons along its edge and everything else behind it is just fine. Enemies don't search for weak points and you cn just facetank them anyway. ... Make them die to your auto-aim weapons.

If you want to make a "god-ship" vs AI, it will always be possible. Right now, it's just too easy.

[WSY]

Hi Ulthael,

 

Sorry for not responding right away. This post was one I meant to respond to but life happens.

 

Is kiting and poking a prevalent issue that has been used against you? Against the AI, yeah it will work, hell 17km guided missiles will work too. As well as pushing rock into enemies, hiding in dense asteriods fields etc.  600 dps fighter swarms, and kinetic kill ships against stations. That's just a general weakness of static defenses and the AI in general.

 

As for pvp, ramming would become a meta, as well as pulse weapons. If you don't know what those are yet, I recommend you keep playing the game for a bit, or if you do have them, they have a 70%  shield pen but a generally lower dps.

 

There are several videos and forum posts of people ramming the final boss with a ship that is nothing but armor and engines. As well as ramming other small ships. Now the fact that there are plenty of weapons and alternatives where as you say, a player can wear down another trying to do this, it works well. As well as the fact that the community considers this a d**k move, we don't see it.

 

Now you can decrease or turn off collision damage at the server level which will stop this.

 

On your final point, yes you can make a god ship, and yes it is fairly easy, but how would giving shields better Regen not exacerbate this? Throw in a shield booster or two and it would become just ridiculous in my opinion.

 

Now if your talking something specific to npcs or the xsotan to give them a little more edge, than ok, for the sake of gameplay, 100% on board.