What mods are you presently running? This doesn't happen in the unmodded game; enemy ships use a different set of shield generators that charge much more slowly than the player's does- which is why they don't drop. Are you, perchance, using a mod that boosts AI shield performance by allowing AIs to mount the PC shield generators?

No active mods, but mine isn't a clean install. (I have used some mods in the past, that I have deactivated.) Maybe the game has some memory of a mod unsucessfully/unentirely deactivated.

That's probably it: I have been playing with mods for additional ships. (Alas, didn't find any sufficiently conservative ones. Looking for a genuine Junkers CSV.)

Edit: On second thought, it *might* be the fact that I was attacking an *ally* rather than an enemy. NukeIt writes that *enemy* shields don't drop.... If I found a little wrinkle I'll be very pleased indeed. Going to try to reproduce this after a clean install of Freelancer. Doubt it'll work, but here's hoping!

Edited by - breslin on 10/11/2006 5:47:19 AM

That would be a big thing if you found that shields drop in an un-modded game. But if it's class seven you could'nt use it for a while anyway, right? Did you check and see if it regenerates on your ship?

Beware pirates bearing gifts!

I think what NukeIt meant to say is that all AI shields by default do not regenerate, regardless of ally or not. However, it's not usually a big deal for the allies, since they almost never get destroyed unless scripted to be so.

Many mods enable shield looting, so I'd get a clean install and try your experiment again.

Holy Mackerel! It works!

I reinstalled the game, got up my total worth to 1.5mil (just to be on the safe side), and went at Mission 7 with a Crusader armed thusly...

2x Pyros Type 1
3x Pyros Type 2
Catapult
Starkiller

...and I looted myself a Level 7 shield from one of the Razor Wing fighters during the "Destroy the Rheinland Fleet" phase of the mission (after leaving Shinkaku).

Note that Razor Wing is odd in that they seem to regenerate their shields faster than normal NPCs. Maybe they have different shields -- that might help explain why you can loot shields in this case, but not in other cases.

Edit: By no means does the shield drop every time. You'll probably have to try quite a number of times, maybe 10, maybe as much as 20. My superstitous theory (probably totally baloney) is that your chances improve if you make a highly damaging killshot (hence the suggested loadout -- though twin Catapults is probably even better).


Edited by - breslin on 10/17/2006 3:54:06 AM

sounds pretty awesome ill have to give it a go! does anyone know where the freelancer ship size comparison link thing went?

Neat!!! It makes sense that Razor wing's shields regenerate faster, because they would have to to survive.........5 freelance ships against a whole Rheinland fleet.

Beware pirates bearing gifts!

If you scan them, the Razor ships in that mission are actually Sabres. Easily good enough to take on the Rheinland ships.

Someone needs to brush up on thier ship ID's, there aren't any sabre's in mission 7.
The ships in question are Dagger's and the shield is the class 7 "Protector LF".

**shuffles of with a new headache**

I was thinking mission 10. Oops.

Now that my attention was called to this, I noticed something a little funny about the shield-regen time for the allies in the first leg of Mission 10.

And sure enough, you can loot shields there as well.

Edit:

You're gonna love the third and final opportunity for looting shields.

In Mission 13, Orillion can be destroyed, but only after you enter the Nomad Jump Gate, and before you've entered the "Dyson Sphere" area. (He re-spawns when you enter the "Dyson Sphere" area, after which point he is invulnerable.)

Orillion *rarely* drops a Protector HF shield.

I'll post a revision of the advanced walkthrough, incorporating notes on ally-killing.


Edited by - breslin on 10/20/2006 8:18:13 AM