Sat May 10, 2003 8:43 pm by Gnavpot
I am a bit confused regarding shield types myself.
According to earlier postings, the weapons do 120% damage to the shields they are strong against, and 80% damage to the shields they are weak against.
But looking at hitpoints and regeneration rate, the graviton shield is approx. 33% stronger than the other shields. This means that graviton in some cases are stronger than the shield which is supposed to be strongest against a certain weapon type.
I do not think that it makes sense to design a game this way - especially because the graviton shields are the "standard" shields. So when you have bought a graviton shield in New York, there is not much reason exploring other systems to find a better shield in the same class. (Well, at least this is the case in the start of the game - later on, the "standard" shield is system/faction dependent.)
Some examples, for a L7 freighter shield and different weapon types with 100 damage per shot:
Tachyon, neutron:
Graviton, 5034/100 = 50.3 shots/shield
Positron. 3780/80 = 47.3 shots/shield
Molecular, 3780/120 = 31.9 shots/shield
Particle, plasma:
Graviton, 5034/120 = 42.0 shots/shield
Positron. 3780/100 = 37.8 shots/shield
Molecular, 3780/80 = 47.3 shots/shield
Laser, photon, pulse:
Graviton, 5034/80 = 62.9 shots/shield
Positron. 3780/120 = 31.9 shots/shield
Molecular, 3780/100 = 37.8 shots/shield
So when meeting particle or plasma weapons, the molecular shield is a little better than the graviton, but there are no situation where a positron is better. This completely destroys the paper/scissors/stone concept which seems to have been planned.