Here's your litte something a bit simpler: forget about the 'weapon type vs. shield type' thingy. Use graviton shields as long as possible (up to class
, then use positron shields unless you do most of your fighting against GMG.
Reason: graviton shields are completely unbalanced. Besides being the best overall shield choice based on the weapon types AI enemies are using (none that matter use particle or plasma guns), the graviton shields have one third more capacity than the molecular/positron shields of the same class. Also, the few AI enemies that are using particle/plasma guns have been completely castrated by the ship loadout designers; just scan a Xeno Falcon to see what I mean (one class 3 gun and three class 5ers - even the Xenos themselves have class 6 particle guns, the Outcasts have matching class 8ers).
Here are some simple facts & factors worth to remember:
(1) A graviton shield has one third more capacity/regen than a positron or molecular shield of the same class.
(2) A shield takes 20% less damage from weapons against which it is most effective, 20% more from weapons against which it is weak. Yes, the relation is not symmetrical - the 'weakness' factor should have been 25% instead of 20% to match the 'strength' factor. As a result, a shield takes 50% more damage from weapons against which it is the weakest, compared to a shield of the same capacity that is strongest against these weapons.
Since gravitons have one third more capacity they are still stronger than the shield of the same class that is neutral - and would normally be second-best - against weapons that are most effective against gravitons (particle, plasma). Damage from explosives and alien/codename weapons is type-neutral, so only capacity counts here (big win for the unbalanced gravitons).
(3) A shield of higher class has 1.3689 times the capacity of a shield one class lower (same factor as armour_scale_2).
(4) A heavy fighter shield has 9% more capacity/regen than the light fighter version of that shield.
(5) A freighter shield as 27.5% more capacity/regen than the light fighter version of that shield.
(6) All NPC shields have the capacity of the light fighter graviton shield for that class, regardless of ship type or shield type. NPC shields have virtually no regen (1 per second, or something like that).
Most high-level NPCs with high-damage weapons use either tachyon/neutron weapons (Outcasts, Corsairs) or neutral weapons (Nomads), so the class 10 positron is the best overall choice when you retire and buy yourself a Ferrari. The exception are the GMG because they use powerful photon weapons that eat through positron shields as though they were tissue paper; the other factions that use photon weapons do not use high-level weapons, and the damage from laser weapons is so pityful that you can simply ignore their wielders even if they fly class 9/10 ships (Bounty Hunters, Red Hessians).
Hessian lasers do about 52% of class damage, Bounty Hunter lasers a bit less than 56%. Compare that to 80% for Corsair neutron kit, 81% for Outcast tachyon and 83% for GMG photon. Xeno/Outcast particle guns and the best codenames (DIAMONDBACK, CERBERUS) do 96%, Nomads 105%. That is, if you treat the class 10 weapons as class 9 weapons that are simply too clunky for a class 9 weapon hardpoint.
Note: you can get the nominal damage for a weapon class by computing the damage per second for a Javelin-type missile of that class or by dividing the shield damage rate of a pulse weapon by two. The only value that cannot be obtained this way is for class 4, and you can backfill that by computing the damage factor for some weapon series (say, plasma guns -> 80.0000%) using weapons of other classes and then dividing the damage of the class 4 weapon by that factor. Note: you have to use the exact values from the binary .ini files; if you use the rounded values available in-game or from the overview tables high and wide then you have to expect some round-off errors.
The lead values actually seem to have been specified by the designer as twice the class damage (i.e. exactly the same as Javelin-type missile damage or shield buster shield damage per second), as you can see from the .5 fraction that some values have. I have checked the values against the damage tables for a handful of weapon series (including plasma, outlaw particle etc.) and they match exactly to more than four decimals, i.e. up to the native precision of 32-bit floating point values.
<pre><font size=1 face=Courier>class damage
-------------
1 244.5
2 306
3 373.5
4 474
5 606
6 790.5
7 1045.5
8 1590
9 2445 </font></pre>
EDIT - removed point (7) regarding pulse weapons because it was just plain wrong.
Edited by - Sherlog on 10-09-2003 20:37:37
Thu May 22, 2003 6:57 pm 
