Shields

[Ploppy]

Do Shields have any purpose in the mid to late game? In my experience up to level 22 they are completely useless.

With a recharge rate of 1 per second it will take about 4 minutes to recharge my shield whereas it seems to last about 4 secs in battle - hence I never bother recharging it.

I know you can use recharge stations & also give up slots to increase shield regen but I cant see these as viable unless they increase regen by a factor of 10.

Is there a mod to increase shield regen by say 3x? Ive only seen these as part of weapon mods which I think are quite unbalanced.

Thanks

[Razuli]

Shields are viable but you need multiple slots dedicated to them to be useful. I usually have at least 2-3 slots that are shields. Shield rechargers become a lot better when you have mutiple shields since it effects all shields, so if you have 2 shields that regenerate 1 shield per second each and a shield recharger that increases shield regeneration by 200% you'll have a total of 6 recharged per second. Keep in mind you can have multiple shield rechargers too so you can make shields regenerate quite fast. For examble, at 100 one of my ships has 3 medium shields and 3 shield rechargers for 474.18 Shield regen per second plus another 10 armor regen per second from having armor that regenerates on its own. This, combined with the occasional consumable is more than enough to become nearly unkillable even in level 200 sectors.

[Cyberneticist]

Originally Posted by Razuli

This, combined with the occasional consumable is more than enough to become nearly unkillable even in level 200 sectors.

Are there any good guides on how to build/distribute points up to this level? I usually feel quite lost even just around level 20 ...

[Razuli]

There are a few guides around, but I don't think there is anything indepth about distributing talent points. I usually just put them where I need them at the time, finding a balance between upping skills and putting points in command to get more equipment slots.
In particular what do you feel you are having trouble with the most in leveling up your ship (such as durability, damage, energy consumption, power overload etc.)?

[Ploppy]

Not having trouble as using mod to increase stat points to 8 per level whilst also using one to limit the command curve.

Wanted a mod to purely increase shield regen by x3

[joku]

Ask and ye shall receive.

[Cyberneticist]

Originally Posted by Razuli

In particular what do you feel you are having trouble with the most in leveling up your ship (such as durability, damage, energy consumption, power overload etc.)?

Mostly, my question is about how quickly to raise Command and get ship size upgrades. This is the most important aspect as Command points cannot be redistributed.

Do I rush for a bigger ship? Are there certain optimum points that I should stay at for a while?

[Razuli]

Originally Posted by Cyberneticist

Mostly, my question is about how quickly to raise Command and get ship size upgrades. This is the most important aspect as Command points cannot be redistributed.

Do I rush for a bigger ship? Are there certain optimum points that I should stay at for a while?

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this. I usually focus on command unless I need to increase my stats manually to equip a new item I want. Since you don't need to maintain stats for any non-activation equipment (activation equipment would be anything that you'd need to press on your action bar to work) you should focus on getting a decent sized crew and a collection of those medium-slot items that increase your stats and cycle them around until you can equip whatever you want.

Your crew require leveling to stay relevant, they only gain experience while they are equipped and they only get experience from enemy kills, not quests, so make sure to cycle your crew around during normal play and try not to out level your crew. If you ever need new crew, wait until you hit a sector where drakk are present. Their racial service gives you a quest to kill a boss and completing it rewards you with a drakk crew member. Drakk in general specialize in helm making it easy to upgrade your engines without having to invest a lot into helm.