Excerpt from the Sector Missiles & Countermeasures thread:


Thanks for that comprehensive answer, PJ. That's real nice.

The old FAQ (I know it's out-dated) argues that one should keep power tech at least equal to the tech of beams and shields, otherwise you may find yourself without sufficient energy to operate them (or something like that). One would think that if you kept those three techs equal you should have exactly the amount of power needed to operate your beams and shields at full efficiency for one round of combat, and assuming you're fortunate enough to have no malfunctions, all of your energy should then be gone. However, I've noticed that when I have done that in the past I have NEVER used anywhere near the amount of energy I carried even when attacking a planet beyond my ability to defeat, without any tech malfunctions. Which leads me to ask:

1) Is the aforementioned argument in the FAQ just plain wrong? Does keeping the power tech level equal to beam and shield tech levels ensure a surplus of power that will never be used in a single engagement? If that's true, it would explain why such reputed players as Tarnus and Valience have advised keeping power tech level up to 10 levels lower than the beam and shield tech levels.

2) If the aforementioned argument in the FAQ is indeed erroneous, is there a way to calculate what power tech level will provide exactly the 60/40 ratio of energy needed to power the beams and shields at full efficiency for one engagement? Or at least know when your getting full efficency from your beams/shields?

3) In the past I have had shields and beams at 340-350 tech paired with power tech of about 285, and IIRC I found that my beams/shields were not functioning at full efficiency even though I was only using a fraction of what appeared to be a vast surplus of power. In other words, increasing my power tech level a little might improve the performance of my beams and shields a little bit while providing even more excess power that wasn't being used. It seemed like there is an unmentioned "hold power in reserve" factor that comes into play before the 60/40 beam-shield power allocation that is muddying the water, ensuring that you have too much energy and not enough energy both at the same time. Can you explain why this would be?

Hmmm, nobody seems to want to talk about this, but I'm not giving up. I'm going to educate myself (and anyone else interested enough to read this) as best I can even if I have to do it alone.

I've discovered that bumping my power level up to 10 levels below beams and shields ncreases the effectiveness of the beams and shields; however, bumping the power up another 5 levels from there did nothing. I also discovered that with power setting 10 tech levels below that I needed to have my energy at full capacity to enjoy the full effectiveness of the beams and shields.

But that leaves me with a huge surplus of energy after the engagement even without any tech malfunctions regardless whether or not I've managed to penetrate the planetary shields. I don't understand why I have to have 100% energy to gain the full benefit of my beams and shields when it only uses maybe 20% of it.

Why is some 80% held back in reserve? It's useless because I have to go rearm myself with more fighters and torpedoes and top off my energy level again, anyway. I do wish this was more logical. I don't see how this makes any sense no matter how you look at it, from a mechanical perspective or even a fantasy role-playing perspective.

I'd like to see (in some future version) the power tech level supplying/storing only enough energy to power at full effectiveness the systems that use it at the same tech levels, so that 100% energy would be used unless the user OPTED for a power reserve either by energy allocation or extra power tech levels. User selected energy allocations would be very nice, as well as more logical, realistic, and strategy enhancing.

"Scotty, redirect all power to the weapons! Quickly! Ready phasors and arm torpedoes!"
"But CAPTAIN! What of our shields? If that thing hits us we canna' hope to survi..."
"DO IT NOW!"
"The captain has lost his marbles - I say we hold 80% power in reserve and allocate the remaining 20% 60/40 to beams and shields..."

Only as much energy is used as is needed by the engagement. Even though the available energy is divided 40/60 that doesn't mean it will all be used. The amount of shield energy used is based upon the amount of enemy beam energy that hits the shields. If the enemy doesn't have any beam energy then 0 energy will be used on the shields.

Why is it then, that I am left with so MUCH energy when I'm not managing to penetrate the shields? It seems that my beams should be using the whole 60% allocation leaving me with less than 40%, not somewhere closer to 80%.

I have a similar problem. If I record the energy a planet has on it before attacking, attack, record the amount it used, and then look out how much it has left, it has more than it should, even without the server updating. It's a bit of a pain.