Shield+ drones vs Defense 2 drones?

[ComaPrison]

ITT we talk about our preferences regarding these two different types of drones. At first I thought, "wow, shield+ drone sounds awesome", but the slow rate of shield charge makes me rethink ever using it again. Defense 2 drones just seems infinitely more useful. The only edge the shield+ drone has over the defense 2 drone is that you're protected from transporters while the shield is up.

[Leylite]

Yeah, I think all other things being equal, the high reload rate of the Defense II, coupled with the fact that it can shoot down things like boarding drones and ion blasts make it more effective than the Shield Overcharger.

However, this is FTL! The game is all about the little minutiae and interesting details that affect how you deal with particular circumstances! For example, the Defense II drone can't shoot down those pesky Ion Bombs, which a Zoltan Shield will stop cold.

Also, it's a one-in-a-million occurrence, but the Defense II drone can't help you against enemy beams (such as, say, a Glaive Beam) while a Zoltan Shield pip will block the first half of the beam, even if your conventional shields are down. (You'll still take damage from the latter half of the Glaive Beam if you don't have 3 shields up by the time the Zoltan Shield pip is destroyed, though.)

[5thHorseman]

Yeah the one time I liked my Shield+ drone was when I also had a Zoltan shield. And even then it was just okay. Kept the Zoltan shield up a few extra hits.

[Twinge]

In general feels very weak. Seems like Shield Drone should be 2 power and Shield+ only 1 power -- I'm not sure how exactly it effects things letting the AI have 2-power Shield Drones though.

[stvip]

The Shield Drone can synchronize perfectly with an Ion Pulsar, such that each pulse takes down the one shield bar it just recharged leaving the rest of your systems intact, while playing havoc with the enemy. It's beautiful to behold.

Usually, however, I'd favour a Defense II over a Shield, and a Defense I over a Defense II. The Shield does shine when combined with a Zoltan Shield and, especially, Cloak.

[PrinceStolos]

I would prefer Shield Drones over Defense Drones the same way I would prefer Engines over Shields; it is nicer to have the chance to avoid more types of damage than being able to reliably stop selective attacks. However, I feel Shield drones would only be reliably more effective than a Defense II if you were running multiple ones at a time.

But why not both? A Shield/Shield+ combined with a Defense II is an excellent synergy. Combine with both great Shields and Engines, and it's very unlikely you'll be hit by anything short of an ASB.

Only in a perfect world, of course. Ah well, we can dream, can't we?

[project_mercy]

Defense II will fire roughly every second. I've seen it almost keep up with a fully spun up Vulcan with a fully leveled gunner. Shield+ only pops every 8 seconds. Could you imagine in defense drones only shot every 8 seconds? Nobody would use them.

It does gain the advantage that it's only consumed when evasion fails, unlike the Defense drones which constantly fire. But since they're 8x faster, unless you have a full-time cloak there's no way evasion is going to make up for the timer.

It would be a lot more compelling if the shield time dropped to 6 seconds and add in a Shield Drone II at 3 energy and 4 seconds. That would be something to actually mutter about instead of turning the enemy ship into a loot pinata. It would also dredge Stealth C up from the cesspool it's at now to only mildly terrible (because at 6 seconds, you could basically pop 2 shields in the recycle of a pulse 2, or almost 2 for a pulse 1)

Also, while I'm arguing about drones, anti combat drones need to be 2 energy.

[original]

I don't know what ship I was using, but for some strange reason my Defence 2 drone just couldn't shoot any lasers at all. It kept missing. It could shoot down slower projectiles like ions and missiles, but not lasers.

It was bad enough that I wanted to downgrade to Defence 1.

[project_mercy]

I don't know what ship I was using, but for some strange reason my Defence 2 drone just couldn't shoot any lasers at all. It kept missing. It could shoot down slower projectiles like ions and missiles, but not lasers.

It was bad enough that I wanted to downgrade to Defence 1.

I always want to downgrade to defense 1. I've never been in a position where the laser-shooting aspect of a defense II was useful to me. All it does is tie it up from shooting something useful.

[Twinge]

I don't know what ship I was using, but for some strange reason my Defence 2 drone just couldn't shoot any lasers at all. It kept missing. It could shoot down slower projectiles like ions and missiles, but not lasers.

It feels even less accurate than it was in original FTL, but I see no reason this should be the case - the projectile is the same speed; the only difference is that it takes longer to fire again (and costs 1 less power). Might have to toy with testing this a bit - the Anti-Drone Drone is horribly inaccurate as well.