Subset Games Forum

Enemy ships can have 5 shields now? That just feels unfair!
The good thing about the game was that the enemies could have luck an generate a better ship than yours, but they had the same upper limits then your ships. Enemies with 5 shields are just bullshit.

Ok, breathing in, breathing out...
So i saw a 5 shield enemy ship today, which ruined the best run i had in a while. FUN!
I was in the 6th sector, 2 Flak I, 1 Burst Mk. II, Full shields, 5 engines and a good amount of scrap hoping for cloaking in a shop.
And then that bastard came. Not only with 5 shields, but also a freakin pegasus missile. So i was hammering on his shields, with barely a chance of piercing them, despite my pretty good setup, while he just slowly tore my ship appart with his pegasus missile.
I feel cheated now. 5 shields is really bullshit.
And this was a normal run, no hard mode.

Haven't noticed this while playing exclusively on hard, but I have to say it wasn't just the 5 shields that ruined your day, it was predominantly your choice to not run away even though you couldn't damage them. It was one of my more common mistakes, now there's few ships I've yet to see numerous times, so it's easier to assess whether it's worth fighting.

Even on hard difficulty you can afford to run away from often several battles or more per game, and indeed have to run away more than normal. Often its because of long battles with missiles, like your example ( 3 or 4 shields before your weapon layout is ready for it).

Also, I think there's always been non-boss ships which had more than 8 energy worth of weapons.

First missile hit my cockpit and second missile hit engines while setting the whole room on fire. There was no way to escape.

"So i was hammering on his shields, with barely a chance of piercing them, despite my pretty good setup, while he just slowly tore my ship appart with his pegasus missile."

From what it seems the length of the battle was, it's hard to imagine you didn't have time to repair your systems and escape . One pegasus is not gonna be inescapable. Deplete the fire by emptying the room of oxygen, then send 2-4 crew into the engine room. First priority against missiles you cant disable should always be to get your dodge systems up again.

was it an auto-ship? because of the way the game is coded, each enemy ship gets a "preset" number of powerbars/upgrades/systems they can have on their ship. since auto scout have no need for o2,medbay,doors,teleporter, or anything else necessary on a manned ship, the late game ones usually have 5 shields, 7-8 engines, or super powerful weapons. also, having 5 shields is possible, but it was never implemented on to player ships, although some mods make use of that. quirky bug, if a ship has more than 4 shields in a asteroid belt, it will cause a "super storm" of meteors that will kill your ship in 30 seconds. (not sure if they fixed this).

Enemies with 5 shields are not a new thing. Before AE, rebel AI ships could appear with 5 shields in later sectors. I don't recall seeing any other ships with 5 shields. It can be a little rough, but honestly, pegasus missiles take like 22 seconds to charge, you could have run.

5 shield enemies are super rare but have allways been around. The AE update probably didn't change anything about them.

2 Flaks + BL 2 against slow Pegasus and 5 Shields? I'm not sure what could have gone so wrong except getting hit repeatedly in the weapon system (which actually allows you to escape faster).

You did fire Flaks before the BL? Because if not - there's your problem (aside from not running away).

Also: People are already complaining that missiles aren't useful enough. The odd high-shield ship makes it nice to have one in reserve.

Enemy ships having 5 layers of shields is nothing new.