How does a maxed Engine perform vs a maxed Shield system?

[CaptainManic]

How does a maxed Engine perform vs a maxed Shield system?

Assuming you may only choose to max out one system over the other and the crew, which one is desirable?

[Leem]

In my opinion, this completely depends on your complete ship setup.

For example, if I have a cloaking system, I will generally aim for 40% evasion tops, since the cloaking will up this to 100%. If I never manage to get cloaking however, I feel that being able to max, or close to max, your engine is preferable to maxing shields, since a missed shot will not remove a layer of shields anyways.

When I do find cloaking , I often find 3 layers of shields enough as well, but if I have tons of scrap to spend, I will go for that 4th layer to make myself nigh invincible.

Most of the times I end up having 3 layers of shields and somewhere between 40 - 50% evasion, this seems to work for me 9 out of 10 times in normal mode.

So I'd say always aim for 40ish% of evasion and 3 layers of shields at least. Anything extra is a welcome gift, but IF you have/want to max either of them, max the engine without cloaking and shields with cloaking.

As a sidenote: Always make sure you have sufficient weapons/drones and enough power to sustain these, even if it means removing power from medbay/o2 from time to time, but this is common sense for most players.

TLDR: with cloaking; shields, without cloaking; engine.

[Smichal]

I usually find that investing in the Drone system + Defense Drone I gives the best results in terms of reliable and easy to get defense.

Then I go for Shields level 2 or 3 and after that I go for engines.

[actionhero112]

Shields > Engine generally.

This because it is very easy to completely mitigate enemy threats by investing in shields, and while I will invest in engines by the end of the game, by no means will I invest in engines before the 5th sector, or before all 8 levels of shields. The game is not filled with enemies that can break through 4 shields, and even in the rare occurrence in which they appear, usually they fire unevenly, allowing your shields to still tank the hits. I've lost games because of evasion, never because the shields didn't fulfill what they were supposed to do.

Though Buying a Drone Bay and getting a defense drone is usually priority number 1. Not getting hit by missiles lessens the amount of repairs I will have to do. Especially considering I'm essentially paying 30 scrap for a drone bay, factoring in the Defense Drone I's cost that I usually get for free.

But to answer your question, shields. Every time.

[Kenright]

Shields > Engine generally.

This because it is very easy to completely mitigate enemy threats by investing in shields, and while I will invest in engines by the end of the game, by no means will I invest in engines before the 5th sector, or before all 8 levels of shields. The game is not filled with enemies that can break through 4 shields, and even in the rare occurrence in which they appear, usually they fire unevenly, allowing your shields to still tank the hits. I've lost games because of evasion, never because the shields didn't fulfill what they were supposed to do.

Though Buying a Drone Bay and getting a defense drone is usually priority number 1. Not getting hit by missiles lessens the amount of repairs I will have to do. Especially considering I'm essentially paying 30 scrap for a drone bay, factoring in the Defense Drone I's cost that I usually get for free.

But to answer your question, shields. Every time.

*is automated drone with bombs
*bombs shield generator
*shields are down
*everyone dies as shield generator is desperately getting repaired

Shields are important, (and obviously the above is hyperbole) but engines are important as well. Evasion will prevent you from having to worry about bombs and missiles as much, which can turn your fancy level four shields into slag. You can mitigate most threats with level 2 shields, and almost all of them with level 3 shields. But a single missile at the wrong time can kill you if you rely on shields too much.

Basically, I upgrade shields to level 2 ASAP, and then focus on other things including getting evasion to at least 35%. After that I upgrade shields one step further and go back to engines or whatever else needs upgrading.

[Fredchuckdave]

I find anything above 3 shields is next to useless; it's somewhat mandatory to get evasion up to 40% so the effect of cloaking is maximized. After hitting the evasion diminishing returns wall I generally focus on other systems. 2 shields as soon as possible, find a ship that can't cut through them to level up your evasion, then either save scrap for shops or just go evasion up until you have 5 bars (45% evade with leveled pilot/engines). High evasion is nice, but a defense drone is better if you ultimately want to avoid taking any damage; but good weapons are still better.

[actionhero112]

*is automated drone with bombs
*bombs shield generator
*shields are down
*everyone dies as shield generator is desperately getting repaired

Shields are important, (and obviously the above is hyperbole) but engines are important as well. Evasion will prevent you from having to worry about bombs and missiles as much, which can turn your fancy level four shields into slag. You can mitigate most threats with level 2 shields, and almost all of them with level 3 shields. But a single missile at the wrong time can kill you if you rely on shields too much.

Basically, I upgrade shields to level 2 ASAP, and then focus on other things including getting evasion to at least 35%. After that I upgrade shields one step further and go back to engines or whatever else needs upgrading.

My rebuttal:



In all seriousness

-1 shot to your pilot loses all your evasion, your shield can take several shots (upgrading your pilot becomes necessary, but that's just throwing scrap into a deep, dark scrap pit)
-Lots of rooms on your ship, getting hit in your shields, while an occurrence, will rarely happen. (Maybe twice in a full game)

Also, I don't know why the ship being automated was important to your point, but I digress. Your scenario could indeed happen. Any number of scenarios could happen. A mantis boarding party could force your pilot from its seat, causing you to be hit with a 2 burst lasers IIs right to the engine. Upgrading your shields is not an "I win" button. It doesn't solve all problems. Hopefully you can admit that upgrading your engines early on is not a "I win" button either.

Putting forth the worst case scenario doesn't prove anything, other than you have an extensive imagination put to use on how you can die in a video game. But even you, who proclaim upgrading your engines over your shields, upgrade your shields ASAP, and I wonder what that says about the validity of your argument.

In fact there is a thread actually dedicated to how difficult it is to go through the game without shields, so you'll forgive me for thinking you insane, because of your choice to choose a fully upgraded engine over fully upgraded shields.

[UltraMantis]

Shields. They need to be at lv4 because some damn ion or asteroid or lucky shot will strip them down a few levels. But as long as you can manage 1 or 2 levels to be up all times, you will not take damage or fear beams.

I never neglect engines though, because avoiding fire puts less strain on the shields and because missiles will happily ignore them. Moar engines also means much faster FTL recharge and there are enemies waaay tougher than the boss you can bump into. Engines bonuses decrease as you upgrade so that's why i tend to pick shields over engines.

Both are needed if you wish to survive.

[OmegaJasam]

Due to bombs, and that 5 shot lazer, (and final boss) I would /never/ neglect engines.

Especially if a drone bay doens't show up so missiles are a threat.

40% evasion is a sweet spot I find, thats usualy enough for you to dodge enough lasor fire for 3 sheilds to hold up (for that large chunck of the game you are saving for the 4th) and gives a decent return in dodged bombs. _clock = no damage.

I think the general rule is I would rather have a defence drone or cloak then a 4th sheild.

[Brick]

Well, I know this doesn't really follow the question but what is better- a really big sword or really strong armour? With a really big sword you do lots of damage, but take lots of damage- with really strong armour you don't take much damage but you don't deal it out either... So the answer is to have a medium sword and medium armour.

Likewise with shields and engine, they work best when used together.

I have fought many battles where I just sat there without firing weapons to see if my ship could take a beating.

With a strong shield the ship was totally immune to all enemies that didn't have missiles or could fire enough shots to get though. It was also immune to beam weapons. But missiles totally crippled it.
Also I found that when I reached ships that could beat 2 shields they tended to beat 3 shields just as easily, just a little slower and in fact 4 shields are no trouble to enemies with multiple weapons.

With strong engines the ship tended to take more damage than with the strong shields, and there was never a situation where the ship was totally immune, but against missiles it faired much much better than the shields.

So, assuming an enemy with laser and missile- would you rather avoid 100% of the damage 50% of the time or 50% of the damage 100% of the time?

When I spent half my money on shields and half my money on engines the ship lasted better in all situations, so combining the two is always the best result for all situations.