Topic: Can anyone explain the nature of Power Allocation in SFC3???

[Drexal]

Hi everyone, I was just wondering since I started posting here and all, if anyone might know something about a couple concepts I never quite understood in SFC, SFC3 to be exact, if its not the same in all of them. ITs about adjusting the power level to different systems in the Engineering panel. How exactly does it effect those systems?
 For instance increasing the power to the shield system, past the green to the max, does that simply make the shields, "Thicker", per say, when regenerated all the way? Or, does it make them regenerate faster? or a mixture of Both?
Then, weapons, does over powering them cause them to arm quicker, or increase their damage, or to-hit % over distance or what?  All the manual says about this is that increasing the power causes the system to run more "Efficiently". To me, that means it does all those things I mentioned, eccept for maybe increasing the to-hit on weapons. So f anyone knows, this info would be very helpful to me,..    Thanks  

[NannerSlug]

if i remember correctly it is somthing to this effect.

the more points of energy you put into the weapons gives that weapon a percentage of damage/points. for instance. if i red line my plasma torpedoe which is normally 50 points of damage, then it becomes worth 100 points of damage. same applies to primaries.

for shielding, it does not go toward regeneration, it simply puts that many more points of energy toward re-enforcement.

does that make sense?

[Drexal]

Yes it does,.. thanks for the info, so if you are not reinforcing any one shield the energy reinforces all of them?

P.S.
          I am D/ling GAW right now to try it.

[Sirgod]

I think you've chosen a good MOD to start with Drexal, and welcome to the Forums BTW.

Stephen

[TarMinyatur]

Power allocation in SFC is often a three step dance.

Step 1: Overload your Primaries to max. Fire them at mid-range. Their base hit% is 90% for all primaries of all races at all ranges. If they hit, you'll do 150% of nominal damage. As they recycle, slide the the energy level to zero. This does not increase the time it takes to be able to fire them again.

Step 2: Overload your Heavies. Fire them up close (approx 5 to 10). Their accuracy improves as you get close (less than range 10 is around 85% base hit rate). If they hit, you'll do 150% of nominal damage adjusted for range (heavies degrade with range). As they recycle, slide the energy level to zero. Keeping it high will not make the weapon's rate of fire increase.

Step 3. While your weapons are recycling, increase your allocation to shields. It will increase the rate of repair. However, avoid dropping your allocation below nominal levels at nearly all times. If you underpower your shields, a proportional percentage of their strength will vanish! A 20 point shield powered at half nominal strength only provides 10 points of protection. It's just not worth it to draw power from shields unless you know your opponents have nothing to fire.

It is more complicated than this because of the massive effect officers have on the game's mechanics and the seemingly ubiquitous cloak.

Here's a java applet that demonstrates the effect of weapon loads and other factors quantitatively.  

[Cleaven]

Here's a trick question. How do you allocate power to only overload your heavy, forward firing weapons, without turning off all the other weapons on your ship?    

[Drexal]

Quote:


Step 3. While your weapons are recycling, increase your allocation to shields. It will increase the rate of repair. However, avoid dropping your allocation below nominal levels at nearly all times. If you underpower your shields, a proportional percentage of their strength will vanish! A 20 point shield powered at half nominal strength only provides 10 points of protection. It's just not worth it to draw power from shields unless you know your opponents have nothing to fire.
 

So increasing power to shields DOES increase the rate they repair?
 

[CmdrK]

Quote:
if i remember correctly it is somthing to this effect.

the more points of energy you put into the weapons gives that weapon a percentage of damage/points. for instance. if i red line my plasma torpedoe which is normally 50 points of damage, then it becomes worth 100 points of damage. same applies to primaries.

for shielding, it does not go toward regeneration, it simply puts that many more points of energy toward re-enforcement.

does that make sense?  

I thought, in SFC3, the weapons power past the green bar was a 2 to 1 increase in damage. 2 extra power gets you 1 more point of damage. And, the extra shield power just helped the regeneration rate.

Do I have this wrong?  

[TalonClaw]

Quote:
Here's a trick question. How do you allocate power to only overload your heavy, forward firing weapons, without turning off all the other weapons on your ship?    

Ya can't.

[Death_Merchant]

Quote:

Quote:


Step 3. While your weapons are recycling, increase your allocation to shields. It will increase the rate of repair. However, avoid dropping your allocation below nominal levels at nearly all times. If you underpower your shields, a proportional percentage of their strength will vanish! A 20 point shield powered at half nominal strength only provides 10 points of protection. It's just not worth it to draw power from shields unless you know your opponents have nothing to fire.
 

So increasing power to shields DOES increase the rate they repair?
   

Yes,
IIFC, Additional power beyond the "green line" only increases the recharge rate. It does not increase the "hit points" of the shield. Shield reinforcement draws "hit points" from all other shields and directs it to the reinforced shield. No "extra" hit boxes (in SFB lingo) are ever added.

If Dave Ferrel is lurking about, he can confirm this.  

[feargusf]

I'm not entirely sure about that, based on how it looks when you're in-game. With no reinforcement, a shield that is getting power just beyond the green line (sounds reminiscent of a '70's adult film, no? ) looks to have an extra arc's width over one that is powered right to the green line. That makes me think that power allocated to shields increases the hit points of that shield. It might just be a trick of the eye, though, or just me misinterpreting what the graphic means.  

[Warden]

The way I always believed PA worked was, green line equals 100%, red line equals 150%.  So a fully overloaded plasma heavy does 30 points damage, compared to green line 20 points (extra 50%).  Overloading shields made them regen faster and reinforcing a shiled transfered a % of hit points from other shields.

That is the way I have seen it, I could be wrong.  

[Cleaven]

Quote:

Quote:
Here's a trick question. How do you allocate power to only overload your heavy, forward firing weapons, without turning off all the other weapons on your ship?    

Ya can't.  

Correct!  

[EmeraldEdge]

But why would you need to when the new way gives you so much MORE control than the old one ever did?  

[NannerSlug]

it does EE. i have vastly more control over where my power goes and what it does than in sfc2. no contest on that front.

[Cleaven]

For example it is so easy to overload your forward facing plasma and right side disrupters and put the rest of the power into the regeneration of the right and rear shields. Rear facing plasma and disrupters are held at normal charge in case a shot presents itself. At the same time you also can apply reinforcement to the right and rear shields (not a power allocation issue but handy none the less). Definitely a superior system. And the slider locks make the system so easy to manage with preset power configurations. Makes older games look so unmanagable and awkward.    

[NannerSlug]

oh lets see here, compared to where the only real power options i have is to shut it down /off.. i cannot underload it - and it requires x ammount of energy no matter what. so yeah. it is vastly superior. the closest thing to power management in sfc2 is to "prioritize" the ammount of power drain that you recieve - or to turn it off. the phaser capacitor helps somewhat - but again, is not truly part of the power management system.

in sfc3, if i want my power to go to the shields, it goes to the shields (and removes the power from other operations). if i wasn the power to go to the heavies or primaries, again, i have that option (which includes overloading every type of phaser - not just my heaves - again, only an option in sfc3.

so yes, the system in sfc3 is superior to that in sfc2 for those of us who like to move power where we want to.

no arguments on the slider lock, i agree, that is somthing that needed to have been put in.

[TalonClaw]

I only wish the power allocation was a little more friendly in combat.  One key presets would have been cool here.

Getting that slider in the right place at the right time can be quite a task during combat.

 

[NannerSlug]

yes it can be. i agree.. presets would be super nice. (as would a lock on say, shielding. )

[Cleaven]

Quote:
oh lets see here, compared to where the only real power options i have is to shut it down /off.. i cannot underload it - and it requires x ammount of energy no matter what. so yeah. it is vastly superior. the closest thing to power management in sfc2 is to "prioritize" the ammount of power drain that you recieve - or to turn it off. the phaser capacitor helps somewhat - but again, is not truly part of the power management system.

in sfc3, if i want my power to go to the shields, it goes to the shields (and removes the power from other operations). if i wasn the power to go to the heavies or primaries, again, i have that option (which includes overloading every type of phaser - not just my heaves - again, only an option in sfc3.

so yes, the system in sfc3 is superior to that in sfc2 for those of us who like to move power where we want to.

no arguments on the slider lock, i agree, that is somthing that needed to have been put in.  

Your joking right, because none of this helps in the tactical power allocation I described, because IT'S NOT POSSIBLE in the new game but is standard in the old system, without using sliders (except for the shield regeneration which is lab controlled).

And you say "in sfc3, if i want my power to go to the shields, it goes to the shields", yep it's all or nothing. No subtlety just the gaming equivalent of a sledgehammer. Also the new system is so friendly that you are able to specify which shields are regenerated ahead of the others or at least it's a nice thought but ... IT'S NOT POSSIBLE. You can't set up the power allocation to be optimal for a specific attack pattern. There is just one choice for ALL heavies and a similar choice for ALL disrupters.  

The only advantage for the new system is the ability to fire underloads, but big deal. Who cares. By the time you get around to firing underloads the opening shots of the battle are over. Of course what would be really handy for my attack pattern is to have the right side disrupters overloaded and the left side underloaded, but guess what ..... IT'S NOT POSSIBLE.

So if you have something of substantive tactical use to say about how useful the new system is then go ahead, otherwise your just making noise about something which could have been better, but isn't.    


Edit: Just think if there were five buttons underneath each slider, one for "all", and the other four linked to the user defined weapons groups or shields 1-4. Everything I described in my attack profile would be possible, no problems. It's just missing the last thing to make it better, and instead it's a superior system which is hamstrung back to being second best because it skimps on the practicalities. So sad.

[Drexal]

Hi everyone, I was just wondering since I started posting here and all, if anyone might know something about a couple concepts I never quite understood in SFC, SFC3 to be exact, if its not the same in all of them. ITs about adjusting the power level to different systems in the Engineering panel. How exactly does it effect those systems?
 For instance increasing the power to the shield system, past the green to the max, does that simply make the shields, "Thicker", per say, when regenerated all the way? Or, does it make them regenerate faster? or a mixture of Both?
Then, weapons, does over powering them cause them to arm quicker, or increase their damage, or to-hit % over distance or what?  All the manual says about this is that increasing the power causes the system to run more "Efficiently". To me, that means it does all those things I mentioned, eccept for maybe increasing the to-hit on weapons. So f anyone knows, this info would be very helpful to me,..    Thanks  

[NannerSlug]

if i remember correctly it is somthing to this effect.

the more points of energy you put into the weapons gives that weapon a percentage of damage/points. for instance. if i red line my plasma torpedoe which is normally 50 points of damage, then it becomes worth 100 points of damage. same applies to primaries.

for shielding, it does not go toward regeneration, it simply puts that many more points of energy toward re-enforcement.

does that make sense?

[Drexal]

Yes it does,.. thanks for the info, so if you are not reinforcing any one shield the energy reinforces all of them?

P.S.
          I am D/ling GAW right now to try it.

[Sirgod]

I think you've chosen a good MOD to start with Drexal, and welcome to the Forums BTW.

Stephen

[TarMinyatur]

Power allocation in SFC is often a three step dance.

Step 1: Overload your Primaries to max. Fire them at mid-range. Their base hit% is 90% for all primaries of all races at all ranges. If they hit, you'll do 150% of nominal damage. As they recycle, slide the the energy level to zero. This does not increase the time it takes to be able to fire them again.

Step 2: Overload your Heavies. Fire them up close (approx 5 to 10). Their accuracy improves as you get close (less than range 10 is around 85% base hit rate). If they hit, you'll do 150% of nominal damage adjusted for range (heavies degrade with range). As they recycle, slide the energy level to zero. Keeping it high will not make the weapon's rate of fire increase.

Step 3. While your weapons are recycling, increase your allocation to shields. It will increase the rate of repair. However, avoid dropping your allocation below nominal levels at nearly all times. If you underpower your shields, a proportional percentage of their strength will vanish! A 20 point shield powered at half nominal strength only provides 10 points of protection. It's just not worth it to draw power from shields unless you know your opponents have nothing to fire.

It is more complicated than this because of the massive effect officers have on the game's mechanics and the seemingly ubiquitous cloak.

Here's a java applet that demonstrates the effect of weapon loads and other factors quantitatively.  

[Cleaven]

Here's a trick question. How do you allocate power to only overload your heavy, forward firing weapons, without turning off all the other weapons on your ship?    

[Drexal]

Quote:


Step 3. While your weapons are recycling, increase your allocation to shields. It will increase the rate of repair. However, avoid dropping your allocation below nominal levels at nearly all times. If you underpower your shields, a proportional percentage of their strength will vanish! A 20 point shield powered at half nominal strength only provides 10 points of protection. It's just not worth it to draw power from shields unless you know your opponents have nothing to fire.
 

So increasing power to shields DOES increase the rate they repair?
 

[CmdrK]

Quote:
if i remember correctly it is somthing to this effect.

the more points of energy you put into the weapons gives that weapon a percentage of damage/points. for instance. if i red line my plasma torpedoe which is normally 50 points of damage, then it becomes worth 100 points of damage. same applies to primaries.

for shielding, it does not go toward regeneration, it simply puts that many more points of energy toward re-enforcement.

does that make sense?  

I thought, in SFC3, the weapons power past the green bar was a 2 to 1 increase in damage. 2 extra power gets you 1 more point of damage. And, the extra shield power just helped the regeneration rate.

Do I have this wrong?  

[TalonClaw]

Quote:
Here's a trick question. How do you allocate power to only overload your heavy, forward firing weapons, without turning off all the other weapons on your ship?    

Ya can't.

[Death_Merchant]

Quote:

Quote:


Step 3. While your weapons are recycling, increase your allocation to shields. It will increase the rate of repair. However, avoid dropping your allocation below nominal levels at nearly all times. If you underpower your shields, a proportional percentage of their strength will vanish! A 20 point shield powered at half nominal strength only provides 10 points of protection. It's just not worth it to draw power from shields unless you know your opponents have nothing to fire.
 

So increasing power to shields DOES increase the rate they repair?
   

Yes,
IIFC, Additional power beyond the "green line" only increases the recharge rate. It does not increase the "hit points" of the shield. Shield reinforcement draws "hit points" from all other shields and directs it to the reinforced shield. No "extra" hit boxes (in SFB lingo) are ever added.

If Dave Ferrel is lurking about, he can confirm this.  

[feargusf]

I'm not entirely sure about that, based on how it looks when you're in-game. With no reinforcement, a shield that is getting power just beyond the green line (sounds reminiscent of a '70's adult film, no? ) looks to have an extra arc's width over one that is powered right to the green line. That makes me think that power allocated to shields increases the hit points of that shield. It might just be a trick of the eye, though, or just me misinterpreting what the graphic means.  

[Warden]

The way I always believed PA worked was, green line equals 100%, red line equals 150%.  So a fully overloaded plasma heavy does 30 points damage, compared to green line 20 points (extra 50%).  Overloading shields made them regen faster and reinforcing a shiled transfered a % of hit points from other shields.

That is the way I have seen it, I could be wrong.  

[Cleaven]

Quote:

Quote:
Here's a trick question. How do you allocate power to only overload your heavy, forward firing weapons, without turning off all the other weapons on your ship?    

Ya can't.  

Correct!  

[EmeraldEdge]

But why would you need to when the new way gives you so much MORE control than the old one ever did?  

[NannerSlug]

it does EE. i have vastly more control over where my power goes and what it does than in sfc2. no contest on that front.

[Cleaven]

For example it is so easy to overload your forward facing plasma and right side disrupters and put the rest of the power into the regeneration of the right and rear shields. Rear facing plasma and disrupters are held at normal charge in case a shot presents itself. At the same time you also can apply reinforcement to the right and rear shields (not a power allocation issue but handy none the less). Definitely a superior system. And the slider locks make the system so easy to manage with preset power configurations. Makes older games look so unmanagable and awkward.    

[NannerSlug]

oh lets see here, compared to where the only real power options i have is to shut it down /off.. i cannot underload it - and it requires x ammount of energy no matter what. so yeah. it is vastly superior. the closest thing to power management in sfc2 is to "prioritize" the ammount of power drain that you recieve - or to turn it off. the phaser capacitor helps somewhat - but again, is not truly part of the power management system.

in sfc3, if i want my power to go to the shields, it goes to the shields (and removes the power from other operations). if i wasn the power to go to the heavies or primaries, again, i have that option (which includes overloading every type of phaser - not just my heaves - again, only an option in sfc3.

so yes, the system in sfc3 is superior to that in sfc2 for those of us who like to move power where we want to.

no arguments on the slider lock, i agree, that is somthing that needed to have been put in.

[TalonClaw]

I only wish the power allocation was a little more friendly in combat.  One key presets would have been cool here.

Getting that slider in the right place at the right time can be quite a task during combat.

 

[NannerSlug]

yes it can be. i agree.. presets would be super nice. (as would a lock on say, shielding. )

[Cleaven]

Quote:
oh lets see here, compared to where the only real power options i have is to shut it down /off.. i cannot underload it - and it requires x ammount of energy no matter what. so yeah. it is vastly superior. the closest thing to power management in sfc2 is to "prioritize" the ammount of power drain that you recieve - or to turn it off. the phaser capacitor helps somewhat - but again, is not truly part of the power management system.

in sfc3, if i want my power to go to the shields, it goes to the shields (and removes the power from other operations). if i wasn the power to go to the heavies or primaries, again, i have that option (which includes overloading every type of phaser - not just my heaves - again, only an option in sfc3.

so yes, the system in sfc3 is superior to that in sfc2 for those of us who like to move power where we want to.

no arguments on the slider lock, i agree, that is somthing that needed to have been put in.  

Your joking right, because none of this helps in the tactical power allocation I described, because IT'S NOT POSSIBLE in the new game but is standard in the old system, without using sliders (except for the shield regeneration which is lab controlled).

And you say "in sfc3, if i want my power to go to the shields, it goes to the shields", yep it's all or nothing. No subtlety just the gaming equivalent of a sledgehammer. Also the new system is so friendly that you are able to specify which shields are regenerated ahead of the others or at least it's a nice thought but ... IT'S NOT POSSIBLE. You can't set up the power allocation to be optimal for a specific attack pattern. There is just one choice for ALL heavies and a similar choice for ALL disrupters.  

The only advantage for the new system is the ability to fire underloads, but big deal. Who cares. By the time you get around to firing underloads the opening shots of the battle are over. Of course what would be really handy for my attack pattern is to have the right side disrupters overloaded and the left side underloaded, but guess what ..... IT'S NOT POSSIBLE.

So if you have something of substantive tactical use to say about how useful the new system is then go ahead, otherwise your just making noise about something which could have been better, but isn't.    


Edit: Just think if there were five buttons underneath each slider, one for "all", and the other four linked to the user defined weapons groups or shields 1-4. Everything I described in my attack profile would be possible, no problems. It's just missing the last thing to make it better, and instead it's a superior system which is hamstrung back to being second best because it skimps on the practicalities. So sad.