Reinforced Bulkheads & HRPs - Why?

[Falcon_D]

Hello,

I've been flying around with Mil grade armour on my Python, ever since I could afford them. The only time I take that armour of Lady Jayne is when I'm doing long range missions.
I usually stay in the fight even after my shields are gone, take a bit of hull damage while finishing off the kill. Before 1.5 I used to use SCBs quite a bit, especially when fighting Condas with their superb maneuverability and their ability to mount flak turrets. After 1.5 hit, the SCBs started causing internal heat damage every time I fired one. Tried swapping out my KWS for a heat sink launcher when I went into combat in a CZ, that seemed to solve the problem, but I had more SCB charges than I had heat sinks. I then started to realize that shields seem to go down faster now, no matter what I tried (I have a 5A prismatic and 2 Shields boosters, according to in-game ship stats this combination provides better shields than a normal 6A + 2 Shield Boosters).
So nowadays, I don't mount SCBs at all. If my shields go down, I tank with my armour till I can get away or finish of whoever is shooting at me. Let my shields recharge, and then get back into the fight. The added maneuverability without Mil grade armour seems interesting but I still remember the days before I could afford Mil grade armour, when Lady Jayne used to get swarmed and blown up before I could escape (in CZs).

Have fun, fly safe.

P.S.: Maybe I might try 6A prismatics without Mil grade. 6A prismatics with Mil grade just gimed my jump range too much. Also, I liked having 200+ tons cargo hold capacity.

[LionOfNarnia]

Came across this blog on bulkheads earlier today - worth a look in the context of this discussion, m'thinks

http://triadius.net/2015/11/25/bulkhead ... eta-1-5-3/

[AJStoner]

C rated biweaves are equivilant in strength to D rated standard shields of the same class. That why I only use them as a temporary solution while saving up for better shields myself. If they were available in all ratings I would consider using them as my standard shield type.

[charlie2alpha]

Bi-weaves cannot and will not ever be available higher than C rate, after all they are a trade off between shield strength and faster recharge. I prefer them exactly because of their faster recharge rate, the normal shield has more strength but if it's drained you'll either have to wait long to recharge or use SCBs to accelerate the process. In addition, the A rated shield plus the SCB require more power, that I prefer to allocate for better weapons.

[AJStoner]

It could work; just have them give the equivalent strength of one class lower, just like the current C rated ones. It would add more veriety and choice when designing load-outs.

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Hmmm, well I guess I can throw some bi-weaves on the Vulture and see how they compare to A-rated standard shields. But if I'm going to stick around until they recharge, then I'll probably want stronger bulkheads or HRPs. I can verify that the mirrored bulkheads don't hold up well to multi-cannons. I guess these days it requires much more of a balancing act between weight, power, protection, and maneuverability.

Lucky for me I'm going on the DW expedition for several months and can really worry about figuring it out when I get back.

[FalconFly]

With Military Bulkheads, I used to stick around in most bigger combat Ships - at least until the encounter was resolved.
Then, it was typically time to head home for repairs (and SCB rearm).

Now (V2.0 changes) I've reconfigured all Combat Ships to
- Bi-Weave Shields
- invested free Power into Thrusters, Weapons and 0A Shield Boosters
- filled up all Internals with Hull Reinforment Packages (on bigger Ships also an AFMU)
- made sure a Point Defense is equpped if feasible

Works very well, as Bi-Weave Shields rebuild in a reasonable time, yet still have reasonable strength.
After losing them, only the Hull condition decides whether I stay and fight. Most of the time, I can afford to stay and literally ignore the lost Shields.
Of course, all Combat Ships still carry Military armor.

The effect is less pronounced on small Ships, as their Hull armor Points are generally limited - they'll still suffer from attacks, which often means a trip home for repairs.
Medium or Big Ships however can take massive beatings shieldless, just gotta keep an eye on critical SubSystems once in a while.

[CMDR Abil Midena]

Yeah, I actually took out my refitted FDL last night, but I had left the Prismatic shields on because I'm not in Blue haired Bimbo's sect anymore. After an hour or so, I went back and changed the Prissy's for some bi-weave and made a few other changes with the extra power. Also added 1D and 4D HRP.

edit:
Old 2.0 FDL

New 2.0 FDL

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Yeah, now with the bi-weave, I want to try an FDL similar to yours, but with no FSDI - used one maybe twice in a year.

Btw, did you know you can disable your hangar and it still works? A bug I suppose, but I'm not complaining.

[CMDR Abil Midena]

I'm running missions for the local Fed faction to flip the system, and they ask for me to go kill someone fairly often, so the FSDI makes that easy. And those missions are listed as 'high' when it comes to rank increase, so I take them if the target is a piratey-type.

I heard about the hanger thing. Since I removed it from the FDL to make it a pure fighting ship, it's no issue. I also always set them to 2 priority, so they don't really interfere anyway.