Inertial Stablizer same tables as Shields?

[Groc]

I was reading the tecnology tables of Jon Sullivan that ccmpare the effectiveness of different weapons at different ranges. When building a medium ship I had the choice of an using: 1) an inertial stablaizer, 2) a combination of armor+engines+manuverability to get to a beam defense rate (of 4 in this case - because it was early in the game). Neither of these methods used a shield at all.

My question is will the charts apply to defense rates that are created by using an alternative way of getting that defense rate - the same as when the defense rate was created by having a shield (of 4, in this case)? In other words is a shield of 4 the same as a defense rate of 4, or is one better than the other? All other things, such as ship size, being equal.

This is for MOO I.

Thanks for any responses.

[vmxa1]

Well shields figure in damage done calulations. Stabilizer and manuverability figure in combat resolution.

So to me I would rather have the stabilizer

[DaveV]

Groc - your defense rating affects the probablity that the attacker will hit. If his attack equals your defense, he has a 50% chance to hit; for every point higher or lower, the chance goes up or down by 10%. If he hits, your shields will block damage, so a shield of 4 will make you invulnerable to lasers and nuclear missiles, but will only block half the damage of a Hyper-X missile.

If increasing your defense dramatically lowers your opponent's chance to hit (say he has an attack of 1; raising beam defense from 2 to 4 reduces his chance to hit from 40% to 20%), then it's probably worthwhile. If your opponent has weak beam and/or missile weapons, the shields are probably more useful.

[Ljube]

Experience has thought me that stabilizers are the best bet.

I rarely use any shields and with small ship designs, for which the space is at a premium, I never use shields. But I always use inertial stabilizer and better maneuvrability for beam evasion.

[Aabraxan]

Originally posted by Ljube-ljcvetko
I rarely use any shields and with small ship designs, for which the space is at a premium, I never use shields. But I always use inertial stabilizer and better maneuvrability for beam evasion.

When I've gone to design ships, I'm automatically upgraded to the best shields I've got. Do you mean that you don't research shields, or is there some way to design a ship without them, regardless of where your research stands?

[vmxa1]

In Moo2 you can go to the design screen and select a ship. Then select on shields and you can choose any shield you know or no shields for the build. The same as no comps for scouts ships.

[Aabraxan]

Well, I'll be . . . Never knew that you could change the type of computer, either. Not that I ever worried about it much, as I always wanted the best shields and computers that I could get. But since I'm currently experimenting & just about ready to attack Antares in my current game, I'll have to put some of this to use.