I've recently been getting better scores on my eXode evacuations -- primarily due to one change. I'm using and actually paying attention to my shields. At first, shields seemed like little more than yet another distraction that I couldn't cope with. They also pulled one person (or more) away from the "important" tasks. I couldn't have been more wrong.
The shields can buy you a lot of additional time to get those important tasks done. There's also the fact that time under fire adds to your score. You do, however, need to know what you're doing, be somewhat careful and pay attention when you are using them. It took me a while to figure how (and how not) to use them -- so hopefully I can save some of you the learning curve and frustration.
Overview
Managing the shields requires brain-wiring to the ship's defense system. This can only be done in the cockpit. It is extremely intense and increases stress level a lot (so watch that bottom blue bar or your defender will go into shock and be unresponsive). Further, whenever your ship takes damage, your defender might take damage as well. Normally, the first hit or two aren't bad, but the time spent wired in and the stress damage can rapidly decrease your effectiveness -- so once things start going bad, your defender can die very quickly. I have never had a defender last anywhere close to the 300-second duration of the order -- though I suspect that someone like an Elite Scarlet Sarah could do it.Planning to rotate more than one person through the shields is a very good idea. It may be obvious, but don't start managing your shields until the klaxons go off and the shooting actually starts. Indeed, I've been experimenting with not starting until after the first hit. Star Fleet is quite effective for a while and I'm guessing that it is very worthwhile to save your defender's high quality time for when it is really needed.
Choosing Your Personnel
The most important considerations for shield duty is Warfare or Signals skill, Discipline and Toughness. The particular algorithms that you need to know are as follows:Cancel Hit chances will be the same as the Warfare/Signals grade of the defender. Given a B in Warfare or Signals (meaning between 60% and 80%), you'll initially have good odds of 60%-80% to outright nullify a potential hit.
In addition, any damage received if the hit was not canceled will also be reduced by a percentage equal to the Warfare/Signals grade. So, if your ship is going to receive 20 points of damage, with a 60% Warfare/Signals, it will instead receive 8 points of damage.
Most crew have about 60 - 150 initial stress resistance; this is calculated with Discipline grade * 2. For the duration of this order, every second, your crew will test his “Toughness/Resistant” grade and every failure will give 1 stress damage. Reaching zero puts your defender into shock and renders them useless.
Most crew have about 60 - 150 health; this is calculated with Toughness grade * 2. For the duration of this order, if your ship takes damage, your crew must test his “Toughness/Resistant” grade (minus the calculated damage) and, of course, failure gives immediate damage to health and stress. Reaching zero health kills your defender.
Many officers and crew have the Warfare skill -- fortunately they are spread across Origins with many being versatile. Only the Military Signals Specialist has Signals. The Discipline Trait is held by only Admiral Valro, Nash, the Drachian Colonel, Tyron, the Drachian Commissar and the Drachian Trooper. Other officers do have a bonus as well though. The Tough/Resistant characters are Alana Vos, Stug, the Special Infiltration Agent, Scarlet Sarah, the Suntek Collector and the Triskan Survivor, I would rate Scarlet Sarah with a Repentant Pirate Origin as the absolute best Anchor leg for the shield relay as she is the only one to have all three traits and has a QL of 8.
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The bad news, of course, is that these are exactly the same people that you want protecting your Passenger Escorts and your Cargo Loaders. Therefore, what I have taken to doing is assigning them based upon their initial location.
Other Considerations
One thing that I have definitely learned NOT to do is to stick around until it appears that less than four hits will destroy the ship (as you might be tempted to do to maximize your score or what you can get out). Once you get down into that range, things tend to go south very quickly. Unless you have another defender ready to immediately swap in, you have the multiple problems that your defender has likely lost most of their effectiveness, might be near death and, most importantly, that is when Hyperdrive damage seems all too frequent. Hyperdrive damage makes your drive inoperable for some number of seconds -- and I have been the victim of chains of such damage holding me in place through my destruction.
So, if you haven't been using your shields, try them today. I think that you'll be very happy with the results.
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