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i was playing as tec in a lager 1 on 1 game and i had the planet sheild gen on my home world because the ai was kicking my butt. it didnt seem to stop the bombardment very much and the tech was at max level. why is that?
All it does is reduce bombing damage by a certain percentage depending on the level of research done. The unupgraded SG reduces bombing damage by 30%, 50% after 1 point in Superior Planet Shields, and 80% after SPS is maxed. It doesn't actually stop ships from using planetary bombardment weapons if that's what you're trying to get at.
Given time, the planet will still die to a prolonged bombardment, or if the AI destroys the SG.
Planetary Shield Generators are borderline worthless. If your enemy blindsides you with a massive force, they'll kill the shield generator anyways. If it's just a small raiding party, you'd have been better off building other types of defenses to kill the raiding units. There's really no purpose for shield generators.
they are useful when dealing with AIs (which most people fight against) as the AIs usually will send a group of siege frigates at you will sending a massive fleet to occupy you. The PSGs are useful then. When playtesting my mod of Powerful Pirates I usually use TEC for just such a reason, the other races fall too fast to the upgraded pirate siege craft (note to self need to nerf that)
You can defeat the AI siege frigate raiders more easily and cheaply by spending that money on turrets or hangers. Heck, I usually just leave ten or so scouts on defensive duty and that cleans them up just fine. You'd have a point if the shield generator were cheap or available early in the tech tree, but it isn't. It's a high tech structure that's overpriced for what it delivers.
true, though for the record I must point out that I found it useful mostly against heavily modified pirate siege frigates which laugh at your suggested defenses, but then again I did design them that way
I haven't played against your super siege frigates; they might actually give the shield generator a purpose, but such a unit doesn't exist in the real game. If it were possible to cheaply hit a planet for a massive amount of bombard damage in a short period of time, then the shield generator would be quite worthwhile. As it stands, however, orbital structures are arguably far more vulnerable than the planet itself to harassers. Bombard capabilities are generally expensive and inflexible, so it's much easier to target your harassment on orbital structures.
While you could build a dense formation of static defense around the shield generator (obviously how it was meant to be used) this has two big issues. First of all, static defense in general is overpriced and the starbase is really the only thing that gives you good bang for your buck. The second problem is that the starbase itself has an upgrade called "auxiliary government" that makes it so your planet cannot be lost due to bombardment. While you can still lose population (and therefor tax income) this is a far more reliable alternative to shield generators, and to take it offline you have to kill the starbase.
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