Damage vs Shields

[Skodmunk]

Ok, so I'm just getting to know this game.
But could someone please explain to me how an Dreadnought (which is described as Excellent against shields) only does 800 damage against an AI shield which has 56 MILLION HP.

 

[RCIX]

Well, um, see, all starships (except raid starships, i don't know why) got nerfed against shields, because they used to be a viable substitute for bombers in attack groups. However raid starships are an effective substitute for most attack forces i've found so far. Build 3 to 6 then go on a rampage - you should be able to plow through most of a MkII planet without losing one (send it to a friendly planet if it needs repair)

[Revenantus]

RCIX is correct. All starships, except raid and leech starships which have a 20x damage bonus, have had their damage bonus against forcefields removed. The description of the dreadnought has not been updated to reflect this, and should have been - sorry. I'll flag this for update. Thanks for reporting the issue.

EDIT: In addition, the light-flag-zenith-spire starship chain has a damage penalty against force fields.

[Nibelung44]

*refraining from posting an acidic comment related to the hard-coded damages coeff*

[Skodmunk]

Thx for the reply's, I will try some of those raidships then

[orzelek]

As for the dreadnoughts - what is their intended use now?

From what I remember from data they have damage bonus on other starships and thats all.
I tried to use them few times as general support for fleet but they seem to be lacking for this.

Maybe some update to auto-targeting systems that would allow them to target based on engine strength (this would also be good for spiders) ?

[Revenantus]

Dreadnought damage multipliers;

10 Command Station
30 Scout Starship
30 Heavy Defense
0.2 Warhead
30 Raid Starship
30 Fleet Starship
30 Alien Starship
30 Dreadnought
30 Bomber Starship

They're primarily anti-starship units.

[Spikey00]

Well, it would be helpful if the AI of the ship would switch targets [if applicable] when the current target loses its engines.

[x4000]

From the upcoming 2.001B release notes:

-The descriptions of dreadnoughts have been updated to reflect the fact that they are no longer good against force fields.  Additionally, dreadnoughts have gotten a boost in general, with new bonuses against munitions boosters, zenith bombardment ships, teleport battle stations, fighters of all sorts, zenith autobombs, raiders, and tele-raiders.  This makes dreadnoughts a much more versatile and interesting ship in general, especially against the power of massed AI zenith bombardment ships.

Also, ships in general that damage engines should switch targets when the engines are out on a target if there is a better other target nearby, and if you didn't explicitly give them an attack order (ships that are explicitly ordered to attack a specific unit will never switch targets until given a new order).  That should be the case in 2.0.