Parts Missions drop categories?

[PokerChen]

So, when I conduct a shield works mission, I obtain the three parts specific for the shield slot: Ablative, Hardened Field and Nano-Mist Emitters. I have not yet seen Auxiliary Shield Generators which can go into Shields/Reactor/Propulsion slots.

Is this intended? Becuase it seems a little odd for me, having done several missions of this sort. This also happens, I think, with the propulsion missions (I've done them only once).

What parts are allowed to drop for each "high-quality parts" mission type?

[keith.lamothe]

Auxilary shield generators don't fit in shield slots

[PokerChen]

Lies! A shield is a shield is a shield, therefore it should be part of the Shield Works.

[keith.lamothe]

Interesting, I forget when that was changed.... ah, right, it's the auxiliary reactor that can't go in the reactor

Anyway, I think the rule for the specific-drop-category missions is that they can only drop items that only go in their related slot.  Otherwise you'd get a ton of coolant tanks and power routers or whatever they're called.  Which can go anywhere.

[PokerChen]

Another question: can you explain why, for example, the generic parts such as coolant tanks usually give more +shield than its mark level indicates, while Ablative Field emitters and Aux Shields give less? I noted this in playthroughs, that the generic ones max out early (making them powerful relative to other parts), and the specific ones tend to not max out at Mk XXV.

It seems that the specific parts works like this: its mark level + rarity modifier acts as a pool of points, to be distributed amongst the stats that it receives. So green parts add up to ~ Mk. +-1, blue parts  Mk. +2~5, Purple parts Mk. +6~9...  The generic parts Magnetic Containment Fields, Coolant tanks, Power Amplifiers, and Emitter matrices seem to instead have a much larger pool.

[keith.lamothe]

The multi-slot parts get the same number of points for each of their slot-specific effects, and don't have to divide it up between them (otherwise they would stink).  If they also have non-slot-specific effects then that reduces what's available to their slot-specific ones.

But yea, the math is a bit strange, and it's possible the coolant tanks and such are still getting too much for their slot-specific effects.  There's a LogicLog_PartGeneration.txt or something like that in your RuntimeData directory that gives pretty much the complete computation when a part is generated (you pick it up as loot, or the store is restocked), so you could try to generate some evidence that way if you felt so inclined