[Shane]

From my own understanding (And I won’t pretend I understand game mechanics 100%)…

1. Your shields absorb incoming physical and energy weapons damage. No shield can block all the incoming damage; MOST shields have a 10% bleedthrough of damage, so 10% of all damage you take will pass through and hit your hull while your shields are up. Resilient Shields are an exception, in that only 5% of the damage bleeds through, and another 5% is nullified. In general, higher capacity is better than higher regen due to BOFF shield regen abilities. Shields DO regenerate in combat, but more often than not it’s so small it will not help you if a cube or somesuch decides it doesn’t like you. Blackout gave a good lecture on shield types in the Fleet Tactics subforum (Search for ‘Damaged Focus Game Mechanics’, it’s in there somewhere).

2. Deflector dishes are, I believe, basically an opportunity to add extra modifiers on captain skills to boost starship performance, like hull integrity or some sci-based skills. You’ll have to know exactly what you want your ship to do/be to be able to pick an appropriate deflector. But most of the time, these bonuses are ignored in favour of Set Item Bonuses, like MACO/Omega/Honour Guard/Borg/etc. Check the STO wiki for more info on these sets.

3. You probably mean Plasma Fires. All plasma fires of any type (I think) can be cleared by Hazard Emitters, a musthave science skill. Plasma fires arise from plasma torpedoes and plasma-energy type weapons.
Also, the Borg have 2 skills which they use to drain your shields: A green torpedo that, when it hits your ship it begins radiating a green circle and slowly decreases all your shield facings. OR, Tachyon Beam, which the Borg will fire a blue beam at you, and your shields will get a red outline while the tachyon beam is in effect.
The first shield-draining torp can be cleared by Hazard Emitters (again another reason why it’s so good), though the Borg usually spam it a lot so you’ll end up getting hit by it again before it goes off CD. The second tachyon beam, you’ll have to find a way to increase your Captain’s Flow Capacitor’s skill to decrease its effect. You can’t remove it no matter what however.

4. I fly cruisers, so I can’t answer you about escorts but yes, Fleet Modules disappear after you use them. (Otherwise their price on the exchange will be dirt cheap, and Cryptic will have no incentive for charging us 500 Zen per piece).

5. Yes, you will get to a maximum number of BOFFs by the time you reach Rear Admiral Lower Half. To get more, check the ‘Services’ menu in the Z-store. 2 additional BOFF slots cost 250 Z per Character. This does NOT apply to every character on your account.

6. (Where’s number 6? 😛 )

7. Dunno; I’m fine with black. 😀

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