So I was looking at component size and suddenly wondered why shields exist at all. As far as pure hp per deck is concerned it seems the armor plating is a much better buy. Is there then a reason to use shield mods at all? Perhaps I'm missing something and someone could enlighten me.

Ya you don't need to pay for more shield. If your shield gets hit it recharges it's self. From what I'm hearing you most be pretty small in rank where shield isn't worth much yet. But once you get some shield recharger's then they become more worth while. I get 6336 shield an hour and I only have 2420 shield. Once you get to this you can recharge really fast and keep fighting for free. Hull is back up for me I try not to fight any NPC's if it hits my hull unless it's a boss type. You will see later in the game what I mean. For now thou since it is cheaper for you to fix your hull I say go more with that. Later on once you get into the 80+ rank I think you should start switching to some more shielding.

At lower levels it can be argued that shields aren't very useful since you can't install enough of them to make the recharge rate really effective, but at higher levels they are great. Shields recharge automatically and for free over time, making them a very nice way to defend your ship while you are offline. Shields recharge 2% every "tick" of the game, so your full shield will be recharged in just over an hour whether you have 20 shield points or 20,000 shield points. Hull is more useful if you do a lot of attacking and need to repair yourself frequently. It really depends on how you play. Personally, I have a lot of both, but it's just a matter of preference.

Yes, I think they both answered very well. Shields are great for people who engage in a lot of fights and expect people to come seeking revenge. Hulls are much better and cheaper while you are on line. But, if all you have are hulls, and someone is really ticked at you, they will be persistant. They can easily pause from the fight, make their own repairs, let their energy recharge and keep attacking and attacking until they get that disable (and yes, believe me, there are people out there with that type of blood lust... before energy cubes became so rare, it was even common to burn one to "recharge" your weapons so you could keep smacking through the armor.) To tell you the truth, even many of the traps simply slow your opponent down but do not stop them. I know tons of folks who have been Halcyoned for an hour... go make a sandwich, play another facebook game, then come back to finish you off. Personally I think all traps should last longer. If Dan really wanted to make them more effective, the K-virus trap for example, could last 4 hours!

Shield definitely is a god when it comes to high level with crazy high upkeep that will affect repair cost that'll start to bleed your money dry.

I have 6830 hp shield buffed so it comes down to 8,941 hp per hour regenerated. So far, I hardly damage my hull so it saves lot of money. Hull is now just good for emergency use plus it'll become your 2nd line of defense while you are offline. Shield is best defense along with high defense to protect you while you are offline.. For NPC farming, I simply fight many NPCs til my shield is depleted then I just wait for 1 hour then I'm good for another round of NPC farming without paying anything..