An (untested) idea for backup shielding

[Calhoun]

Apologies Calhoun, yes, you are correct, I was off on another planet: if you're losing hull then forcefields mean you're losing a smaller percentage of SHP.

But once there are holes in your hull and you start losing system blocks (while some armour remains) the situation is reversed: each system block is a bigger percentage loss because if your remaining armour is forcefields then the pool the losses are coming from is smaller.

It would require a closer look to figure out if one generally outweighs the other.

One thing it does mean is that if you mix forcefields and armour, it's better to have forcefields outside the armour, and lose them first.

Don't worry, I see where you're coming from. Yeah, Hardlight shields are nice, but you have to watch they don't get in the way of the turrets!

 

[Scypio]

What I was not able to determine is whether or not this would allow your main shield to go "out of combat" for increased regen. I'm not sure if the primary entity is counted as 'In combat' when a docked entity like a turret is hit.
Anybody know how that particular mechanic works?

All of the entities should stay under fire.

By the way that idea would be great for large ship as "backup shield". When your mothership shield is down, you got that shield coming from nowhere taking most of the damages while the mother shield is recharging a bit. Quite easy to code with a few logic bloc however that mean that your main shield is lower than the amount it could possibly be meaning that you'll be weaker to high alpha weapons.

I see it on really large ship, where adding shield capacitors doesn't do much and you'll gain much more by using another entity than with the mother ship.

 

[Stormraven]

Because forcefields offer less protection than advanced armour, for the same mass, if you were going to do this you might as well build two layers of hull as separate entities, and give each it's own shields.

Assuming Tydeth's explanation is right (I'm assuming it is) then multiple shields would be great against lower damage rapid fire, but weaker than a single hull combining all shields against large alpha fire because a shield too weak to stop the shot on its own won't take some of the damage before passing it to the next shield, it just passes the full damage to the next shield.

The issue with that plan is that you could not control which shields are taking the damage at any given time. With the ForceShield, you could activate and deactivate the secondary shield at will.
This system is an "Oh $π₽×" button to get you out of tight spaces, not a constant extra layer. (Though honestly I can see specific instances when that would be potentially handy as well)

 

[EricBlank]

I actually quite like this idea. Keep in mind a sufficiently large bubble shield will also be stopping missiles before they reach your ship, even if its own shields are down and the force fields are taking damage directly. They'd also catch warhead torpedoes.

I planned to build a defensive cruiser for employment in formations that would cover for the fleet using this. Incoming fire from the enemy's first salvo hits the cruisers forcefield. The ship itself isn't damaged, because the forcefield is a docked entity. It doesn't necessarily need to have strong shields backing it up either. But after employing it to catch that first salvo, and maybe subsequent missiles, drop it so your own direct fire can get through.

 

[Igfig]

You know, on a fast and maneuverable fighter you could probably keep the force field just on the front and back of your ship, and turn tail or face whenever you came under fire. Your primary armament would have to be side-firing swarmer or seeker missiles, I suppose.

 

[Jojomo]

I actually quite like this idea. Keep in mind a sufficiently large bubble shield will also be stopping missiles before they reach your ship, even if its own shields are down and the force fields are taking damage directly. They'd also catch warhead torpedoes.

I planned to build a defensive cruiser for employment in formations that would cover for the fleet using this. Incoming fire from the enemy's first salvo hits the cruisers forcefield. The ship itself isn't damaged, because the forcefield is a docked entity. It doesn't necessarily need to have strong shields backing it up either. But after employing it to catch that first salvo, and maybe subsequent missiles, drop it so your own direct fire can get through.

I think just using it to catch that first alpha salvo is a very interesting idea (and perhaps later salvos from the enemy's main weapon). You can turn it on and off, and just sacrifice the forcefields, and stop your own firing for a short period.
The trade-off is dodging a (hopefully) significant part of incoming damage, while only having a small effect on your damage output...

I think anyone not considering the forcefield to actually be part of their ship is demonstrating some interesting aspects of the way humans think though
Whether its forcefield or armour, and whether or not it's separated from the rest of your ship by an "air gap", it's still part of your ship being destroyed.

 

[Stormraven]

So I've tested this out a few times now, with varying configurations. Right now I'm in the process of experimenting with logic controlled weaponry, and deactivating portions of the field in order to allow for ones bullets or missiles to go through. (Closing back up after the firing pattern has cycled through.)

Currently my largest and most successful practical application of this technology is on a non-combat mining vessel. I have a wall panel set up so that the user may select at what percentage of shield loss they wish to have the emergency system activate. They can select anywhere from 10% to 99%.

This module also has a logic enabled bay allowing for quick and simple replacement of a damaged ForceShield.

I'm also currently working on a way to manually toggle the system over to my "red alert" AI. (Thereby activating the shield whenever ANY enemy comes within range of a beam/beam turret.)

 

[Knightrampage]

I have tested this in my solo game before, but not since the new texture update. The mothership can fire weapons through docked entities but other docked entities can not. Thus no additional turrets can be active. My setup was the Shield was up first till it got to 25% then it auto shut off and let the mothership take the shield load. once the docked shield recovered it would turn back on. This would allow the mothership to recover. The main issue I ran into was that if the secondary shield was being hit by say a rapid fire cannon the detection process would not trigger and the force fields would start taking damage.