bubble shields - the re-take

[srs008]

Unless the bubble shield is a far distance away from the ship, this isn't going to work. the 50m or so you'd have to maneuver under a bubble shield is not enough for fighters to be worthwhile. This would also make drones much less powerful, as one of their main bonuses is being able to overwhelm turrets with targets and then kill them.

i'd assume bubble shield would only be say 5, maybe ten blocks from the ship, but unless you build very streamlined ships, with partially concealed hangers and such, your ship is going to have plenty of room under that shield, most ships are a lot longer then wide... but they tend to follow a typical "plane" shape, with a narrow front/nose, and large wings further down.
since the shields would be generated at the front most point, plus 5-10, rear most point, side most points, and top and bottom most points...
with a "bubble" shape... there would be surprisingly large areas for fighters to get in.
although i'm not expecting it, i'd assume there would be a way to enlarge how far it generates (please be an effect like overdrive modules)
so that would mean a larger area, don't forget, skin shields may ALSO be present, but would use more area, hence more power, and less possible weapons and such... (they would be seperate)
since "skin" shields only cover their "vessel"/"entity", turrets would not be a part of the motherships shields...
so really, once your through their bubble, you have no hinderance other then the firing turrets...
i never said a cruiser HAD to have bubble shields, so until you fire, you won't know... they may a breacher, heavy skin shields with heavy weapons... or maybe they have almost no skin shield, but tons of bubble, meant to block fire for a bigger vessel...
i'm not trying to suggest an op protection, where nothing gets in, i'm trying to make a new way of handling fleet operations.
if dreadnoughts could risk less shield for heavier weapons... carrier ships may be able to field a few more strike craft...
until you saw the shield, you'd never know... a heavy hitting dreadnought would be a prime target for a few lucky fighters if it had less shields would it not?
since bubble shields collide, even friendly vessels could not be clever and "protect" eachother by passing it's shield "within" another.
but that does not stop a bubble shield ship from standing directly between an enemy, and a friend, absorbing shots while the heavy hitter fires straight through the friendly shield...

i can see a downside, vessels WITHIN the bubble, would be well within turrets easy picking range... all i can think of is to have some minor accuracy penalty for turrets... like for every 5000 shield, it drops a full percent of accuracy, (i forgot, is 5000 heaps? my ships are so big and shielded that it seems small to me... but gameplay wise, i'm not sure... i'm assuming thats a "decent" shield, take a few hits)
so if your vessel has incredible shields, it's turrets would be lucky to shoot a shop if within 50m...
okay, not THAT bad, but the basic idea is the point... if one in 3 shots hit within 50m, then we'd want it more like one in ten...

 

[Lecic]

i'd assume bubble shield would only be say 5, maybe ten blocks from the ship, but unless you build very streamlined ships, with partially concealed hangers and such, your ship is going to have plenty of room under that shield, most ships are a lot longer then wide... but they tend to follow a typical "plane" shape, with a narrow front/nose, and large wings further down.
since the shields would be generated at the front most point, plus 5-10, rear most point, side most points, and top and bottom most points...
with a "bubble" shape... there would be surprisingly large areas for fighters to get in.
although i'm not expecting it, i'd assume there would be a way to enlarge how far it generates (please be an effect like overdrive modules)
so that would mean a larger area, don't forget, skin shields may ALSO be present, but would use more area, hence more power, and less possible weapons and such... (they would be seperate)
since "skin" shields only cover their "vessel"/"entity", turrets would not be a part of the motherships shields...
so really, once your through their bubble, you have no hinderance other then the firing turrets...
i never said a cruiser HAD to have bubble shields, so until you fire, you won't know... they may a breacher, heavy skin shields with heavy weapons... or maybe they have almost no skin shield, but tons of bubble, meant to block fire for a bigger vessel...
i'm not trying to suggest an op protection, where nothing gets in, i'm trying to make a new way of handling fleet operations.
if dreadnoughts could risk less shield for heavier weapons... carrier ships may be able to field a few more strike craft...
until you saw the shield, you'd never know... a heavy hitting dreadnought would be a prime target for a few lucky fighters if it had less shields would it not?
since bubble shields collide, even friendly vessels could not be clever and "protect" eachother by passing it's shield "within" another.
but that does not stop a bubble shield ship from standing directly between an enemy, and a friend, absorbing shots while the heavy hitter fires straight through the friendly shield...

i can see a downside, vessels WITHIN the bubble, would be well within turrets easy picking range... all i can think of is to have some minor accuracy penalty for turrets... like for every 5000 shield, it drops a full percent of accuracy, (i forgot, is 5000 heaps? my ships are so big and shielded that it seems small to me... but gameplay wise, i'm not sure... i'm assuming thats a "decent" shield, take a few hits)
so if your vessel has incredible shields, it's turrets would be lucky to shoot a shop if within 50m...
okay, not THAT bad, but the basic idea is the point... if one in 3 shots hit within 50m, then we'd want it more like one in ten...

"Shield ships" are worthless. Unless they're significantly more massive than what they are protecting, they're going to get vaporized pretty quickly. You'd be better off using ablative shield plates, as those can at least be supplied with your own power and move with your ship.

Also, I severely doubt a bubble shield would be a sphere around the ship. It'd be an oval shape. Giving little room to maneuver fighters underneath.

 

[srs008]

"Shield ships" are worthless. Unless they're significantly more massive than what they are protecting, they're going to get vaporized pretty quickly. You'd be better off using ablative shield plates, as those can at least be supplied with your own power and move with your ship.

Also, I severely doubt a bubble shield would be a sphere around the ship. It'd be an oval shape. Giving little room to maneuver fighters underneath.

shield ships ARE worthless at the moment, since they physically block friendly shots as well, not to mention line of sight...
however i'd assume that for say every 1 block height, there would be say 5 blocks length... creating a oval bubble shape (sorry, should have specified)
but a shield ship could be almost dedicated to shield, since a bubble encompasses the whole ship, players would naturally have to make shoot through holes in their shield ships... so something like stargate's ori vessels without the orb in the centre...
which also makes them easier to destroy (exposing more areas to easy fighter fire), since i'm suggesting two shields in effect, a player would have to choose between protecting the fleet, or protecting their vessel... since everyone would hammer a shield ship, they would need fairly strong bubble shielding, meaning there won't be as much "skin" shielding... making fighters ideal against shield ships...

i admit, at first glance it does seem a little OP, but i think the advantage of shield ships would quickly and often, become a disadvantage, the shields would need tremendous amounts of power... which in turn would need tremendous amounts of thrust... which needs tremendous power... so a shield bubble ship would be in a constant battle between speed, power, and shield strength...
a lucky shot to the power systems, or the thrusters could make it a literal sitting duck.
a few good hits to the shield rechargers and it's very much over... a bubble ship would need to keep it's weight down to remain effective... and it would be remarkibly fragile.
due to the need to keep weight low (since it needs to stay BETWEEN ships, even if they are moving)
you would be limited in weapons, and just as limited in turrets... meaning these things are easy pickings for fighters...
since shield ships would primarily be protecting heavy firepower dreadnoughts... once the shield ship was down, the big ships would have easy pickings on the weakly shielded and/or slow dreadnoughts...
keep in mind that a hit (on the hull?) causes jumpdrives to reset... and that shield bubbles collide, preventing two bubble shield ships protecting each other with overlapping shields...

in effect, you'd need to protect the bubble shield ship with heavy anti-fighter escort... since fighters are so damn zippy, these would need to be close, quick firing weapons... meaning the anti-fighter ALSO has to be nimble, with some shielding...
it's an option, that does have merits, and serious drawbacks. you can bring heavier, harder hitting weapons to the fight, but there is nothing stopping smart players from circling the shield entirely, there will always be the "genius" who will try pot-shotting passing fighters, leaving his weak friend very open to a direct shot from the big bad enemy dreadnought...

 

[Lecic]

Shield ships are worthless in a 3 dimensional battlefield. You can just go above or below the ship instead of attacking head-on. You'd be better off using a docked ablative shielding plate or having an additional ship that can provide offensive support.