Brainstorm This Planetary Shield

[kiraen]

Maybe you force the Shield Generator Computer to be assaultable by requiring it have an unobstructed view of the sky. The lore could be that the generator itself produces the shielding effect, and anything permanently between it and the sky disrupts the effect.

The only change I would make is that the Shield Beam be destructive. Any block that gets between the shield and the emitter starts taking massive amount of damage. That kind of power concentration has to be dangerous. Then it wouldn't matter if you try to bury it, it'll just bore it's own hole straight up.

Otherwise, you just land a specially designed ship on top of the emitter. No more shield, let the bombardment begin. (oh, and detonated the shield blocker's warheads why you're at it, ensign)

 

[Vladimir Calvin]

I'm glad others have thought of this, from placing a Build Block on my planet and seeing it present statistics (for the plate I believe, since its 287x70x274?) I immediately thought of planetary systems, first thinking of shields but also could be other things like extractors or repair bays, but that's all for other threads.

I very much like the idea of being able to protect my precious rock from being taken out from space, and i think it would provide a crucial element to force extra creativity in vehicle design and ground combat tactics. Side tangent, are there jet packs for personal use? (personal size stop computer basically) I personally love the mining and ship building part of Starmade, but making ground combat necessary would in my opinion add a lot of depth to the game.

I like all the ideas in this thread so far, having the shield computer/block bore a hole to the stars to force the defenders to leave an entry point. (sci fi question, how does an astronaut survive jumping through a hole that destroys the steel and rock we wanted to cover it with?)

Having planetary shields be cheap to make so as to overpower ship weapon systems of similar investment I think is important, otherwise the mechanic has little benefit and won't force other solutions than bombardment.

Perhaps make it so that some kind of Ion weapons can pass through a shield to temporarily disable ground batteries, that way having ships in orbit outside of the shield is still important? Make it so that they don't disable the planetary shield computer, cause that would just be lame and boring. They would need to be of a certain strength to even pass through, based on planet shield strength, to encourage battleship designs for bombardment? Also possibly include Ion bombs on whatever bombers you send thru the atmosphere for the same effect, although that depends on how hard ground defenses are to take out with conventional weapons on those same fighters/corvettes/bombers. Hmmm.... may reduce having the shield's benefit too much, might be better to just need to use bombardment to weaken a spot for dropships to pass through. Idea needs more thought.

Regardless,
super +1 to planetary shields being a thing

 

[Nickizzy]

+1, I would love to see strafing fighters flying overhead taking out a tanks gun and flying off, only to be shot down by anti-aircraft guns. Shields should just not work under supershields, so you could have your titain try to semi-enter a planets atmosphere, but getting pounded by ground batteries. I also think super shields should have damage reduction at range, so a fighter at 50 meters strafing you with it's 15 block missle system would do almost the same as the ground batteries pounding out with 200 block stakes.

It would look so cool to see titains have partially damged hull with pepperments of missle explosions and blaster scorches underneath.

 

[MacThule]

Or fix the invulnerability without forcing players to use planets instead of stations, but rather allowing them still to use either as a home.
Because lag.

http://starmadedock.net/threads/station-specific-buff-s.22060/

 

[Lecic]

+1, I would love to see strafing fighters flying overhead taking out a tanks gun and flying off, only to be shot down by anti-aircraft guns. Shields should just not work under supershields, so you could have your titain try to semi-enter a planets atmosphere, but getting pounded by ground batteries. I also think super shields should have damage reduction at range, so a fighter at 50 meters strafing you with it's 15 block missle system would do almost the same as the ground batteries pounding out with 200 block stakes.

It would look so cool to see titains have partially damged hull with pepperments of missle explosions and blaster scorches underneath.

I quite like the idea of ship mounted shields not working in atmosphere.

 

[Dire Venom]

For craft to actualy be able to land no one should be able to shoot through the shield while its up, other wise any ground attack vessesl will get obliterated before they reach the surface

 

[Wolverines527]

Im surprised no one has performed the summoning ritual to summon bench because this is a really great idea worthy of consideration

 

[nightrune]

Granted its been my hammer lately, but this feels like a good use for a power up based on faction points. It might very well be a better alternative to base invulnerability.

Shields cost to run in power and faction points, and allow you to build them on multiple planets. The war in the other threads becomes pretty epic with space and ground fights over territory.

 

[Amadeus]

How big of a shield are we talking about here? One that is above the atmosphere, at the atmosphere, or beneath it?

I think visable shield above the atmosphere would help both with fighters and bombers planetside having enough room to fight, while giving an invading and defending force something to fight around. Think about having to field support ships and reinforcements as an invader, all the while dodging a defending force using the planet itself as a shield.

 

[Ithirahad]

For enemy and (optionally) neutral: Shields are drained rapidly every tick a ship is in contact with the planetary shield (i.e. while passing through the shield or skimming its surface). It takes one second for a ship shield to fail completely regardless of size. A small craft can get through in a fraction of a second, but a larger one that tries to do the same may wreck into the planet or fail to get through in time.

An unshielded ship in contact with the shield takes armor and structure HP damage every tick. The magnitude of the damage scales with the max capacity of the planetary shield. Block destruction could happen but isn't necessary IMO. Battles are CPU-heavy enough without an energy field rapidly eating thousands of blocks.

...What? Sooooo shuttles will get burned if they accidentally touch the shield for too long? Perhaps this should do damage only to ships above a certain mass.

 

[Nickizzy]

I think ship mounted weapons and turrets should still work, but all shields would be down and ships would havento have armor instead of shields, a choice fighters make more often than large ships, and damage reduction with range would prevent ranged sniping and ground batteries being more effective than actual air defenses.

It would be nice for boarding and landing on planets if there was a new block that could attatch you to another entity, it would have like a 3 meter range but would help a lot with landings, boardings, and hidings(think a tiny probe attatching it's self to the outside of the titain with jamming, and serving as a tracking becan or boarding drone on big ships(almost like the millinium falcon on the star destroyer in starwars) I should start a thread about this.

 

[Micro753]

Maybe you force the Shield Generator Computer to be assaultable by requiring it have an unobstructed view of the sky. The lore could be that the generator itself produces the shielding effect, and anything permanently between it and the sky disrupts the effect. Then, you have this small vulnerable block (or chimney ) that you have to defend against atmospheric fighters or ground troops.

Great idea. If planets get optimized really good, they could add an effect like the shield the gungans used in Star Wars The Phantom Menace. Better protect that chimney very well, or a really good pilot could shoot a missile down it like Luke did with the first Death Star.

 

[Valiant70]

...What? Sooooo shuttles will get burned if they accidentally touch the shield for too long? Perhaps this should do damage only to ships above a certain mass.

That's not unreasonable. I never thought it would be an issue though. Just dive right through the shield. You'd have to be going really slowly (1 m/s or so) for it to be an issue I would think.

 

[Nickizzy]

Or if a ship stayed in the shield for too long(20 seconds or so) it would start taking damge from the shield, I still think they should lose shields when inside, or shields would not work inside.

 

[Snowfox1337]

Id say shields shouldnt work inside the shield and weapons on either side cant reach through the shield. If the shield has enough energy to rip apart passing ships then im fairly sure it would also scramble targeting through it on both sides. That way you cant have a planet designed to destroy the carriers and capitals while the shield renders them useless...why throw a rock when it will just sit there idle as it gets crushed?

As for the shield itself i like the idea so much. Im giving my +1 here (id give it a +10 if i could) and it would be a great addition alongside the alternative to hyperdrives i mentioned in another thread. (Link shown here: http://starmadedock.net/threads/alternative-to-capital-ship-hyperdrive.22362/) A huge fleet suddenly warps into a shielded planet with little warning-> Siege of the plannet begins-> defending faction gathers its forces in a race against time to reinforce the planet before the shield is down and the capitals can bombard. It would make battles into multi part assaults...on the ground the battle for the shield...in space the battle to stem the reinforcments. That would thus promote more strategic planning.

I should also mention it might be better to make the shields damage effect increase the closer ships come to the generator...that way you cant have a suicide pulse/warhead ship just go ram the generator and destroy it before the defences have a crack at obliterating it.

 

[Wolverines527]

I sent the summoning

 

[Snowfox1337]

I sent the summoning

Any chance you could do that on the hyperdrive thread (http://starmadedock.net/threads/alternative-to-capital-ship-hyperdrive.22362/) too since it ties in with this?

 

[Andem]

I was moments away from posting a thread very similar to this one, but then I saw it had already been done. But anyway, My contribution:

Have any of you read Ender's Game? The movie doesn't count because it doesn't mention the tidbit that relates to this thread Also, SPOILER ALERT!

Spoiler: Ender's Game Spoilers I Guess...

In the book, Humans are notified of the buggers invasion fleet because Eris slowly dissapears off long range sensors. not only that, but telescopes can no longer pick it up.

the clear and obvious suggestion? PLANETARY CLOAKERS! Now all the previous posts I've read have them using buttloads of power, or so on and so forth. How about you dig until the planet core is exposed, and then set up a Thermoelectric Power Converter with slaved modules. near infinite power for planetary bases, and easy to use. SCORE!

 

[Snowfox1337]

I actually was tempted to see how much energy it would take to cloak and/or jam a station/planet...tried it on a pirate station i captured but the jammer doesnt show up in the structural info tab. It would ve quite cool if it was possible/feasable but im kind of wondering about the usefulness. If a planet is cloaked then you cant see it...but it is a stationary object...as such its not really all that hard to keep shooting it. Same for jamming. Automated weapons cant target it..but who says the strongest weapons the enemy has arent under the pilots control?

As for the near infinite power supply...i do like that idea...if planetary shields and ground warefare do get added then 1 you dont have to run millions of power blocks through the planet to keep the turrets running and 2 it gives a reason to fight the defenders to capture the planet. Who doesnt want a base with infinite power for turrets, shipyards, factories, and whatever other convoluted power hungry devices you can dream up?

 

[Valiant70]

Having practically unlimited power would greatly improve the viability of planet bases by giving them something else (besides the shields of course) that makes them valuable.