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Well, Lukwan, you've doomed yourself. Now you're going to face the science.
Shielding would protect a ship from a Star Wars-style ion cannon, which overloads a ship's systems with energy, shorting out and otherwise damaging electrical components. Ion cannon blasts only temporarily disable vessels, but, as seen in Empire, that can be enough for a ship to escape. That said, it took a planet-based super-large ion cannon (KDY Planet Defender v4, in fact) to disable a Star Destroyer.
Anyway, my thought is that we need to choose a realistic (Not, but it sounds cooler that way) method by which an EMP weapon damages the power grid of a vessel. If it fired a burst of positively charged ions, then it could conceivably draw energy out from insufficiently shielded conduits. In that case, EMP defense would take the form of shielding or insulation, and would probably have a significant mass cost, instead of a power cost. As in, the EMP modules weigh as much (Or even more than) advanced armor.
If EMP somehow creates the sort of electromagnetic pulse that a nuclear bomb does, and then directs it at the target, then it would completely fry most unhardened electronics. Unleashing that sort of weapon in a space battle is dangerous, but in this case, EMP passive takes the form of shielding/hardened electronics. Mass cost again? Probably best.
Shielding would protect a ship from a Star Wars-style ion cannon, which overloads a ship's systems with energy, shorting out and otherwise damaging electrical components. Ion cannon blasts only temporarily disable vessels, but, as seen in Empire, that can be enough for a ship to escape. That said, it took a planet-based super-large ion cannon (KDY Planet Defender v4, in fact) to disable a Star Destroyer.
Anyway, my thought is that we need to choose a realistic (Not, but it sounds cooler that way) method by which an EMP weapon damages the power grid of a vessel. If it fired a burst of positively charged ions, then it could conceivably draw energy out from insufficiently shielded conduits. In that case, EMP defense would take the form of shielding or insulation, and would probably have a significant mass cost, instead of a power cost. As in, the EMP modules weigh as much (Or even more than) advanced armor.
If EMP somehow creates the sort of electromagnetic pulse that a nuclear bomb does, and then directs it at the target, then it would completely fry most unhardened electronics. Unleashing that sort of weapon in a space battle is dangerous, but in this case, EMP passive takes the form of shielding/hardened electronics. Mass cost again? Probably best.
