Rounded Shield

[Gamel]

I suggest to turn the current shield from surface to a ellipse offset from the ship body.
something like those:

I am suggesting this not just because the role of oval shield in science fiction and movie is unbeatable, oval shield represents the emergence of a new era. Also because the existing shield system don't have any Defense Blind Spot. Shield should be a protective layer like atmosphere, can be damage internally. This allows Boarding combat and Close combat to be possible. Which will be tons of fun. Beside from these, this also gave small ship a chance to fight against large ships. Once the shield is broken, small ships can rush into the shield before it can regenerate. This makes hijacks possible, something like the interceptors in EVE

And most important justification of turning the surface shield into rounded shape is:
THIS can protect the ship from collision !!!!
Now, some servers have already turn on collision damage, which is fun but also a pain in the ass when getting to shops or stations. With the oval shield, I suggest it can also neutralize the damage cause by collision in cost of shield power.

Which will makes the idea of this thread(http://starmadedock.net/threads/handheld-hull-drill-ship-equipped-hull-drill.2372/) more convincing and FUN :p

I always wann to see something like this:

 

[BlisAx]

Starmade actually had sphereical shields once. They were removed for performance reasons. As awesome as sphereical shields are, it's too resource intensive. Also next time search the forums for topics similar to your's. This has been suggested multiple times before.

 

[Equilibrium21]

Maybe Forcefields, Planetary Shields or something similar

 

[Aecetym]

Here you go

http://starmadedock.net/threads/spherical-shields.1226/

and

http://starmadedock.net/threads/the-core-block-and-you.1790/

 

[NeonSturm]

Starmade actually had sphereical shields once. They were removed for performance reasons. As awesome as sphereical shields are, it's too resource intensive. Also next time search the forums for topics similar to your's. This has been suggested multiple times before.

Depends on implementation. May even save resources.

First, you get the matrix required which would bring your ship into a position 0 0 0 at rotation 0, speed 0 and it's box in a 0.7x0.7x0.7 scale (so it would fit into a sphere of radius 1 around 0 0 0)

Then, you apply this matrix on all incoming projectiles and enemy ships. + make a distance-check against a radius 1 sphere around 0 0 0 (in this scale, they will likely move at <1m per seoncod)
-> did the projectile move from out-sidde to inside? - check angle collision angle, apply an inverse matrix to get the collision point for graphic effect sugar only.

In the case your shield holds, you only need a block-by-block check when your shield would not be able to block the projectile.

 

[Inspired2150]

I would like this type of shield for one simple reason - Turrets.

I despise large turrets, so this will be a perfect solution, here's why:

1) You will no longer need to stack shields on your turrets
2) You will no longer need to put power blocks on your turrets to feed their shields.

And turrets can pull energy for their weapons from the mothership anyway.

EDIT:

Actually, this is a perfect idea for two reasons.

This will protect turrets from larger ships farther away YET small fighters should still be able to zip under the shield and kill the turrets, which they seem to like so much.

 

[starhaiden]

turrets have their own shields

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I don't like this. It ruins the idea behind colision damage, which is that shields aren't the solution to everything, and that minefields actually do something.

 

[Megacrafter127]

Depends on implementation. May even save resources.

First, you get the matrix required which would bring your ship into a position 0 0 0 at rotation 0, speed 0 and it's box in a 0.7x0.7x0.7 scale (so it would fit into a sphere of radius 1 around 0 0 0)

Then, you apply this matrix on all incoming projectiles and enemy ships. + make a distance-check against a radius 1 sphere around 0 0 0 (in this scale, they will likely move at <1m per seoncod)
-> did the projectile move from out-sidde to inside? - check angle collision angle, apply an inverse matrix to get the collision point for graphic effect sugar only.

In the case your shield holds, you only need a block-by-block check when your shield would not be able to block the projectile.

The current implementation of shields just uses the results of calculations, that are performed anyways. Thus if the current shields were to be removed, the performance wouldn't increase (CPUside).

 

[NeonSturm]

I guess they are performed any-ways, because the hit block is calculated any-ways - which may not be done any-ways if you calculate the spherical shield first.
But I don't know how it is done. There are several ways to do it - and the optimal way is way longer if you already gone the easy way and have to go back first.

Minefields use dis-integrators, not just collision damage I guess.
Because it is so difficult to place mines just anywhere, it would be a lot better if they try to intercept your ship's path instead of flying directly toward you and then behind you + distribute equally over a given area/sector.

Dis-integrator and collision damage do not have to both penetrate shields, but there should be at least one thing doing it.

 

[Calbiri]

:P i could have sworn i just responded to this... maybe that was the single FTL post ive seen?

All jokes aside, round shields sounds cool, and look cool (i remember when we had them :D ) but they cause issues when calculating their surface on a curve for weapons from various directions and with the shield itself being scaleable and being able to place more than one shield bubble (ya, that was possible), they were removed in favor of the ship-skin sheilds to drastically save your FPS.

 

[NeonSturm]

Just to clarify for all post-bubble-shield players:
It was not just a scaled & rotated sphere around x1,y1,z1 to x2y2z2 of your ship's box?

 

[Calbiri]

No, it was a variably sized bubble centered around your shields groups XYZ boxdim

 

[NeonSturm]

No, it was a variably sized bubble centered around your shields groups XYZ boxdim

I guess there you got your reason for lag :p
1 rotation just once, 1 translation + 1 scaling for each group...

Thinking about it... maybe turrets+docked ships would cause similar issues (if they wouldn't just count toward the main ships shields...

Maybe we can write that down elsewhere (FAQ? :D) so it is not requested over and over again?

 

[drunken waffel]

it would be interesting to see a shield that formed over openings in the hull so players standing near an opening will not instantly be vaporized if they manage get there sheilds up.

 

[NeonSturm]

it would be interesting to see a shield that formed over openings in the hull so players standing near an opening will not instantly be vaporized if they manage get there sheilds up.

That may work by replacing block IDs from hull to force field and limit shields to this this block type, or except some types of hull from being shielded.

But it might also screw up ion-weapon balance.

I like it -partially- as it could give hull a purpose (subtracting damage to keep shield longer alive - thus it can protect already damaged areas).

 

[Mariux]

No. Just no.

 

[Lecic]

I prefer the skin shields. Bubble shields lead to increased performance usage, and ruin small ship's use as an anti-turret role. Seriously, unless the bubble shield is massively larger than the ship itself, it's going to be impossible to land a turret killer missile within the tiny amount of space.

If it blocked collision damage, it would also make it impossible for a fighter to get under the bubble shield (How do you tell the difference between a fighter and a heavy armor torpedo? You don't.) as well as make all collision based weapons completely useless. The only reason they are useful at all, currently, is because they ignore shields.