Shield Overhaul and Sundries

[SnakeMittens]

Shields!

So. The current shield system has much that could be improved. However, I am proposing a near complete overhaul to the system, similar to how the weapons are being changed significantly.

Shield generators in science fiction generally function by shielding a bubble of space. In Star Wars, ships have a few giant shield generators that cover the whole ship in one bubble.

In Star Trek, many smaller shield generators overlap and combine to approximate a skin shield, much like the current system.

Instead of the current SD Shield Dispersers, shields should be projected much like docking areas. A central block such as a Shield Projector determines the center of the rectangular area being shielded, with Shield Enhancers changing the shape of the shield box. The current Shield Dispersers could then be used to increase the health of one shield “bubble" (kudos to Pirate_Ray, whose post I read before writing this).

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Now, with this system, let us explore the differences between a Star Wars style shield projector and a Star Trek style system.

In a Star Wars system, the one massive bubble will be able to absorb shots from any direction. In fact, it will have to absorb shots from every direction. This style of shield would be stronger, but a small fighter would be able to get underneath the shield and do some damage to the ship. This leads to an armor buff, which I might get to later. To defend against such fighters, a Star Wars ship would have to have anti-fighter turrets, and good armor.

In a Star Trek system, one shield bubble failing would only allow that small area to be damaged. However, the individual shield bubbles would be much easier to overload, allowing enemies to concentrate their fire. A few small fighters would likely be able to break through part of the shield and do some significant damage to the ship. To remedy this, perhaps the current 10 second downtime should be shorter for wimpier shields, and longer for ones with more health. To defend against concentrated fire, a Star Trek ship would have to constantly adjust its position, or shunt power to different shields.

Shunting power to shields. This often comes up in science fiction, but is impossible with the current system. With a bubble system, Dispersers would have to be tied to a Projector. If one Projector is taking too much fire, a swift engineer could retie other Disperser blocks to that Projector, increasing its health.

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Stations!

Stations are awesome. However, they can be quite a hassle. I propose a new block, dubbed "Quantum Anchor" or "Inertia Sink" or something suitably scientific. Said block would cost as much as making a station costs currently. When placed on a ship, this block will do nothing at all. Once activated, however, the ship would be converted into an immovable station. The block could also be deactivated, allowing the station to function as a giant ship, or even a giant weapon. This system would allow orbital defense satellites to be mass produced, and amazing stations to be copied into blueprints.

For balance reasons, faction stations might no longer be invincible, nor would they provide invincibility to docked ships. Instead, all immobile objects would receive a defensive buff, such as 25% damage reduction (applies to both shields and blocks) (Thanks, MrNature72!).

Centerpoint Station: Star Wars

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I might add more suggestions later. For now, comment away!

 

[MineCatFTW]

I posted something pretty similar to this a while back, so it\'s good to see other people share my views. I think you should be able to still just take normal dispersers, and those only conduct through hull blocks. Or you could have a bubble shield if you don\'t like hull/think it would be cooler you could use this.

 

[hindos]

I like the star trek system, seems to be more strategic. However, even in the short down time core-drilling will be possible. Making the current \'go-for-the-core\' tactless tactic even more viable. To remedy this we could have a. multiple shield layers (\"Like an onion\") b. As you said redistribution, but preferably easier to handle then retieing dispenser blocks (e.g.a UI) c. Very specific breach points, making continually aiming at the same spot difficult (less realistic but more practical).

 

[jzimmerman4]

Personally I really like skin shields as they have as really nice effect and bubble shields can be kinda ugly. Using your suggestion though and making it so the shields are divided up around the ship would allow for more strategy to be used which I do support.

 

[jzimmerman4]

+1 to having both shield types in game.

 

[NeonSturm]

Divided shields would be good vs bombers which attack every time they come back from different directions (projectile speed = ship speed) and bad vs agile gunships which just strafe in 0-circles or 8-loops and aim at the same spot.

To get the full potential of it, weapons have to be inaccurate. Thus we need at least two weapons: beams vs small ships or for single-shield-emitter aiming and more inaccurate cannons vs big ships where you can\'t miss.



With the already implemented things, it would at least be possible to make a ship either alrounder (a carrier), most on front (destroyer) or most on front/bottom (bomber). Because of of more possibilities I support it.

But I don\'t like small crafts require 6 more blocks (the emitters).

 

[Vyor]

the system we have right now IS the star wars system... fighters cannot get under it as evidenced by the X-Wing novels and games... However, I would like a combenation of both the current system and a bubble sheild. I figure you could have a dedicated bubble sheild ship that fighters and other ships could fit through, and then you have pure offence ships with no sheilds inside the massive bubble sheild. The current sheilds would be great for fighters and caps...

 

[Jim-Dandy]

Everybody knows hull is useless and its used because it looks better than shield blocks.

So what if shields would only shield hull blocks.

That way you would have to use hull blocks to have shields.

That would make multiple hull layers good to have .

 

[Vyor]

better ideas out there too fix it:

http://star-made.org/content/hull-armor-absorption

 

[jzimmerman4]

Hull absorption is the best solution but what if we combine multiple ideas.

So first off hulls use hull armor absorption

Second, hulls are fully affected by shields (shields absorb 100% damage is shield block is shot)

And thirdly, if any block besides hull (or plexdoor) is hit shields only absorb a percentage of damage.

 

[SnakeMittens]

I\'ve added a section about Stations.

 

[MrNature72]

Inertial anchor is the gem, here. Shields have been done over and over, but that concept is pretty solid! I love the idea of being able to uproot stations and send them on a journey to be moved, or being able to send satellites over.



Maybe anchored units could recieve a boost, too? Being immobile sucks normally. But with a +50% shield buff and maybe a +10% damage boost? Awwww yisss.

 

[SnakeMittens]

I\'ll add the buff thing to the OP, with credit of course. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[der_scheme]

Actually, having watched these movies like a billion times, I believe that Star Wars deflectors can be weakened locally, too.

Anyway... I\'ve known this game only for a few days now, but I get the impression that everyone is just building huge ships, filling every bit of available space with power generators, shield generators and weapons. Small fighters seem to be rather useless against 15 million shield points and an armada of turrets, even when attacking in groups.



I like the idea of shield projectors. It seems to be kind of unrealistic to me that one shield generator can protect a small fighter and a Death Star equally. The solution would be to distribute all available shield points to the available projectors, effectively dividing them by the number of projectors. Since only the hull would have to be protected, larger ships would still have a shielding advantage.

When firing on a ship, only the nearest projector would overload, rendering the shield locally useless, but never on the whole ship.

Also, adding this feature would also add the tactical finesse of explicitly destroying shield projectors (in my example this would not redestribute the freed shield power to the remaining projectors).



I\'d also like to suggest the following, having the same agenda of making fighters stronger: What about making AMC blasts weaker when fired from a distance? Think of it like that: Currently, shields are probably thought of being like a wall, countering a blast in an instat. But what if shields where like force fields that drain the power of blasts passing through them, disintegrating them slowly? The implementation wouldn\'t even have to be changed (except for reducing the impact damage according to the distance travelled) , I wrote this down only for the sake of argument.

This would effectively increase the need for close combat which (at least in my world) is something that small ships are better at.



Someone above mentioned ships not being able to penetrate some deflector screens in Star Wars. The reason is, that, like in every SciFi universe, there are two kinds of shields, one protecting against energy weapons and the other against kinetic damage (missiles, crashing ships). This is also the reason why the rebel fleet had to postpone the attack on the Death Star, involving the Star Destroyers (which where only protected against blasters) into combat. I currently don\'t know if I\'d like to see two kinds of shields. Maybe the mechanics would grow too complex this way?

 

[Imperial_Gold]

I (among many others) would love to move stations. Orbital death lasers, ship-stations, and defense platforms oh my!

 

[NeonSturm]

Stations are awesome. However, they can be quite a hassle. I propose a new block, dubbed \"Quantum Anchor\" or \"Inertia Sink\" or something suitably scientific. Said block would cost as much as making a station costs currently. When placed on a ship, this block will do nothing at all. Once activated, however, the ship would be converted into an immovable station. The block could also be deactivated, allowing the station to function as a giant ship, or even a giant weapon. This system would allow orbital defense satellites to be mass produced, and amazing stations to be copied into blueprints.


They may work as a different type of faction module, or do you want to make tiny stations a big target for build-tool pirates?

 

[SnakeMittens]

The Quantum Anchor thingy would be faction locked like everything else with a faction module. I\'m not quite sure what you\'re trying to say.

 

[SnakeMittens]

My thought was that shield blocks would be bound to a shield projector, much as AMC\'s are bound to a Weapons Computer. This single shield would then function similar to a current one, except for being a bubble. For the Death Star, it could do either the giant single projector or many small ones in a semi-spherical shape. One big one would let bombers get under the shield and blow stuff up, but many little ones would be more susceptible to being overloaded individually.

I also thought of kinetic shields, but didn\'t write it up. Perhaps missiles, blocks, and the upcoming mines function as kinetic projectiles, and AMC\'s, beams, and pulsars are blocked by the energy shields. This could lead to targetable weak spots where an energy shield projector is vulnerable to kinetic projectiles, and vice-versa.

Also, I feel like shields should be a constant drain on power, not just drawing power when regenerating. I\'m not sure how to balance this, though.

 

[WaffulMann]

I have a suggestion concerning faction stations: just make the home station immobile. And invincible. Maybe in the future with wars you can destroy them but for now just invincible and immobile.



Maybe ships could have quandum locks too? kinda like the siege mode of dreadnoughts and bastion modules of marauders in Eve online? They wouldn\'t have to necessarily be stationary, they can just recieve a god damn giant mass increase (50x?) And just like stations, they\'d recieve an offensive and defensive buff. Maybe we can start seeing battlestations and giant carriers like that death star. damn I like that death star.

 

[hindos]

I am curious though about disasbiling faction home invincibility. Since a faction home is the centre of a faction I believe it should remain static even when using the quantum anchor. If it is then unset as the faction home, then yes it would be a possibility to move it. The shield buff does little to alleviate this potential wave of griefing as once one is offline they need merely outmanoveur your turrets, or take them out from a distance, to move in and take your home station. I see more potential with this with the proposed shield system coupled with the prior hull absorption suggestion, however even then a faction home should be an exception to that rule rather than the rule itself.