Shielding Direction and Field Amplifiers

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Kourtious
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I think ships and shield generators should be further differentiated by how they interact with shield coverage.

First, shields are differentiated by directional or omnidirectional. Omnidirectional shields protect the ship on all sides. Directional shields only protect the ship in a certain direction, e.g. front, starboard, rear, etc. Directional shields have a limited shield radius that determines how much of the ship in that direction will be protected.

Second, ship design may limit or expand the effects of shield coverage. For example, larger ships could limit shield coverage. For example, the Phobos-class Dreadnaught could only have shields facing the front at a limited angle of 90 degrees. Honestly, I think most ships should have a limited shield coverage and odd directional positioning (Luminous drones could have their shields facing backwards).

Third, the targeting problem could reflect the radius of the shield on a target and thus imply to the player where the targets weak points are.

Next, I want to introduce the idea of field amplifiers. These are shield related equipments that deal with the coverage of shields and shield strength. In my opinion, shields are much weaker than armor. If shields were stronger, the need for WMD weapons could be lowered. Without buffing shields directly, field amplifiers can be used as an alternative to make shields appear stronger.

Field amplifiers can do multiple things to shields. It could expand its shield coverage, make the shield omnidirectional/directional, or increase its strength at the cost of more power usage. An interesting example is "Focused Shields", where it halves the shield coverage of the shield but increases the hp by 50%. Of course, not all shields can be affected due to tech differences, so let's say this "Focused Shields" device only affect shields up to level 4. This means you can make your Class III deflector more effective towards the front but be exposed in the rear. Or let's say, this devices' bonuses get weaker with higher level shields. So if you use a Class V deflector, you would only get a 40% bonus to your hp but with all the negatives.

Shields are a pretty cool concept but it's too dumbed down right now. I think this suggestion could diversify it significantly and make it a more significant part of a player's strategy.
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Field amplifiers (tier 4 item) and their array counterpart (tier 5) are crafting components for mechanist items (shields) in Vault of the Galaxy (part 2). Remoras also use field amplifiers to add non-regenerating hp to few of their shields in part 2, much like superconducting coils in part 1.
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Kourtious
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These don't necessarily have to be limited to Part 2 (I have not tried the crafts systems of part 2 yet). I am sure Humans have thought of these technologies given that shields have been in existence for at least a century in Human Space.

I'm sure that adding these concepts to Part 1 would be fantastic, as shields are bland towards the later stages of the game where armor is significantly more important.
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Just as Remoras' scourge cannon/howitzers are the part 2 version of the actinide waste cannon, field amplifiers are the early part 2 version of the superconducting coil. If you want field amplifiers in part 1, then superconducting coils and shields that are used mostly by Hurin destroyers is probably the best you will get.

As for non-omni shields, maybe that can be implemented, but it probably will not be through field amplifiers because they are used as part 2 coils. There are ROMs and crystals to buff shields, but they are minor, and they are more useful to repair broken shields then sell for profit (or use yourself if it is better than yours) than get a measly +10% or resistance that will be obsolete after a few systems.

Humans are relatively primitive in Transcendence. Some of the popular sci-fi toys are beyond them. (There are some items I would like to add for Drake Technologies, but they are inappropriate overtech for humans in part 1.)

If shields are stronger, it just means it takes longer to kill them. They still have armor and hull. That said, in part 1, most enemies do not use shields, and many that do use shields are underleveled. For example, Ranx gunships using monopole deflector, in level 7 or 8 system. (Years ago, I made a weapon for the old Items912 mod that drained enemies shields and healed yours, but there were too few enemies with good shields, so I scrapped the weapon.)
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
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Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Kourtious
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I think you are misunderstanding my proposal.

My proposed "Field Amplifiers" are devices, not consumables. So I am not relating them to SuperConducting Coils or Diamond Lattice Crystals. Instead, they are more akin to Makayev Enhancers with certain benefits. Those benefits may include widening or decreasing the shield coverage or applying enhancements.

In fact, it would make more sense that Humans require a dedicated device to apply these enhancements rather than simply using coils for Part 2 Aliens.

Furthermore, I am suggesting that Directional Shields have its own category of shield generators. They work the same as regular shield generators but could only face a certain direction with a certain radius, meaning they have exposed armor sections. My "Field Amplifier" proposal is to have an additional device that could tweak these aspects of shield generators. So in a ship, you may have a shield generator and a "Field Amplifier" device. The shield generator could be omnidirectional but the "Field Amplifier" device would halve the shield coverage but make it stronger.
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I do not know if you want a visible shield/firewall that can block and/or ram-and-damage stuff or a simple shield that cannot defend from every direction. They have appeared in mods before, so the idea is not impossible.

Partial shields sound like a gimmick device akin to superconducting shields, Invincible, Trenton; possibly the Novaya armor repairer. They probably need to be freakishly powerful in some way to be worth using over a conventional shield.

Enhancer is a huge opportunity cost, especially for gunships with only two non-weapon slots (after reactor and shields). It would probably be easier to have a +max hp% enhancer to most shields than to have a swivel-like bonus for few partial shields. The idea would be handy for a new enemy faction or a gimmick line (like Makayev's Novaya) from a corporation.

If you want omnidirectional shield, just get a conventional shield that can block hits from anywhere. Partial shields have a point if they are locked in place, like a semi-circle in front or behind the ship. Shield may have a toggle to move the shield from front to back.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!

Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
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