Today I'd like to present two module concepts that are not guns per se, but made for combat. The general lack of creativity concerning the shields in Elite led me to this. Right now all we have is a normal, fast charging and one high-cap low-charge shield that already fill the basic needs, but don't present anythign new apart from color and numbers. This could have been easily solved with only one shield type and heavier engineering actually. But that's not the point of this thread. I'm here today to present you:
1) The field-adapting shield generator
What it does: Shields are really good to protect your ship and everyone should have one, that's for sure. However all shields until now generate around the user's ship in this cumbersome bubble-shape, making them much easier to hit. This can be a neck-breaker especially for small ships like the Viper or Eagle or even the imperial clipper, as they can't equip many shield boosters and their optionals are limited, too. The field-adapting shield generator would generate a shield that adapts a ships shape exactly, around half a meter over the hull. Apart from that, it would not go down completely when silent running is active, instead it would run at 10% of its power for up to 40 seconds, making a stealthy approach less suicidal.
Why it should exist: This shield is clearly designed to offer certain ships a better chance in combat and to improve performance in long-range engagements. It fills a niche that increases the combat power of smaller ships while being less useful for the combat-whales and sharks out there (big three, python, type 10, FDL). It also would make the facing towards an enemy more important: A cobra and viper for example have a really thin frontal combat profile, and to be able to get the maximum oftheir protection have to face the enemy directy, as they are basically free kills as soon as an enemy faces the up- or downside of the ship. This would add an incentive to play smaller ships while also filling the stealth/long range fighter role.
How the stats could look: Giving the advantage of a better profile, the strength would mirror this: The shield durability would be around 25% below the bi-weave, with a similar recharge rate and a fast broken re-charge rate. Power draw would be at the level of a normal A shield generator and it would be slightly more pricy. Mass and distributor draw are equal to same-sized bi-weaves. Additionally, due to the complexity of the technology and given the uselessness on big to huge ships, it would be only availible up to size 6.
Note: I think a shield like this could very well be implemented as guardian-tech. Guardians are known to have had a very advanced shield technology, maybe something like this could also go with resistance to shield-penetrating thargoid attacks.
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2) The Frontal Shield Reinforcement Unit
What it does: As you have probably guessed from the name, it will reinforce your frontal shields! Now, bear with me, it will only net a minor (10-30% up to the max 75% resistance a ship can have, but 20% overall damage reduction minimum) resistance to weapon fire while being used. It goes to a utility mount and has to be triggered actively to reinforce the frontal 45 degrees of your shields while drawing SYS power. What it really excells at is resisting heavy impacts. That's right, you can ram the hell out of enemies with it. It won't be an anti-PA smartbomb though, as it needs one second to charge up and your shields won't regenerate while it's active.The shield damage reduction when ramming is up to 60% when fully charged.
Why it should exist: Ramming can net a player one of the best damage per energy rates in the whole game if done right. It's also risky as hell, though. I have rammed down corvettes with my python already, you can easily take away 30% of a big three's hull or change its course into an asteroid, make its weapons lose you or simply stay at point blank range, basically kiss, an enemie's hull/shields so his weapons are unable to track you. With this admittedly very very niche-y module players could specialize into a more swashbuckly, chaotic combat style or simply bolster their defenses for a while while jousting versus a ship with superior firepower. When used intelligently, a module like this easily makes up for the lost shield booster.
How the stats would look: The power usage would actually depend on the shield stregth of a ship! General formula is 1 MW power plant usage per 100 MJ shields and 0.15 MW distributor draw per 100 MJ, so it would be quite power-hungry when activated. its mass would also be quite high, around 15t, it's a very sturdy module. The activation would take 1 second to wind up to full power and then it would draw SYS energy until the distributor is empty. After using it there is a five second cooldown for re-activation. Ramming damage is not increased with it, only damage on the ramming ships shields is reduced. No, you won't be able to ram-kill a corvette with an eagle. The minimum damage reduction while active will also apply to absolute damage, however it won't apply to other damage types that are already reduced by the shields base resistances. Those two reduced damage types would namely be corrosive and absolute damage.
Thanks for reading! [heart]
1) The field-adapting shield generator
What it does: Shields are really good to protect your ship and everyone should have one, that's for sure. However all shields until now generate around the user's ship in this cumbersome bubble-shape, making them much easier to hit. This can be a neck-breaker especially for small ships like the Viper or Eagle or even the imperial clipper, as they can't equip many shield boosters and their optionals are limited, too. The field-adapting shield generator would generate a shield that adapts a ships shape exactly, around half a meter over the hull. Apart from that, it would not go down completely when silent running is active, instead it would run at 10% of its power for up to 40 seconds, making a stealthy approach less suicidal.
Why it should exist: This shield is clearly designed to offer certain ships a better chance in combat and to improve performance in long-range engagements. It fills a niche that increases the combat power of smaller ships while being less useful for the combat-whales and sharks out there (big three, python, type 10, FDL). It also would make the facing towards an enemy more important: A cobra and viper for example have a really thin frontal combat profile, and to be able to get the maximum oftheir protection have to face the enemy directy, as they are basically free kills as soon as an enemy faces the up- or downside of the ship. This would add an incentive to play smaller ships while also filling the stealth/long range fighter role.
How the stats could look: Giving the advantage of a better profile, the strength would mirror this: The shield durability would be around 25% below the bi-weave, with a similar recharge rate and a fast broken re-charge rate. Power draw would be at the level of a normal A shield generator and it would be slightly more pricy. Mass and distributor draw are equal to same-sized bi-weaves. Additionally, due to the complexity of the technology and given the uselessness on big to huge ships, it would be only availible up to size 6.
Note: I think a shield like this could very well be implemented as guardian-tech. Guardians are known to have had a very advanced shield technology, maybe something like this could also go with resistance to shield-penetrating thargoid attacks.
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2) The Frontal Shield Reinforcement Unit
What it does: As you have probably guessed from the name, it will reinforce your frontal shields! Now, bear with me, it will only net a minor (10-30% up to the max 75% resistance a ship can have, but 20% overall damage reduction minimum) resistance to weapon fire while being used. It goes to a utility mount and has to be triggered actively to reinforce the frontal 45 degrees of your shields while drawing SYS power. What it really excells at is resisting heavy impacts. That's right, you can ram the hell out of enemies with it. It won't be an anti-PA smartbomb though, as it needs one second to charge up and your shields won't regenerate while it's active.The shield damage reduction when ramming is up to 60% when fully charged.
Why it should exist: Ramming can net a player one of the best damage per energy rates in the whole game if done right. It's also risky as hell, though. I have rammed down corvettes with my python already, you can easily take away 30% of a big three's hull or change its course into an asteroid, make its weapons lose you or simply stay at point blank range, basically kiss, an enemie's hull/shields so his weapons are unable to track you. With this admittedly very very niche-y module players could specialize into a more swashbuckly, chaotic combat style or simply bolster their defenses for a while while jousting versus a ship with superior firepower. When used intelligently, a module like this easily makes up for the lost shield booster.
How the stats would look: The power usage would actually depend on the shield stregth of a ship! General formula is 1 MW power plant usage per 100 MJ shields and 0.15 MW distributor draw per 100 MJ, so it would be quite power-hungry when activated. its mass would also be quite high, around 15t, it's a very sturdy module. The activation would take 1 second to wind up to full power and then it would draw SYS energy until the distributor is empty. After using it there is a five second cooldown for re-activation. Ramming damage is not increased with it, only damage on the ramming ships shields is reduced. No, you won't be able to ram-kill a corvette with an eagle. The minimum damage reduction while active will also apply to absolute damage, however it won't apply to other damage types that are already reduced by the shields base resistances. Those two reduced damage types would namely be corrosive and absolute damage.
Thanks for reading! [heart]