Shield Regeneration Lasers

[Mike Evans]

Alright. Much appreciated, wont keep you from your weekend any longer.

I'm still in work

 

[who?]

I'm still in work

We don't believe you. Post a screenshot of exactly what's on your screen right now.

 

[TomP]

@Mike Evans, just wanted to say how pleased I am to see you guys going down a more creative route than the +10% to FSD/Thrusters/DPS. That in itself has put me in a very good mood. So thanks!

 

[Mike Evans]

We don't believe you. Post a screenshot of exactly what's on your screen right now.

Don't need to, it looks exactly the same as this webpage your reading this on.

 

[Ian Skippy]

I'm still in work

Oh dear. If its going to be another pizza-weekend you know where to find us.

 

[J. Calvert (Joshua)]

It only works against wing members. If you're not in a wing regardless of the reason (solo or otherwise) it's not going to be able to recharge any shields. It still will be a perfectly functional weapon however.

If i'm not in a wing but engage a wing in battle could members of that wing use it to heal eachother ?

 

[CMDR Corlas]

I don't see how hard it is to imagine that in a universe where there are literal energy shields that can absorb and block all incoming energy by consuming from some other source of energy there couldn't be a directed beam from a third party that if tuned correctly (hence the need for a wing) could impart more energy to reconstruct said shield. It's not "healing" the ship, it's just recharging the shields in the same way a SCB can dump extra energy into a shield to recharge it. No shields and it's useless. Not in a wing, it's useless. Concentrating on aiming at a wing member, you're not able to attack anyone else. Get your fire groups confused, you've just attacked your wing mate.

For me, it would be fairly easy to believe if the receiving ship had to do something as well. I made a different thread where I suggested that of utility module designed to receive incoming energy from a healing laser and transfer it to the shields would make this all a lot more sci-fi feeling me. Super-extra bonus points if the module has to be targeted by the healer.

For me, a lot of this is very much tied up in my love of flight sims, especially WWII style sims. I really like how much Elite evokes the feel of old-school Secret Weapons of the Luftwafffe or Hellcats Over The Pacific, and a healgun inevitably flies in the face of that, even in a way that the rest of the sci-fi setting does not.

 

[Eymerich]

I'm still in work

well... maybe you could give us some more informations about some other project...

I can assure it will not a spoiler to us [yesnod]

 

[Mike Evans]

@Mike Evans, just wanted to say how pleased I am to see you guys going down a more creative route than the +10% to FSD/Thrusters/DPS. That in itself has put me in a very good mood. So thanks!

Don't thank us just yet. These experimental modifications are weapon specific only at the moment and is only a small part of the engineer update. More traditional modifications that tweak the underlying stats by trading one aspect for another are also a part.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

That's not how we intend the weapon to be used. Additionally the lore suggests you need to know something very important about the target shield to help out and that information is exactly what you don't want random ships finding out as it could be used to compromise their shields.

This sounds cool, shield frequencies?

 

[Mike Evans]

If i'm not in a wing but engage a wing in battle could members of that wing use it to heal eachother ?

Sure if they have them.

 

[Mike Evans]

This sounds cool, shield frequencies?

Basically yes. You need to sync the weapon up with their shields and the weapon is also smart enough to become harmless against hulls on wing member too when their shields are down.

 

[Mephane]

It only works against wing members. If you're not in a wing regardless of the reason (solo or otherwise) it's not going to be able to recharge any shields. It still will be a perfectly functional weapon however.

Not at all. If you have the wrong fire group you'll be hitting your buddy with normal weapons rather than the shield recharging one by accident. The weapon will always regenerate shields on a wing member if they have a shield active and if not won't do any damage to them at all.

I see what you did there. It's a tool for wings, really. A gun that replenishes the shield of wing members and won't even do damage if their shields are down. I see you base this of some sort of hidden value (shield frequency?) which you share with your wing but no one outside is supposed to know. That's some Star Trek level handwavium so I can live with that.

But wings already have the advantage in any combat situation anyway compared to a lone ship. Also, the new tool allows wings to drastically shorten downtime between fights due to slow shield regeneration. What is a lone player to do in that situation? Are we going to see an equivalent to this, a device that is activated like a weapon, consumes WEP power and replenishes our own shields? Or is this your (FD, collectively) way of "nerfing solo" indirectly by adding extremely useful tools for regeneration and downtime reduction unavailable to solo players?

 

[jabokai]

I don't see how hard it is to imagine that in a universe where there are literal energy shields that can absorb and block all incoming energy by consuming from some other source of energy there couldn't be a directed beam from a third party that if tuned correctly (hence the need for a wing) could impart more energy to reconstruct said shield. It's not "healing" the ship, it's just recharging the shields in the same way a SCB can dump extra energy into a shield to recharge it. No shields and it's useless. Not in a wing, it's useless. Concentrating on aiming at a wing member, you're not able to attack anyone else. Get your fire groups confused, you've just attacked your wing mate.

So it literally is a passive addon to a normal laser, no interactivity or depth to it - you fire it at an enemy it's a hurt beam, you fire it at a wingmate and it's a shield recharge?

 

[Black Ops]

It's a logistics(logi) ship. I don't see why this is a problem. we have 'em in EVE. This adds a little bit of much needed complexity. Hopefully we get harder content, and logi chains will be a thing. in pvp, just like with e-war ships: kill logi first, then kill the target.

A better way would be, IMO, instead of a module that reps..have a ship class devoted to it, with appropriate bonuses, and tough armor/shields.

 

[Mephane]

More traditional modifications that tweak the underlying stats by trading one aspect for another are also a part.

Emphasis mine. This is good to hear. I hope the trade-offs are at least proportional, e.g. "thrusters gain 10% speed but lose 10% agility".

 

[Ian Skippy]

So it literally is a passive addon to a normal laser, no interactivity or depth to it - you fire it at an enemy it's a hurt beam, you fire it at a wingmate and it's a shield recharge?

Cheer up, if you apply it to a c4 beam it'll be almost a mile wide. [rolleyes]

 

[Deathwatch]

Oh please don't tempt them. We have discussed those things to death. These SCB are fine now.
Also they are definitely NOT the exact same thing, so it is entirely possible that someone like me who likes SCB is very much opposed to shield regenerating lasers... which I am not by the way.

I do not know what to think about it yet. I feel I have too little information about this device. It depends on the way it is done I guess.
In general I welcome as much variation in devices and modules as possible.

Id rather each ship be balanced without scb being considrred larger shields and no banks.

 

[Khelder]

You dont see how it could be anything but a healing role? I have a FSDi on my explonda ship, does that make me an 'interdictor role'? Will it unfairly punish 'wings with no FSDi'?Or does it just give my ship an extra function whenever I want to use it? And why doesn't providing support make sense, other than that they currently arent in yet? We already have many 'roles' in the game, some of them the staple of coop games in general (tank, stealth). Support 'role' is another one that is even suggested in some ships designs (FGS), but currently has no actual modules for it. Support roles, whether 'medic', 'repair' or whatever are also common in contemporary settings and sci-fi (so definitely not 'fantasy' specific), and there is absolutely nothing in ED lore that suggests navies have suddenly lost the notion of support vessels. Heck, what about 'passenger missions'? Isn't that 'clearly trying to include a new role'?

Well, it clearly is "healing" (i.e. repairing/boosting). I guess how far it goes towards being a clearly defined "role" would be how players ended up using it (i.e. assigning someone in the wing the "role" of healing the others or just let everyone have the functionality and hope for the best). If you used an FSDi in a wing, then I would describe your role as the guy who pulls your target out of supercruise (drawing aggro?)

Otherwise, fair comments though. I've been thinking (rethinking) the whole idea of "support" roles. I guess they would be fairly common (in organised settings). I couldn't imagine a gang of pirates worrying too much about someone to patch wounds while in the heat of battle. Maybe that's just my lack of imagination. Perhaps it's the delivery method (a weapon) that I have a problem with? Perhaps it just seems to flirt too much with typical MMORPG mechanics for my liking? Perhaps it's that I generally link support roles with things like organised navies and us as lone commanders - even in a wing - don't really fit that mould? Something just isn't sit right with me at the moment.

 

[Monk]

I'm sure if you have NPC wing men in future they would also be valid targets for this.

NPC Wingmen confirmed!