Shield Regeneration Lasers

[Derath]

Well, I didn't come up with the "the two ships are just really one then!" analogy. I think it's an entirely wrong way to look at the situation. It's pretty silly to claim that, as a single pilot, you're better off facing two ships that can attack you or heal each other than you are facing two ships that can only attack.

I get that people are trying to defend that healing allies won't make wings even more OP, but that's a pretty nonsense argument I think. Of course it will make them more powerful. The weapon wasn't added to make them weaker. No blame, I make plenty of nonsense arguments myself in the heat of the moment.

lol sorry I think i got the wrong end of the stick with the whole thing, couldn't wrap my head around it.

I don't think it will have a huge impact on wings because time spent healing is time not spent doing DPS, it might work out as a net buff but the way wings interact currently doesn't suggest that having healing lasers would change anything, nobody even runs beams currently lol.

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This weapon is illogical. The transference of any kind of energy onto the shield of another ship weakens that shield, yet somehow this new weapon not only can repair a shield by transferring energy to it, it can also discern between a shield mounted on a friendly ship and a shield mounted on an enemy ship?

Anyone got any pointers to where the workings of this technology are explained?

Have you got a pointer for how a shield works? Or FTL travel? Or any of the other thousands of things in ED that have no scientific basis but are there because its a game

 

[Jack Schitt]

Will the AI wings be able to use this? If so then the solo/lone wolf player really did just get the middle finger.

Only two mods (so far) are wing restricted.

Two out of how many, though?

If you've done 25 out of the 30 (so far) then somewhere between 7% and 23% of the final modifications list will be wing restricted, which seems reasonable. But if you've only actually implemented three (so far) then the upper limit could be as high as 93% if the other 27 are all wing-only.

(Of course if you're really evil and you've only done two, it could be all of them.)

Sorry to be picky, Mike, but this is how we roll on the interwebs. Any chance of a guesstimate as to what fraction of the first batch of mods will be for group play only?

Thanks for taking the time out to clarify some of this, by the way. It may not be obvious because a lot of it is damage limitation after the slightly vague nature of the tease, but it this level of developer feedback is always appreciated even by those of us with a bit of a reputation for grousing.

 

[Ian Phillips]

Only two mods (so far) are wing restricted.

You promised not to tell anyone.

It's true. I'd never get in a wing with you!

 

[CMDR Corlas]

Heal-de-Lance meta incoming! C4 healing beam get.

I pretty much instinctively min-max in my gaming. I love being able to do that, and I love all the planning and optimization. I also almost always play the combat healer. If I ever get into coordinated group PvP (which I have been thinking about a lot recently), the internal pressure to actually make a C4 Heal-de-Lance is going to be overwhelming. >_< Difficulty or RNG in getting a healmod won't lessen it, it will just make it all hurt more while my obsessive brain still drives me to do it.

/so scared...

 

[Lasse B.]

Have you got a pointer for how a shield works? Or FTL travel? Or any of the other thousands of things in ED that have no scientific basis but are there because its a game

Nope, I'm merely going by how things are working in the game world. I guess this weapon is going to be one of FD's many little inconsistencies.

 

[Mamif]

Loving all the communication and info teases today and we don't even have a news letter yet! If this continues until beta day I am likely to implode and explode at the same time from excitement!

I'm glad you started dropping info to give me my space fix. I was close to disappearing into another 200 hours of X3 and that never ends well...

 

[Kristov]

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160119/ncomms10374/full/ncomms10374.html
I find it hard to believe that we will be able to use lasers to heal tissue within decades, but cannot figure out how to use laser to restore a shield the thousand years that follow.

Light, not lasers, light therapy isn't new, been around for a while. Lasers aren't used to heal tissue, they damage it, removing tattoos, excising tumors/cysts, cauterizing, that sort of thing.

People complaining about a lazer that sends energy to regenerate shields (while we have no details other than words no stats) but don't complain about Shield Cell Banks which are the exact same thing. What has this world come too.

I did complain about SCBs, and I still want them gone, health potions for a spaceship? Seriously? The science behind them is actually good however, still don't like them none the less.

Lasers recharging shields when the IFF indicates a friendly and damaging shields when IFF indicates a hostile? No, that's a bit silly. A device to recharge someone else's shields from a distance, ok, I'm good with that. I'd also like to see a way to repair other ships physically as well, so a couple of tools for repairing hulls and recharging shields, all for it.

Lasers that hurt this target but recharge that target's shields...no.

 

[Derath]

Nope, I'm merely going by how things are working in the game world. I guess this weapon is going to be one of FD's many little inconsistencies.

at least you were honest about it! I'll even add my own handwavium incase it helps, shields = energy modulation, they regenerate by your SCB/Generator adding energy at a specific frequency, when your in a wing you can do the same thing by knowing your wing mates settings you could boost their shield in much the same way.

I believe one of the old Sci-Fi TV shows had something similar, where knowing shield modulation settings allowed you to bypass the shields? (I'm sure a forum goer will help me out) it'd be much like that, just it works both ways!

 

[CMDR Corlas]

No need to handwave shields or FTL travel; both are based in real physics: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...make-star-wars-deflector-shields-in-real-life

As for FTL travel, it's a misnomer. You're not actually traveling distance via FTL, you're manipulating space-time via gravity to shorten the distance. That's also why frameshift interdictors work and why you slow down around celestial bodies.

 

[metatheurgist]

This weapon is illogical. The transference of any kind of energy onto the shield of another ship weakens that shield, yet somehow this new weapon not only can repair a shield by transferring energy to it, it can also discern between a shield mounted on a friendly ship and a shield mounted on an enemy ship?

Anyone got any pointers to where the workings of this technology are explained?

If I had any idea to make a working shield that does what it does in Elite I'd be patenting the idea and contacting the US military. I sure as hell wouldn't be wasting my time on this forum!

@Mike, I think I'd prefer it if the modification was all or nothing. You have a shield repair laser or a damage laser. No switching. That would be a drawback.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Mods like this are not size restricted as mentioned above. They're weapon type restricted mind.

Nice. Thanks for the info!

 

[Ozric]

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.

Out of everything you've said Mike, a lot of which sounds positive, this is the bit I'm really not sure about. I thought that it was going to be just a regeneration model (though the friend or foe in the title should have given it away), but actually it's a 2 in 1 laser.

What if you have 2 vs 1 (A+B vs C), you say go for the one who is healing first (A), but what's to stop his partner (B) stopping attacking you and healing (A), (A) can then attack C. Who does C attack now? A is having their shields recharged, but if you go for B, then A will jut start healing B and then B attacks you.

It's a non stop attack cycle, with very little chance of C ever getting anyone's shields down.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Oh all right then this is begging for it....

What's the other wing-restricted mod?

I cannot divulge the fact that Ian Philips is the other wing restricted mod, really wish I could but professional etiquette prevents me.

Wait and see

Evil Dev..

 

[Lasse B.]

at least you were honest about it! I'll even add my own handwavium incase it helps, shields = energy modulation, they regenerate by your SCB/Generator adding energy at a specific frequency, when your in a wing you can do the same thing by knowing your wing mates settings you could boost their shield in much the same way.

I believe one of the old Sci-Fi TV shows had something similar, where knowing shield modulation settings allowed you to bypass the shields? (I'm sure a forum goer will help me out) it'd be much like that, just it works both ways!

Yeah, Star Trek had this thing where they can't shoot through shields unless they know the correct shield harmonic frequency. So to counter this fundamental change in gameplay mechanics FD should enhance one of your ship's scanners to be able to figure out that frequency so you too can bypass the shield using ordinary energy weapons fire.

 

[Colonel Kenney]

I'm totally fine with healing beams.

I remember a game you used to spray "nanites" on other ships to heal them.

Self hull repair limpets would be a great addition as well - as they could spray compounds on the hull to regenerate it.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

Yeah, Star Trek had this thing where they can't shoot through shields unless they know the correct shield harmonic frequency. So to counter this fundamental change in gameplay mechanics FD should enhance one of your ship's scanners to be able to figure out that frequency so you too can bypass the shield using ordinary energy weapons fire.

That could be really cool. Put it on a scanner, so you would have to hold lock for 10 seconds, and make it so that it could make your laser weapons partially bypass shields.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

This beam modification might add an interesting aspect of balance regarding wings of 4 independent ships vs. wings of two multi-crew ships (both with pilot and gunner).

The independent ships will have to decide, whether they want to attack or recharge their wingmate's shields. The multi-crew ships will be able to do both at the same time: the pilots attack their target with the main weapons, the gunners use their turret-mouted recharge-beams to replenish their wing's shields.

 

[Jack Schitt]

Heal-de-Lance meta incoming! C4 healing beam get.

Someone on the Mobius Facebook group referred to that build as an Am-bu-Lance, which is absolute genius.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

This weapon is illogical. The transference of any kind of energy onto the shield of another ship weakens that shield, yet somehow this new weapon not only can repair a shield by transferring energy to it, it can also discern between a shield mounted on a friendly ship and a shield mounted on an enemy ship?

Anyone got any pointers to where the workings of this technology are explained?

And players are not allowed to read it!

 

[Ozric]

This beam modification might add an interesting aspect of balance regarding wings of 4 independent ships vs. wings of two multi-crew ships (both with pilot and gunner).

The independent ships will have to decide, whether they want to attack or recharge their wingmate's shields. The multi-crew ships will be able to do both at the same time: the pilots attack their target with the main weapons, the gunners use their turret-mouted recharge-beams to replenish their wing's shields.

But as the same weapon can heal/damage by your own admission once multicrew comes, my scenario is even more bleak. Swing the guns onto you wingmate while their shields are damaged, when they're topped up attack enemy, swing back to heal, back to attack...

I know that they will be rare weapons, but at the moment there's absolutely no drawback to using them.