Suggestion: New Shield Type 'Facing Shields'

sandkid

S
So I saw a thread on blocking - as in blocking a player - and it prompted an idea that reminds me of one of the ships from Everspace. Long story short, what if Elite had a shield that only 'faced' one-direction (likely forward) and how might that be useful?

First, the module in a nutshell:
  • High-Capacity shield with fairly high recharge rate due to its small area of coverage
  • Shield only covers ~90 degrees (spherical) in one of six cardinal directions, which can be changed at will
  • Changing shield facing de-powers shield for 5 seconds while it re-routes to new emitter setting, retaining its capacity as it does so but not protecting the ship at all until it onlines again
  • Shield has a rapid recharge, but very slow broken recharge (due to complex lattic bla bla bla balance reasons bla bla bla)

How it works:
  • The shield defaults to a forward (bow) setting, projecting the shield in a limited area directly in front of the ship.
  • The shield can be reset to one of the other five emitters (stern/rear, starboard, portside, top, bottom) via the systems panel or a hotkey that can cycle the positions and then 'sets' after released for one second.

Advantages:
  • The shield is definitely designed for two scenarios: 1) fighting in an agile craft that can maintain the shield facing towards the primary threat and 2) fighting against a singular powerful craft, allowing the defender to more efficiently use their shield against that attacker.
  • Smaller ships (like the eagle mkII) can use this shield to make strafing runs 'safer' and more readily bring their weapons to bear on an opponent, avoiding damage from other angles via agility while using the shield to soak up damage in direct engagement.
  • Larger ships (like the Type-9) can re-route the shield to offset poor agility, increasing survivability with tactics rather than raw hitpoints, as well as providing a strong defense to the rear if attempting escape.

Disadvantages:
  • The shield's downtime when re-routing is a significant risk when faced against strong opponents and must be used smartly to survive.
  • If the shield breaks from enduring too much firepower, the broken recharge leaves the defender very exposed for a long duration compared to a typical shield
  • The shield is essentially worthless when utilized against multiple attacking opponents, unless those opponents are slower and all approaching from the same angle


Just a rough idea for additional shield module ideas. I'm a fan of variety, and I could personally see a shield module like this helping small ships have more staying power in engagements against larger targets. It's a trade-off, of course, but that's what makes module choice interesting in my opinion. Thoughts?
 

AdmiralXanos

AdmiralXanos
I'd have the shield cover the whole ship with high dmg resist in the set ''facing" direction and dmg vulnerability everywhere else. so you're never exposed, just weak areas.
 

Red Zephyr

Red Zephyr
The later Wing Commander games had directional shields, and it's made it into Citizen as well. It's kind if fun.

No need to power it down as it redirects, though. Make the redirect instant or very few people would use it (ramming shield, lol).

That said, it would mean more hotkeys, minimally two, optimally six, taking up more of my finite keyboard space. It would add a nice, new layer of optional risk/reward micro, but I'd be hesitant to rework my key bindings again.
 

Lestat

Banned
Lestat
In early ideas of Elite Dangerous was using 3 section shield Forward aft and centre and being able to control them.
 

Kissamies

Kissamies
Shield sections is a fairly common feature for space sims of the past and present, especially the space combat sims. I wouldn't mind. It could also be something to delegate if they ever decided to revisit multicrew. Perhaps some size limitations: Small ships front/back only, mediums 4 directions and larges all 6. The narrower areas (relatively) of the big ship would allow more powerful focus.
 

Tikanderoga

Tikanderoga
This has been around since the old X-Wing game, although you only had front and Aft.
5 directions would be a bit too much to manage, but I know the ship from Everspace you are referring to - and it's a decent idea. Especially since many fights are about jousting. So the more maneuverable ship would get a big upper hand.
 

Trotsky2112

T
How would you switch sides in combat?
Sounds good, but I always thought that rebound shields would be a good idea: thermal vulnerability doubled, but deflects all kinetic and explosive projectiles in random directions.
or refractive shields: vulnerability to kinetic and explosive damage doubled, but reflects all thermal damage (especially lasers) to use as a beam weapon.
 

Lestat

Banned
Lestat
Trotsky2112 said:
How would you switch sides in combat?
Sounds good, but I always thought that rebound shields would be a good idea: thermal vulnerability doubled, but deflects all kinetic and explosive projectiles in random directions.
or refractive shields: vulnerability to kinetic and explosive damage doubled, but reflects all thermal damage (especially lasers) to use as a beam weapon.
Click to expand...
I think it would be like Alt and Power management controls Shields (Front), Engine (Middle), Weapon (rear) and the last button reset. I don't think it should be an instant bonus. Maybe take a few seconds.
 

Mersozz

Mersozz
AdmiralXanos said:
X-Wing alliance had directional shields too.
Wing commander is also set in space.
Space Quest is also a science fiction.
Decent also had lasers.
… voice fades out listing yet more games that barrow things from similar genres...
Click to expand...

Yup.... and TIE Fighter as well. One of the best flight sim games ever.

Before I started playing Elite Dangerous, I was pining for Lucas Arts to team up with 1C:Maddox (IL-2 Sturmovik) to produce a new Star Wars sim.
 

AdmiralXanos

AdmiralXanos
Mersozz said:
Yup.... and TIE Fighter as well. One of the best flight sim games ever.

Before I started playing Elite Dangerous, I was pining for Lucas Arts to team up with 1C:Maddox (IL-2 Sturmovik) to produce a new Star Wars sim.
Click to expand...

I used to play xwing alliance with my brother and "buy" ships with monopoly money. We'd roleplay missions we created, total blast, now I've got that dream game with Elite and sometimes my brother will wing up with me.
 

Captain Willard

Captain Willard
Forward facing shields only? NAAH
That wouldn't have worked very well when Sarah J had programmed npc's to stick to the back of ships like glue.
That was some fun nasty little fights there. Till peeps complained they were being slaughtered.
Multi cannon plasma torpedoes, to funny.
 

Julio Montega

Julio Montega
The problem with facing shields is that engineering adds so much resilience,
that this would result in even more broken combat.
Macro shield facings and boom you are even harder to kill.
Elite never had shield facings iirc, just leave it as it is
and invest manpower in balancing instead, then we could talk
about skilled shield operation.
 

Teh Smoo

T
No.

Not that's a bad idea, just that it wouldn't work very well for this game. You already have to track a target or targets in 3d space, manage defenses, manage power allocation, manage offense, and manage fighters. Putting in yet another directional thing would be too much. Oh, and manage jumping away, and perhaps heat and optionally cargo to loot during combat as well.

And the idea about having a resist bonus on one side is better, IMO, than having off-sides completely undefended. I don't like 5-second gaps in coverage at all, either. It would probably be practically used as a rear shield for running away.
 
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