Shields

[Aeonic]

In the RC versions, shields have been weakened so now armor is much more important, while shields are somewhat insignificant.

I was thinking, instead of weakening shields so that armor is more important now, how about just changing their role a little but through absorbAdj. You don't have to decrease a shield's power, just make it so that it doesn't absorb 100% of the damage it receives from every damage type.

For example, you might have a shield that absorbs 100% of ion and positron damage, which rely on the shield's HP to block, while only absorbing 20% of plasma damage. Then you'll be counting on your armor to stop the plasma damage, so armor doesn't become insignificant, but shields don't have to either. You could have gravity-based shields which work very well against kinetic weapons, while energy-based shields work very well against energy-based damage types.

Bottom line, shields can still be very powerful, but they're not impenetrable. You can't rely on your shields to protect your ship 100% until they go down, and you can't fly through swarms of enemies just because you have a tough shield expecting to go through unscathed.

[bluesaberist]

I don't think it's possible right now, but maybe there should be a dynamic version of absorbAdj. Then you could have shield that only starts to leak at about 50% HP. That would sort of make sense anyway.

[Wurmish]

So you're thinking changing everything to a modified Trenton then? Sounds interesting... But then how would Quantumspheres work?

[Aeonic]

Dodge? They could always be slowed down.

If absorbAdj can be modified during the game, perhaps shields, when used, could be run at full power to absorb 100% of damage but at very high energy cost.

Actually it would be kind of neat if all shields could do that anyway. You use your shield and you're given an option to set the absorb adjustment percentage that you want, while higher percentages use considerably more power than lower percentages. This wouldn't influence the shield's HP potential any, so you could still run a class 1 deflector at 100% for maybe 20MW of power, while at 50% its only 5MW or 25% is only 1MW, etc...

I figure the more fine-tuning you can do to your ship, the better.

[Atarlost]

So you're thinking changing everything to a modified Trenton then? Sounds interesting... But then how would Quantumspheres work?

Any shield that has an absorbadj above some threshold (80?) should block armor effects like disintigration, EMP, device damage, radiation, and blinding. and that threshold should be the standard absorbadj.

I've been suggesting that the trenton should be the rule rather than the exception for a while now.

[Aury]

hmmm...
I disagree with something like this, my main gripe being those annoying red 'your armor got hit' flashes, though there are others.
FIRST remove the red flashes, and then I'll see about how strangely the balance ends up after that.
A good mix of trenton and standard shield types would be better imo. Not all one way, and not all the other way. But the red flashes need to be changed. Perhapse a flash only on the screen's border?

[bluesaberist]

Or just flash the segment of armor that got hit? That would be nice.

[Bobby]

I personally kind of like the flashes, I can't ignore it in the heat of battle, but the constant flashing from kilotons has to go. It could easily be toned down in intensity, or gain in intensity as the armor takes more damage, or be given a toggle like the map hud?

[Aeonic]

I kind of like the flashing too, since when things start flashing a lot, that kind of tells me its time to leave. But if other people don't like it then maybe there could be some kind of preference to turn it on or off implemented at some point. Flashing armor segments seems like a good idea too.

[Aeonic]

I wonder how easily friendly ships will get T'd off when you shoot them and their shields don't block all the damage.

[Aury]

The flashing is more of 'oh, my shields are down. better get out of here'; it's adjusted for the old balance, not the new one, and certainly not this proposed balance. I DON'T want obnoxious full-screen flashes when my shields are still up, even with trenton type shields.

[Aury]

In the end though, TX2 will still never change to mainly trenton shields; there will be an increase in those types of shields certainly to a respectable number, but full-absorption generators will still be predominant (because there's more stuff that can be creatively done with them)

[Aeonic]

You could also have it where the screen only flashes red when the armor segment being hit is below a certain percentage. Basically meaning you're approaching critical damage.

[Atarlost]

Threshold should be adjustable by the player then.

When you're using a Trenton you want a threshold not higher than 60%. When you're using a Mammoth you want any armor damage to get you a warning.

[Aeonic]

You already have the sound and impact graphic changes to warn you when your shields are being bypassed. The red flashing would just be to warn you that you're going to die soon if you don't do something about it. I was thinking it would start happening at the same time as when your armor reaches its last display state, something like 20-25%.