Forums » Suggestions
Group Shields
Personal shields on the one hand threaten to break balance if too useful, and on the other hand risk being useless if too weak. Hence, the mighty Group Shields make their appearance! At a 500 damage soak, with 100 damage/sec regeneration, and a full minute restart time, these shields are hardly worth the add on slot per se. However, by linking with another person in range (500m?), you can reap the benefits of social summation! Essentially, multiple shields add their strength together, and when any one person takes a hit, it detracts from everyone's shield.
In a full out dog fight it'll be just about impossible to keep your shield up, and the key to breaking the networks would be to simply focus fire on the first target. Rather, the value is to help protect against glancing blows against a straggling members in a convoy, especially from lone raiders. A botting group with shields could dramatically increase the time needed between repairs, at the price of some firepower. Combat 'repairmen' would have a better use for their low slots.
How to implement the linking is another question entirely. I suggest like so; a 'core' shield would take up a heavy slot, and significant grid, say 12, and would do nothing, weighing in at 1200kg. Then, 'node' shields would take up small slots, at say 6 grid, and would add strength to the net, weighing a mere 600kg. A ship with a node would need to be within 500m's of a core to join, and cores could link to other cores. So yes, theoretically you could group a mighty amount of ships together in a tight space for the defense of a Capital ship, however your fleet would be many times more susceptible to splash weaponry, as each ship that took damage would add that to the toll. (They don't call 'em *Chaos* Swarms for nothing.)
The core shields can give a unique glow when hit, signaling to all that the equipped ship is a primary, or at the very least poorly equipped, target.
In a full out dog fight it'll be just about impossible to keep your shield up, and the key to breaking the networks would be to simply focus fire on the first target. Rather, the value is to help protect against glancing blows against a straggling members in a convoy, especially from lone raiders. A botting group with shields could dramatically increase the time needed between repairs, at the price of some firepower. Combat 'repairmen' would have a better use for their low slots.
How to implement the linking is another question entirely. I suggest like so; a 'core' shield would take up a heavy slot, and significant grid, say 12, and would do nothing, weighing in at 1200kg. Then, 'node' shields would take up small slots, at say 6 grid, and would add strength to the net, weighing a mere 600kg. A ship with a node would need to be within 500m's of a core to join, and cores could link to other cores. So yes, theoretically you could group a mighty amount of ships together in a tight space for the defense of a Capital ship, however your fleet would be many times more susceptible to splash weaponry, as each ship that took damage would add that to the toll. (They don't call 'em *Chaos* Swarms for nothing.)
The core shields can give a unique glow when hit, signaling to all that the equipped ship is a primary, or at the very least poorly equipped, target.
This could also be applied to Cap-ships. Great distances allow them more firing options against their targets, while close distance offer the benefits of enhanced shields. The Serco could specialize in long distance linear fire, while the Itani could focus on close distance, curved fire. (To prevent hitting nearby ships in formation.)