Shattered Planes Archives (Seasons 4 & 5)
The Hub => The Library [ A R C H I V E ] => Staff Updates => Compendium => Topic started by: K2 on June 07, 2011, 03:03:33 PM
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Table Of Contents
Basic Types Of Shields (http://shatteredplanes.com/forum/index.php?topic=3951.msg34173#msg34173)
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Will update this post when I get a chance.
This is the most descriptive topic I have ever seen. Never have I been so filled with knowledge on Shield theory my entire life!
... oh fine.
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Basic Types Of Shields
There are various types of shields on starships which you may encounter. Three common ones include:
Repulsion
Perhaps the most common of shield types, this shield repels anything which comes near it. The process of repulsion, in some cases, can even vaporize that which tries to cross the shield boundary. Can be overcome by bombarding the shields until completely weakened or disabled.
Blocking
A less common shield type (compared to Repulsion), this shield acts like a wall. It does not allow anything to pass by it. Can be overcome by bombarding the shields until completely weakened or disabled.
Constant Feed Shield
Whereas most shields run with a power quota, there are also shields out there which have continuous streams of power upholding it at a slow rate, so that the shield can not be overcome by constant bombarding of its exterior. These shields can be either Repulsion or Blocking. They are not as easy to overcome.
Transportational
This is a rather odd type of shield. Instead of a direct confrontation between an energy layer or similar structure and the projectile, the incoming object is simply transported to a different place. It may be a pocket dimension, a dimensional limbo or another place in the current dimension. These are fairly rare and almost impossible to get past with conventional volleys of fire.
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And then there is a fourth type of shield:
Transportational: This is a rather odd type of shield. Instead of a direct confrontation between an energy layer or similar structure and the projectile, the incoming object is simply transported to a different place. It may be a pocket dimension, a dimensional limbo or another place in the current dimension. These are fairly rare and almost impossible to get past with conventional volleys of fire.
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Power
Conventionally, a ship will have a generator/power room. Alternatively, power supply is sometimes found in an engineering room. Power is divided (usually in quotas set by the captain) to various functions of the ship, shields included. Typically, a ship should have some sort of engine of sorts which can project a shield around a ship.
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Hybrid type - A very rare class of shield, although it is commonly used by Coalition forces, as their default AEGIS class shielding uses micro-wormholes to cut a percentage of the damage that the shield would sustain without them. These can range from Blocking/Transportational, Constant/Transportational, to Repulsion/Transportational. It is possible to overwhelm depending on what kind of hybrid it is, although as it's part transportational, more damage output is needed, as most of it is cut out of the equation.
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MIRROR: Utilized by Mechera forces(and potentially allies), Mirror Shields aren't technically shields. They're portals, where the input and output points are at the same location. In a sense, its a extremely powerful repulsion shield, but even that isn't entirely accurate; anything that attempts to pass through the shield cant, because it literally hits itself. There's no way in, unless you're incorporeal, and even then your just going back out the way you came.
Mirror Shields have disadvantages, though-For one, anything IN a Mirror Shield cant see out, just as anything out of a Mirror Shield cant see in. This is because even light is reflected, therefor making them impenetrable visually, and it reflects radio waves, ultraviolet, ect, considering these things would pass through a portal normally, so those cant be used to detect other things either. There really isn't any way, short of opening a way onto the other side of it(and thereby opening oneself to danger) to look through. Another thing is that, while they reflect most anything, any object with sufficient kinetic energy hitting the shield, regardless of actual size, will, in all seriousness, shatter it. This is due to the kinetic force being transferred directly into the portal itself, having nowhere else to go(though the projectile usually has most of it left over, causing a ricochet-be careful trying to destroy a Mirror Shield, lest your own weapon strike back at you on the rebound). This kinetic energy has to be carefully monitored by the operator of the shield, and excessive amounts of kinetic energy will cause a massive strain on the generator, eventually frying the components as they're blasted apart(once kinetic energy is absorbed by the shield, it has nowhere but the generator to go to) by the kinetic energy its accounting for. This can be circumvented by having multiple Mirror Shield Generators powering the same shield, as each one would take a percentage of all the kinetic energy inflicted upon the shield.
Do note that it does NOT matter the size of the projectile-It could be so much as a atom, and if it carries the sufficient force behind it, it will be capable of shattering a Titan-Class Mirror Shield or Isolation Engine(think Mirror Shield, but suped-up to cover entire battlefields, used to prevent foes from gaining reinforcements by denying them access to that location, as well as denying enemy signals from departing from the battlefield).
One of the most glaring weaknesses to this technology is enemy portals and/or teleportation-Because these circumvent actually having to go through line 1 to get from point A to point B, by instead putting point A and point B right next to each other, the Mirror Shield itself cant really do anything to stop them. While the space is enclosed, and thus beaming cannot work, anything that doesn't need to actually go through the distance BETWEEN the two points can get around a Mirror Shield. While, technically speaking, a AT field can be deployed in order to stop those kinds of attacks, thats only half the problem, because Mirror Shields are portals, AP fields would destroy the shield, making the field itself just inviting them to attack. As well, AP fields are bloody murder against these, since they effectively cancel them from existence.
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After typing all this up, only now do I realize that I need to stop putting so much damn thought into not just my tech's strengths, but also its weaknesses. XD
Though, considering I know how to beat it, I can cover for those, so meh. AND...Nobody can use it effectively against me. :D
But yeah, main point, stop putting so much thought into tech that doesn't need it, especially compared to other people's posts in the same topic. >.<