Cruiser Command

Shield Core - A Revision.

There are many problems associated with the shield core.
1) For such an essential part of the ship, it is extremely passive and boring.
2) Games are decided by whose shield cores go down first, which isn't necessary bad; but because it's so easy to route power to I feel we could improve by introducing an entirely new system to replace it.
3) We need more active roles with a high skill ceiling so that players have more individual impact on the course of a game.
4) More upgrades are needed too.

The proposal:
There are now many different types of shield generators available for purchase. Each of them have varying strengths and weaknesses, but all share these specifications: [I will explain these later on.]

# of Cores - The number of Shield Walls that can be put up simultaneously.
Power Consumption - The bare minimum amount that will let generator run at 100% efficiency.
Shield Strength - The amount of damage a Shield Wall can absorb before it's associated core fails.
Regeneration Rate - The rate at which a Shield Wall recovers integrity when it is not used.
Effective Range - The maximum distance away from battle-cruiser that a Shield Wall can be placed.

Imagine this scenario:
You are the Shield Operator on Battle-cruiser A. Battle-cruiser B fires about ten missiles at you.

In the old system: Route power into shields, missiles splash on to shields, if shields fail, they hit battle-cruiser.

In the new system: The Shield Operator now has to manually place 'shield walls' that have a reasonable collision size. If you have 4 cores, the Operator can press Q,W,E, or R, left/right click on a position within range, and then a shield wall associated with that button pops up at that spot. Missiles that come into contact with shield wall damages it. The operator can tap Q,W,E, or R again to stop using that specific core to let the shield rest and recharge. If a missile 'kills' a Wall, then the associated core with that shield wall is dead and will need to be replaced [they are expensive.]

This will allow a skilled operator to switch between shield cores, determine where to place shields to maximize the surface area covered and minimize damage taken by each shield.

Power Management also very important.
You can 'overcharge' shields by routing more power to them. This increases their size, but decreases range. Note that a wall with more surface area will get hit by more missiles and will lose integrity a lot faster.
You can also 'conserve' energy by shutting off cores and bring down the efficiency of the shields.

This is an idea thought up at like 4am EST, so obviously there is things missing, but I feel this will bring a lot to Cruiser Command.

I don't dislike the idea, but I feel like, as it is, it's too complicated for a new player to pick up. Having to place shields, keep track of which wall is which core, sounds like it could be off-putting to learn. Also, I'm not sure how this system will work against non-BC threats, such as the early game wraith and stray asteroids. If the ship needs a dedicated shield operator at all times it's going to be boring to sit at 90% of the time. I think if these issues were addressed this would be a more viable alternative to the existing shield system. Just my opinion.

DumbMarine wrote:I don't dislike the idea, but I feel like, as it is, it's too complicated for a new player to pick up. Having to place shields, keep track of which wall is which core, sounds like it could be off-putting to learn. Also, I'm not sure how this system will work against non-BC threats, such as the early game wraith and stray asteroids. If the ship needs a dedicated shield operator at all times it's going to be boring to sit at 90% of the time. I think if these issues were addressed this would be a more viable alternative to the existing shield system. Just my opinion.

You don't always have to be at the shield station, you just put the 4 shield cores(i have no idea what the amount will be) around the BC and there you go, you have a shield, maybe have a Starscape style shield, that is very weak, but fast recharging and draws 5 GW or something like that while recharging.

DestinyAtlantis wrote:You don't always have to be at the shield station, you just put the 4 shield cores(i have no idea what the amount will be) around the BC and there you go, you have a shield, maybe have a Starscape style shield, that is very weak, but fast recharging and draws 5 GW or something like that while recharging.

Ah okay, so it would be like directional shields then, where the nav can rotate shields by rotating the ship?

Most likely, it would be really weard for shields to be stationary, even if they don't rotate with the ship, you can still proabably put around the ship to defend it.