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OzenRay

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    OzenRay reacted to Archer in Shields   
    On the realism front there really isn't any known method that will give us something like scifi shields, at least as far as acting like a barrier generated in empty space outside your vehicle (or whatever you're trying to protect).  There simply is no real-world process which will replicate the effects.  A magnetic field might offer some protection against particle radiation (potentially including particle beam weapons) but that's about it; they would be useless against projectile weapons and lasers.  It might interfere with missile guidance but then missiles will be designed with that in mind anyway and launch a dumb projectile from a greater distance or just follow the magnets.  But hey, DU has some weird space/time geometry compression going on, artificial gravity and FTL travel.
     
    As far as the DU version is concerned I figure a shield's "hit points" could be explained as a charge in a capacitor bank.  The shield isn't on all the time, it flickers on only when it sees an incoming projectile, stays on long enough to block it and shuts off the rest of the time, waiting to intercept the next bullet.  This both explains why the shield demands more power when under fire and why it does not stop outgoing weapons.  The shield draws power faster than most power plants can supply it so if you hit it enough times in a row the capacitor gets depleted and the shield won't have enough energy available to stop the next shot.  Give it a chance to recharge and it's back to full strength.  This way the shield is really three different components: The power supply, the shield generator and the capacitor bank.  The type and placement of generator affects the shield geometry, how strong of an attack it can actually prevent, whether it is more efficient against strong or weak attacks and how much of your construct is actually protected.  The capacitor bank affects how many hit points that shield has.  The power plant determines how quickly the capacitor bank can be recharged.
     
    The capacitors open up another element of design strategy in general since railguns, coilguns, pulse lasers and particle beams will also need capacitors to supply power.  You might have one big capacitor bank that can run everything, giving you more flexibility, but then firing your railguns eats your shield HP.  Alternately you might compartmentalize, giving dedicated weapon and shield banks so one won't interfere with the other.  Crafty designers might install a switch between the two banks so they are normally isolated but you can occasionally tap your shield reserves for several rapid shots or shut off weapons to extend your shield's HP.
  2. Like
    OzenRay reacted to Dhara in Ship to Ship Communication and / or Player to Player Communication?   
    Actually, I can think of several scenarios where secret messages being sent ship to ship could be useful. 
  3. Like
    OzenRay reacted to Kiklix in Voxel Tools: Pre-Alpha Game Design   
    No problem. Some things could be built while instanced which should not be a problem with a large community with various game play elements to have fun with. Building inside an instance is only detrimental when the only thing going on in the game is building. I think it would be hard to craft a large building into the terrain if building took place in instancing...so ya, tough call. One option would be to have build templates be invisible to anyone except the builder and when those copied voxels are placed outside of the "template zone" then they would be visible. This would not eliminate the workspace but it would reduce the amount of stuff seen in the world. 
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