0009370: Ancient Shadow: Overshield - DEV Arcen

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0009370	AI War 1 / Classic	Suggestion - New Unit Ideas - Turrets and Defenses		Aug 25, 2012 5:11 pm	Jul 18, 2013 5:13 pm

Reporter	Lokarin	Assigned To
Status	considering	Resolution	open
Product Version	5.070

Summary	0009370: Ancient Shadow: Overshield
Description	A brand new type of shield. One with... no health? Approximate Stats: Mk1: 1 HP, Self-Rebuild Time 1 second, Requires Supply, Takes only 1 damage from any source Mk2: 3 Hp, Mk5, 5 Hp (Might need adjustments, also unsure if it should be a structure or a module) This special new type of shield has low health and a low cost, but it has a unique feature; It self repairs from its own remains. And it self repairs quickly too, like, in 1 second. Balance intention: With its low health and fast recharge this shield will draw any single shot or salvo away from an important location, but will have little to no effect on sustained fire. Hard counters: Anything with reacquiring multifire such as the MRLS, or Swarmers/Fleet ships in general. Plasma Siege Starships will permanently destroy one of these shields in a single shot as they damage the repair mechanism. Soft counters: EMP, interfering with supply, ships that ignore Force Fields of course. Or, ignoring them. Attack move the object it's covering, shots don't fizzle that way. In turn: One of these is outright invincible if the ships firing on it don't have the sustained damage to hit the targets underneath. For example, an unlimited number of Snipers will never be able to defeat any rank of Overshield if they all choose to fire at the same time. These things were designed to eat overkill damage. For the AI it's the perfect anti-golem/starship defense if they go alone. Using one: These are meant to be placed with other defenses as a sort of defense multiplier (hence overshield). While being thrashed by 1000 Laser Gatlings such a shield would only reduce a tiny percentage of incoming damage, against AI starships they are much more valuable. Because they regenerate to full health so quickly they don't lose size the same way as regular Force Fields. In the dark edges of space one overshield can protect indefinitely against any siege engine... laugh at Zenith Bombards! NYA~! and then cry when a single Spire Stealth Battleship destroys everything. Due to their low health the AI will rarely target them as a unit, so they will correctly fire on the ships beneath the shield when possible (if my calculations are correct). This formerly lost shield technology was invented to counter the heavy weapons of the Golems around the galaxy. With their high damage, but solitary existence, the Overshield was able to completely nullify their offenses. The Mk3 Overshield... even the mighty Armored Golem could not exceed its defenses. These shields were discontinued due to the inability to function against the Neinzul.
Tags	No tags attached.

Internal Weight	Feature Suggestion

ArcDM Aug 25, 2012 5:27 pm reporter ~0027981	When ever I need to use shields it is to protect against a hundred or so ships (no less than a dozen), and some times thousands if I can get them to last long enough. I can't see this as viable except for very early in the game. One thing to note is that the current repair mechanics require a ship to have not been damaged in the last six seconds to be repaired (I think this also includes regeneration). Your ship would need a flag to ignore this mechanic and probably would be immune to engineer help as well.

Hearteater Aug 31, 2012 1:41 pm reporter ~0028103	The only thing this could work for is against things like Artillery Golems. It feels more like a Trader item. If it was set to only stop attacks with greater than a certain amount of damage, it might be usable. An alternate version of this could have 10,000 health or whatever, but only take 1 damage from everything. So it stops a lot of shots, rather than a lot of damage. But otherwise it works, and is repaired, just like a normal shield.

Lokarin Aug 31, 2012 2:56 pm reporter ~0028104	The intention was first strike burst reduction, not sustained shield force, so I guess it would work better as a module than a building.

Ranakastrasz Jun 30, 2013 3:07 pm reporter ~0033037	This actually looks like a good replacement design, for the Vanilla Hardened shield, which is still just a clone of a normal shield, aside from slightly altered stats, and cap expansion. Giving it 10k or so health, or similarly large amounts. Good at holding off heavy blows, but melts to spam and pinpricks. Hence blocks bombers, dies to minipods.

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Aug 25, 2012 5:11 pm	Lokarin	New Issue
Aug 25, 2012 5:27 pm	ArcDM	Note Added: 0027981
Aug 31, 2012 12:18 pm	tigersfan	Internal Weight	=> Feature Suggestion
Aug 31, 2012 12:18 pm	tigersfan	Status	new => considering
Aug 31, 2012 1:41 pm	Hearteater	Note Added: 0028103
Aug 31, 2012 2:56 pm	Lokarin	Note Added: 0028104
Jun 30, 2013 3:07 pm	Ranakastrasz	Note Added: 0033037
Jul 18, 2013 5:13 pm	Ranakastrasz	Relationship added	related to 0005391