Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: Can you use the shields as a weapon?  (Read 1668 times)

Sonlirain

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 143
    • View Profile
Can you use the shields as a weapon?
« on: October 06, 2013, 05:54:31 AM »

First of all... i'm not really a modder... i have some ideas i might use when i start however.

I was thinking for some time about the possibility of using the shields more as a weapon than a defensive mechanism by reducing the arc to like... 5 degrees, upping its efficiency by a LOT (i'm speaking about numbers like 0.01 flux per damage) while increasing the upkeep, range and rotation speed.
Think of it as neutrino corp on steroids.

Now the basic things like upkeep efficiency arc and rotation are easy (hell i could just copy paste neutrino corp and be done) BUT i want the shield to have decent range so it can act as a damaging repulsor beam of sorts.
My only idea would be increasing the ships size (while not making the sprite any larger) but wouldn't that mess with the AI too much?
Logged

Xalendi

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 198
    • View Profile
Re: Can you use the shields as a weapon?
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2013, 07:10:36 AM »

Use the ship editor and give it a massive shield size? I believe you'll have to increase the center of mass radius too, though. I'm sure I read somewhere that the shield arc needed to be slightly less than that.
Logged

Amazigh

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 284
    • View Profile
Re: Can you use the shields as a weapon?
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2013, 09:00:20 AM »

From what I remember:
- The AI chooses combat range based on the "radius" of your ship.
- Shields will only collide with things inside the ships "radius"

If you could get around that it would be a really neat weapon though.
Logged

Silver Silence

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 980
    • View Profile
Re: Can you use the shields as a weapon?
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2013, 09:43:18 AM »

Pretty sure shields collide with anything that impacts them. There's a few things like a proximity range and such which is designed to stop ships blundering into each other. Generally, the proximity radii are larger than shield radii so that ships don't crash into each other's shields. This can be seen when you have small frigates trying to get around your larger capital and keep raising shields and skirting to the side by a few pixels when they draw close, they're worried about their proximity although if it's set properly, they'd still have to get a bit closer before they crash into you.



As for using the shield like a weapon, that's not difficult. A large shield radius, efficient shields and a "heavy" ship will cause shields to do insane impact damage. A good example of weaponizing the ship itself exists in the oversized Neutrino hammership.
Logged