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[Phoenixheart]

There have been many times when I want to strafe with my broadside-combat-based Conquest, and when I do it moves the Omni shield towards my mouse, which is usually away from where it needs to be. Is there a way to make a key that when held, temporarily holds the Omni shield in position until released? Like shift or something. Hold shift, strafe or look around without exposing yourself, then back to what you were doing.

[TheHengeProphet]

I've run into a similar issue quite often.  There have been many times I wished I could set my shield to "auto" and have it track on its own, considering my mouse cannot be in two places at once, but often needs to be (as AI ships have shown themselves capable of such feats).

[rex]

Ideally this would be something like a  3 or 4 or 5 way toggle:
Follows mouse.
Locked  absolute (lock facing north east)
Locked relative (lock always facing fore)
Follows target ship
Auto/ai controlled

That is very fiddly though. 

[Gothars]

Shield locking sounds good, right? But this way actually tried earlier during the development and, well, here's how it turned out:

Thing is, shield locking - especially on small, nimble ships - is even trickier. I've tried it, and it felt like a complete mess.

As a general advice: It is a good idea to use the search function (upper right corner) to see if anyone posted a similar suggestion before

Also: Just added this to the FMS.

[echosierraalpha]

how about making the AI control the shield instead? I find that as a player, I simply cannot compete with an AI in that department

[Plasmatic]

how about making the AI control the shield instead? I find that as a player, I simply cannot compete with an AI in that department

problem with that is it's removing core control from the game, in essence making it much easier..

I'd say if we give the AI our shields, atleast let it have a significant dissadvantage, like not being able to raise or lower it, only move it. this would enable us to give that broadside, but not be completely dependent on the AI for shielding..

[DatonKallandor]

That just shows that there's a significant flaw in the shield mechanics - if the AI can micro it so well the effect is unreplicateable by a human there's something wrong mechanically.

Add a duration to dropping shields that's equal to the time it took to raise them would solve it - stopping them AI from getting twice as much out of shields than a human ever could and make sabots (and similar low fire rate Kinetic weapons) not crappy against AI ships as a bonus.

[Gothars]

the AI can micro it so well the effect is unreplicateable by a human

That's not really the case, though. You can set a target, put your main guns on autofire and turn the shields manually. From the outside that's virtually indistinguishable from what the AI does - I suspect it might actually do just that.

[Plasmatic]

the AI can micro it so well the effect is unreplicateable by a human

That's not really the case, though. You can set a target, put your main guns on autofire and turn the shields manually. From the outside that's virtually indistinguishable from what the AI does - I suspect it might actually do just that.

That only works if you have another weapon group to switch to, as weapons on autofire will not autofire when you have that group selected..

If you only have PD and your main weapons.. your idea is useless..
But if you have a separate missile group that you don't have on autofire then it's great..

[Coolrah]

But this is really only an issue for the bigger ships who can't just evade damage like frigates. Plus I'm pretty sure any ship thats a destroyer and up has multiple wep groups available and with the ability to set weapons groups at your own leisure it really wouldn't be that much of an issue to use Gothars method...

[DatonKallandor]

the AI can micro it so well the effect is unreplicateable by a human

That's not really the case, though. You can set a target, put your main guns on autofire and turn the shields manually. From the outside that's virtually indistinguishable from what the AI does - I suspect it might actually do just that.

While the strafe-and-turn shields at the same time behavior is suspect too (and I'm guessing that's what you're referring to) I'm actually talking about the shield-toggling the AI does. Absorbing individual shots and letting others pass to not overload when they really should be to a degree that simply breaks several weapon types. Something a human can't do but even green-crewed AI ships can.

[Gothars]

That only works if you have another weapon group to switch to, as weapons on autofire will not autofire when you have that group selected..

You can select unassigned weapon groups to control only shields.

While the strafe-and-turn shields at the same time behavior is suspect too (and I'm guessing that's what you're referring to) I'm actually talking about the shield-toggling the AI does. Absorbing individual shots and letting others pass to not overload when they really should be to a degree that simply breaks several weapon types. Something a human can't do but even green-crewed AI ships can.

That apparent advantage can be turned into a weakness if you don't fire at the center of mass. The constant shield toggling leaves the sides of the ship exposed a lot.

[rex]

That just shows that there's a significant flaw in the shield mechanics - if the AI can micro it so well the effect is unreplicateable by a human there's something wrong mechanically.

Add a duration to dropping shields that's equal to the time it took to raise them would solve it - stopping them AI from getting twice as much out of shields than a human ever could and make sabots (and similar low fire rate Kinetic weapons) not crappy against AI ships as a bonus.

Buffalo hunting would just be so much easier if I could lock my shields back over my engine.

Though there is still the option of 'oh no salamander cloud, ai handle this for me'.


I don't dislike the delay idea too much, probably a charge up/down should exist for fortress shields as well. I hate playing rock, paper, plasma blaster with paragons.

[Gibbatron]

The ability to cover your engines would be amazing. I only really find myself wanting this feature when flying a frigate though, since I normally use high tech so shields aren't such a problem as you get bigger ships.

It's probably because I'm not the best pilot, but with small, fast frigates I am always using the turn to cursor option. When you have to stop doing that and start controlling your highly manouverable frigate with tiny touches of the turn and strafe keys (otherwise you spin too fast, end up out of position, then die) so you can swing your shields around I just feel it really breaks the flow of combat.

[OOZ662]

This is quite a late reply, but you can strafe using the Q and E keys without holding Shift. Keep your mouse pointed at the enemy and use one of those keys to slide toward or away from them. Essential tactic and an Odyssey or Conquest.