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A quick question on shields...

On the B5 tech page it mentions that some of the race ships have shield technology. Specifically the gavametric powered ships.

I know that in one of the old threads that shields would not be used. This would account for why the fighters are so ineffective vs cap ships in the game and why EA ships where pretty much out classed in the Minbari war.

Any cooments?

B5Tech sucks!

Only one race in B5 has shields, not sure but was it Abbai?

Even Vorlons doesn't have shields. The effect that was seen in the big battle at Coriana, when dreadnought was hit by battlecrab was just CGI guys flaw.

Only race with real shields was that Third Space race.

Perhaps invisible shields will be done, and just making some parts of ship stronger than others or something like that.

(sorry for misspelling )

Basically all ships will have no sheilds. Vorlon ships and to a certain extent the Whitestar as adaptive armor that sort of works like a sheild but I don't think we'll be doing any of that.

If we make Thirdspace ships, they will have sheilds at least on the fighter (capital ship sheilds are unstable).

B5 ships have more to do with armour than shields and should be done accordingy

Redstar is right, on the best-informed B5 tech site I know, it says that all gravimetric-based ships DO use their grav field PARTLY as a shield, even the Vorchan class. So prove them wrong and I believe you.
...of course you can't SEE the shield, I guess it just decreases some weapons' power of impact and destruction.

Kuba

Actually some of the older races like the minbari DO have 'gravimetric defense screens'they are not full shielding, but they do provide some protection, as for having shields like this in the game it's 100% do able, go put shields on a capship, they don't flair, they don't protect against primary fire much, but missiles that rely on shockwaves to do a lot of damage actually are protected from them, and you can see the shield indicators on your hud drop for the target

Note: I HAVE tested this during UA Mods developement, and it wasn't a placeboo, I had an Aeolus MkII with shields and no shield mesh next to an Aeolus, i fired two helios at the Aeolus and got her down to like 14% but the sheilded one had a lot less damage, and i shot them both in the same place.

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FreeSpace 2: The Babylon Project Effects Nerd and programmer

I've seen the same thing on a installation I was testing for Bobboau. Thing is however that B5 ships rarely rely on big missiles to get things done so the sheilds don't have a huge effect and its not worth time and effort to do something that we can do with hulls only.

quote:

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Originally posted by IceFire:
I've seen the same thing on a installation I was testing for Bobboau. Thing is however that B5 ships rarely rely on big missiles to get things done so the sheilds don't have a huge effect and its not worth time and effort to do something that we can do with hulls only.

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EA ships atleast have such thing called as the inteceptor net surrounding the ship skin tight and it reacts to energy coming from some direction.

and whitestar


battleCRAP


vorlons atleast have semi shielding which is around the ship almost skintight.

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m00 m00

from what i gathered from watching the show was that if they have sheilds there not the sort you can knock down the exsist becasue basically the engine is on so unless the engine is damaged the sheilds would maintain there effect of reducing the damage done but not stoping it - so there would seem little point on putting sheilds on ships in the game

basic sheild meshes take about five minutes, however a very tight sheild mesh would probly take an hour or two, I think it is something we should at least experiment with, though I don't think normal sheilds as most FS fans know them would be entierly apropriate, I do think that completely shuning this bit of code would be unwise.

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I was here then I wasn't, now I'm dead

It means we have to balance another set of variables.

I'm willing to try this on Vorlon ships for sure.

Missiles are still part of the plan. I spearheaded that.

I'm all for shields on shadows/vorlons/whitestar/whatever, but one has to remember that the FS2 engine doesn't intersect beams with shields, they go right through. Since B5 doesn't really have bombers like FS and most capship fights will be with beams, the shields would have negligible effect on damage.

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"There is only chaos and evolution!"
"You will fight, because we tell you to fight!"

I say The ISA Victory destroyers should have sheild (the 80% damage reduction) because they sure look like they have sheilds in "A Call to Arms"! and the beem sheild bypass problem is something that is near the top of the list to fix when the source code comes out

quote:

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Originally posted by Mackie:
EA ships atleast have such thing called as the inteceptor net surrounding the ship skin tight and it reacts to energy coming from some direction.

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As for the beams i would code a "HitShield" flag

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FreeSpace 2: The Babylon Project Effects Nerd and programmer

There's no such thing as "interceptor net" covering&shielding EA ships. There are interceptor GUNS on every ship (like in the Omega, right below forward laser/pulse cannon barrels) that shoot towards incoming projectiles.

In the B5 show we've seen for example the Vorlon Dreadnought using it's main beam in a interceptor mode to repel a Shadow Battlecrab's attack. It looked like the energy from the Vorlon beam formed a forward-facing shield protecting the vessel from the Battlecrab's slicerbeam (and it really did, the Dreadnought didn't get a scratch!!).

IMHO this also shows that Vorlon weapons tech is superior to the Shadows' (the fact that a Vorlon Personal Transport can single-handedly destroy a Shadow Battlecrab also suggests this).

And a pack of Vorlon fighters can also destroy a single battlecrab.

Poor 'lil crab...