how do shields work?

[00yiggdrasill00]

is this like a rock papaer sicciors thing where shields only block energy weapons? or do they act as actual shields and have a buff against energy weapons? do they block kenetics?

[ulroth]

Sheilds stop energy and Armor blocks kenetics...at least as far as I understand it.

[Simpson3k]

Well its for sure easier to code but in real it would mean that a safe door only protects against the bank robbers uzi but not against the blowpipe

[Done25]

Kinetics peirce shields but lose to plating.
Energy melts plating but is dispersed by shielding.

Flak counters missiles/squads.
There's a laser weapon that lowers energy accuracy.

[00yiggdrasill00]

thanks. thats annoying but i can see how it works, the shields arent solid they are a field around the ship, i suppose it doesnt feel so gamey if i think of it like that

[NixBoxDone]

Originally posted by Simpson3k:

Well its for sure easier to code but in real it would mean that a safe door only protects against the bank robbers uzi but not against the blowpipe

There is precedent for that case, however: it's the difference between soft and hard shields. The idea behind it is that a soft energy shield just affects specific types of energy, while the hard shield is the one we know from sci-fi and gaming that wards of solid objects as well.

[Simpson3k]

Originally posted by NixBoxDone:

Originally posted by Simpson3k:

Well its for sure easier to code but in real it would mean that a safe door only protects against the bank robbers uzi but not against the blowpipe

There is precedent for that case, however: it's the difference between soft and hard shields. The idea behind it is that a soft energy shield just affects specific types of energy, while the hard shield is the one we know from sci-fi and gaming that wards of solid objects as well.

But what makes the missile kinetic energy from the explosion so much different to the kinetic impact of that mass drivers projectiles that armor has zero use against missiles? Shouldnt it at least protects against a few missiles hits, those that went past the poind defense or something?

Now i am curious how you technobabble out of that XD

[NixBoxDone]

The fact that it flies all the way up to the hull.

Soft shields mostly work the way heat works on an icicle - not by completely nullifying it as it comes in contact, but by gradually dispersing energy as it travels through the effect so that it is no longer harmful by the time it reaches the hull.

Think of it like this: a laser is only very concentrated light, so the soft shield works like a reverse magnifier by dispersing it until it is no longer a face melting beam of doom, but instead a moon sized blanket of comfortable warmth. :P

A missile would have no trouble travelling through the effect and there'd be no time between "harmless" and "explosion" for the soft shield to work.

[Simpson3k]

I meant armor this time, that a shield wont stop anything of actual matter in this game is explained by you. But kinetic ammo and missles are both matter. And unless they use some kind of subatomic shrapnels in the missle warhead that penetrates even through the hardest armor of the game, then i wonder what the kinetic weapon inventors did waste their time with :>

Edit: sorry i am bored, ignore me if it makes you feel better :P

[NixBoxDone]

Yeah, the armor should at least partly mitigate missile damage unless they pull some sort of phased drive out of their butts that just lets them fly inside the ship, really.

They may be able to techno wizard their way out of this by saying that the missiles are working similar to modern bunker busters or torpedos, though. They don't ignore armor, they're specifically designed to penetrate it.

But even THEN there should be tech to unlock that works against them. >_>

[Simpson3k]

Well i would welcome a future update that kind of mix up the different defenses against the weapon types. For now the current system is ok if other things are more important like fixing the dissapearing fleets or so but i definitifly would pay for an improved weapon and defense dlc.

[Done25]

@Simpson+Nix: Plating DOES defend against missiles you dummies. It just so happens that missiles are less affected by the flat damage reduction that works so well against flack due to their slower RoF.

[NixBoxDone]

Huh. There wouldn't be some sort of battle log that actually shows, you know, numbers and such, would there? Because then people wouldn't have to guess. o.o

[Felinewolfie]

Originally posted by 00yiggdrasill00:

is this like a rock papaer sicciors thing where shields only block energy weapons? or do they act as actual shields and have a buff against energy weapons? do they block kenetics?

Added for ES2

[00yiggdrasill00]

thats some interesting technobabble.

[Mulzaro]

If you click the advanced statistics on in the design screen, you can see that kinetics actually penetrate about 50% of shields without any bonuses. It feels like shields are the better general defense in ES2.