Bubble shields in PA:T?

Wait, how big are you aiming for the shields to be?

Supcom shields is what i'm referring to.

The devs have said before that depending on energy will have too large a hit on simulation performance.

110 in radius, about as big as a starting spot on an average planet in a multi-planet system

EDIT: In a 1v1

What? They did? I thought that advanced radar satellites used more than what I'm proposing...

If they are worrying for animations for shields, they wont need more than a small explosion (indicating the shield was hit there) on the side of the shield that was hit, a sound for the explosion that the shield makes when hit, a sound for when the shield is compromised, a sound that it makes when "alive" , and to make the shield look sort of like a clear-ish colored plastic (colored meaning the army color) looking shield and for it to decrease % Opacity (visibility) for amount of shield health not present. (And a shield bar on the shield building below the health bar (light blue/turquoise color) how much the shield health is)

Yes. that is a very effective defense

I have read the post pertaining to the details in how a shield should work. While I may not understand the degree at which every numerical value is relative to the actual game, you presented something that was clear and feasible to understand if one took the time to examine every line. Nicely done

Yes. I agree with what you said. If shields were to be developed, they should definitely develop the defensive gameplay based upon your design. If they were to design shields, this is how they should approach it.

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PA has spent a lot of time prioritizing offensive gameplay elements alot. Unit cannons and asteroids to name a few. Titans extended this with .... well Titans and such. This is based upon the difficulty at which defensive measures taken previously would prolong the the game.

Planetary Annihilation has always desired to maximize its offensive capability.

With all these new updates, defensive gameplay has been on a decline. While this is good, it actually took away the defensive precaution. Commander snipes are an effect of this change.

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My poor attempt at analogy for this discussion would be motorcyclist and its assessment on crashing and fatality.

- A motorcyclist that wears no armor is acknowledging that safety precautions are pointless. Seriously what the point of helmet laws in America? (Current build. Maybe an umbrella and antinuke?)

- A motorcyclist that chooses to wear armor is acknowledging a degree of safety precautions. He/she recognizes the risk of danger of riding but still believes safety measures can be taken. This process of wearing gear is annoying though.(Helmet, gloves, leathers.)

- an automobile driver recognizes that the whole idea of motorcycles is inheritantly dangerous and as such shouldnt be taken seriously if your goal is to be safe. ( in my perspective, the shield argument)

One must ask, why do people ride motorcycles? Surely, anyone that has ridden a motorcycle will smokescreen every answer to the responses of....

- better fuel economy
- cheap to insure
- I want to lower traffic congestion
- parking is easier

The real answer is ...... fun

The question of fatality and crash assessment is dependent on each individual's value system. A motorcyclist places fun over safety. An automobile driver places safety over fun (texting and driving anyone?false sense of security? Stupid?).
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In relation to this analogy, PA:T places priority on offense over defense. An assistance to easier base design won't change the prioritization of the player mindset, but will allow them for taking some measure of precaution. Let's make this element easier.

A shield will change prioritization, even when your idea based upon the post doesn't try to do that. Some have a feeling this will happen in PA:T. This is NOT what we want in PA (in my opinion).

Yeah, it's about somewhere but I couldn't seems to find it when posting. It was regarding the introduction of the new walls which some people wanted to have require energy.

Radars don't affect projectile calculations.

Radars don't affect projectile calculations.[/QUOTE]

Radars don't affect projectile calculations?? Explain what you mean by affecting projectile calculations?

And this is a discussion about adding it to titans not some ancient version of PA.

A poor analogy, noted. Drivers being in a motor cycle might have more fun, and that is true. However, being in a van, you are safe but also endangering hitting the motor cyclist. The more vans the more danger there is to motor cyclists, therefore it is always advantageous for the entire society to ride in a motor cycle rather than cars on a road. However for the individual it is better to ride in a van because you are more likely to live to be happy in a van for the rest of your life if even only a few other people drive vans.
However most of what I said is irrelevant to PA, I would like to point that out.

Most of what you said is correct. Some of it applies to PA. I would argue that if there was no defense there was nothing in the base to destroy but a commander that explodes. Would you like SSX just to snipe your commander and that's it? Would you just like to snipe an enemy commander and that's it? PA had defense units and buildings for a reason and defense should not increase beyond a certain point, but where do we draw the line?

I cannot seem to find a convincing argument as to where we draw the line, even after an hour and 20 minutes of situational mental trial and error. All I can say is that these shields would diversify defense and for reasons already given, and create a more flavorful way of defending and creating a base.

I do.

Variety is the spice of life

Also, larger shields would be better, one that can cover at least seven buildings across

oof. Yes my analogy was indeed too vague and confusing if the response was related to game theory. I was merely trying to show a value system and what PA wishes to prioritize like the reasoning why a said motorcyclist wishes to choose riding over driving. This value system of "offense first" and "defense second" was based upon the pattern of development that has constantly encouraged the offensive gameplay through asteroids, unit cannons etc. Before Titans, PA had this proper balance (in my opinion). This balance is off now from this expansion.

Indeed. This line is entirely subjective. My interpretation of the line is from the values based upon above (offense first, defense second).

Evidently, your comment here suggests that the point at which defensive structures being deemed useful has been surpassed. This may indicate your possible opinion behind supporting the idea of shields.

I would argue that this threshold hasn't been surpassed due to inability for players to construct efficient bases to defend from in every direction. This is an extremely difficult and time consuming task. There needs to be an easier way to do this task. By the time a player builds a well fortified base, they have given up nearly all offensive and further expansions to the enemy.

This is an issue. Not for you and I to solely figure out. UBER should know.... possibly.

This is a nice coincidence. Yes they would create a new defense. Why in the first place is defending a base a larger priority than attacking another person's base? Why protect a base? In order to protect a base, you have to construct a base that is worth the time consuming process of constructing and it has to hold some strategic value. Why else would anyone defend?

Granted, the definition of a base is broad and has to be taken into context based upon what structures are in the base. The argument for shields is still hazy to me because the discussion of poor base construction hasnt been brought forward.

You have brought up a critical point here which can be interpreted from most of what you said, is that in real life, there are not many defense systems for many weapons or vehicles or tanks or anything-- most of it is just mobile defensive firepower or city defense.

On the other hand, there are bunkers which you could protect from nuclear strikes, which are immobile. (Of course in this game nuclear strikes are way more 150x more powerful, which prevents nuclear bunkers from doing anything)

You could think of this bubble as a sort of bunker, but the bunker does not have locked doors and anyone can go in and out of it. I would also like to remind you these bunkers can be used offensively, and placing them near an enemy base so that you could protect your own factories you build shortly after in that bubble by building other things such as turrets or holkins and such, assisting developing the games offense as well. These bubbles could end games quicker, or prolong games (usually prolonging, but not always) and that's why I said earlier it would be about a minute longer on average. These bubbles could be a faster way for unit cannon'ed fabricators to protect themselves when they land, and therefore making way for offense. This also makes fabricators an offensive tool in unit cannons and increases offensive play with unit cannons. Bubbles may not be stacked of course because of the bubble design I've suggested has a radius of 110 and the nearest friendly (adding that to the Aspects of the unit) bubble shield may only be placed at distance 260 from the building, so this does not become overpowered over other methods.

orbital defenses, a couple of gil-e's and angels otherwise bombers ... and bombers ...
shields won't stop your enemy from shooting at you .. which means you have to engage or take the pounding ..
taking the pounding is not fun ...
you build shields .. ok he builds more artillery going to drink a coffee eventualy overcomming your shields .. gg no re ..


shields turned supcom into boring longrange siege warfare that forced t3 and experimetals or nukeplay .. it was a chore to watch ...

These shields have only as much health as a wall and a half, and 3 pelters can compromise the shield's regeneration. Perhaps you are right anyway, shield's regen capability needs to be decreased.

New Shield Recommendations:
Shield Max Health: 4000
Starting Shield Health (When built): 2000
Shield Regen: 90/sec
*Shield does not regenerate until after 5 seconds has passed after taking a hit.
Remove Shield regen 15 seconds reactivation after compromise, new rule mentioned above*

This way long range battles are not prolonged, and it's not just a unit firing at a shield over and over again while the shield just keeps regenerating.

EDIT: And don't forget units can move inside the shield opponent or friendly, friendly can fire past the bubble shield while enemies must use Gill-es to fire past the shield's barrier (while other units have to move through the shield or destroy the shield building/shield barrier to destroy anything inside), and can easily destroy the shield building inside of the bubble.

EDIT 2: Complete list repeated with changes:

*Stats
Metal cost: 6800
Range of protect: 110
Building sight range: 40
Building health: 320
Bubble shield maximum health: 4000
Starting bubble shield health: 2000
Shield bubble regeneration: 90/sec (regenerates only when shield not been hit in the last 5 seconds)
Shield bubble energy usage (when activated): 5500/sec
Opposing Ground Unit/Titan (moving into) penetration: True
Opposing Ground Unit Pellet penetration: False
Opposing Air Unit/Titan (moving into) Penetration: True
Opposing Gill-E pellet Penetration: True
Opposing Seismic Titan Damage penetration: True
Opposing Air Titan Damage and Pellet penetration: False
Opposing Hover-tank Titan Damage and pellet penetration: False
Opposing Orbital Titan Pellet Penetration: False
Opposing Orbital Unit Pellet Penetration: False
Orbital Vision: False
Is Radar: False
Is Building: True
Building is a Select-able unit: True
Shield is a Select-able unit: False
Nuke Splash Penetration: True
Nuke (moving into) Penetration: True
Is Commander (lol): False
*Aspects
-Blue Bar below the health bar indicates how much health shield has
-No other (EDIT: Friendly) shield can be placed within range 260
-T2
-Built by any T2 Fabricator
-Cannot be fabricated by Orbital Units
-Ground building (not water)
-Shield (the building is vulnerable) is not vulnerable to any seismic attack
-Opposing fabricators can not build buildings inside of the shield but can attempt to reclaim the shield
-Bubble shield Opacity (visibility) decreases as bubbleshield health goes down
-Appears as a dome ingame
-Bubble is color of player/AI's army
-Bubble protects everything inside of the bubble shield's arc
-All friendly units can move in and out of the bubble while Opposers can not
-If opposing units are stuck inside the bubble the building or the shield must be destroyed
-Opposing units will only attempt to fire at the shield if there are no other units / buildings in range (including buildings inside the shield)
-Area build rather than line build
-No other shield can be placed within range 320
-Shield does not provide vision
-Opposing Units do not take damage while moving into the shield
-Shield makes noise (a hum) when active
-Shield makes a dying noise when destroyed
-Shield building makes a dying noise when destroyed
-Opposing Units from unit cannons are not blocked from entering in projectile form

O_O Screaming shields D:

XD

yes

are you making a shield mod?

All things considered, making a mod would be best.

Yes I wonder if @cola_colin can comment on if any of the new mod hooks bring us closer to adding a bubble shield. It would be great to test them out in situ instead of arguing over theory!

I thought it was possible to do, then people stopped doing it. No idea why.