As most who like massive shieldtanks, I’m still a bit miffed when a shield module is ‘used up’, that is, its shield-value is reduced to 0 points.
From that moment on, that shield-module will not recharge anymore, even though the module itself doesn’t even have a scratch on it.
And then I thought: “Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of shield-kickstarter-module (with it’s own charge-bar), which would get one of the depleted shield-modules to start charging again?”
This obviously doesn’t work when the shield starts charging from 0, because once it hits anything positive (say, 1) while still getting pounded, the module could immediately be back at 0 and the kickstarter-charge would be wasted.
So the kickstarter gives the shield a small initial charge (thereby depleting the kickstarter’s charge, which has to recharge again…slowly…say, about 30-60 seconds before it can work its magic again) and allows the shield module to recharge on its own again.
This would also finally help shield-tanked ships get something useful from the ‘cautious’ behaviour setting
Naturally, the kickstarter starts a battle fully charged (it is absolutely ridiculous to have a module that needs charging to only start charging once you arrive on the battlefield).
That’s a pretty good idea! Would make the camouflage more useful too, being able to hide to kick-start the shields back up is a lot better than being able to hide to delay the inevitable.
i definitely like this idea
i vastly prefer shield tanks and use armor only when really necessary, as i consider armor tank hindering and unreliable
would give us shield whores some more things to waste our slots at!
This would be nice. The shield recharge behavior in GSB has disappointed me since I started playing.
Partly that’s because I’ve played too many games where, as long as the shield system is not actually destroyed (assuming that’s even possible in the game), the shields will recharge given enough time, no matter how much damage you’ve taken otherwise.
Such a moduel would need to be pretty cheap, or very effective, because otherwise you would be better off adding another shield module in that slot, even given the diminishing return.
Maybe “very effective” by charging up and then applying the jump-start to every shield module on the ship, restoring strength to all of them whether they needed it or not. Just a thought that popped into my head…
Naturally the kickstarter requires less crew attention than a full-blown shield generator, and probably less power as well, so yes, it will turn out to be cheaper than a shield (at least one of the bigger shields).
However I don’t quite agree with being better off by adding another shield…If you are setting up for a long drawn-out battle with your cruisers taking a beating, then being left alone for a bit (cloak, cautious temporary retreat, dumb luck), you will regain the use of shield-generators that have otherwise become little ornamental hull damage soaking modules.
Besides, it’s cool to have a bit of variation. There are plenty of other groups of modules in other categories that do the same thing, but slightly different (weapons, armor, repairers, crew compartiments, PD guns), so why not add this as an attempt at enabling new strategies instead of just having to slap on another shield gen to take the inevitable pain that’s coming towards your ship?
I actually suspect that to be a bug in GSB. Shield modules that are completely red (i.e. being wiped off the windows of nearby intact ships) can still hold a shield charge (and recharge)…but don’t let Cliffsky read that or he might fix it
i’d say this module could restore a shield that’s failed after a few seconds? the few seconds providing for the energy burst the ship would have to charge to restore the shields on the actual shield modules, but also allows for the ship to be destroyed if it hangs around too long in enemy fire. This is the balancing i’ve come up with off the top of my head.
alternatively, the weapons could be taken offline to restore the shield the instant the last generator crashes. Akin to the B5: Crusader destroyer firing its main gun.
Actually, that’s because the main gun eats up all the ship’s power…I wouldn’t say that has to be the case with a shield kickstarter.
I wouldn’t expect a shield kickstarter to draw more power than 4 shield modules combined
from a purely engineering point of view… it would probably be something like a equivalent of a pulse laser in power requirements
assuming the field “needs” to be jumpstarted with a specialized device which wouldnt fit in the actual field generator (ridiculous), kickstarter only needs a relatively large power spike to jumpstart the field,drawn from its own capacitors,and then recharge from the ships powergrid
when recharged,the excess throughput from the device would be used to recharge the field
to be perfectly honest i just cant see the point behind shields not being able to reset themselves and start generating the field from scratch again… theyre able to still “hold” even at 1 hitpoint and thats pretty close to restarting if you ask me…
i`d ditch the shield jumpstarter idea,make the shields able to do that themselves after a period of few seconds,and make this module a shield recharger/stabilizer… shield disruption doesnt have a direct counter yet anyway,perhaps make 2 specialized modules (might be better that way actually)
I like this better. It didn’t make any sense to me why shield gens couldn’t recharge themselves anyway so the new module was just an idea to not break any balance (too much). I’d still stick by my power req suggestion so that kick starting a crashed shield isn’t easy to do since well balanced shield use can make some cruisers (i’ve made), nearly invulnerable except to the critical % chance.
Long time lurker, finally bothered to register for this.
I agree with this fully. The way shields work currently, where if a shield ever drops the shield is gone for the rest of the battle, seems very strange. The shield isn’t damaged or destroyed. If it was the shield would turn red. So long as the shield is undamaged it should be able to restore itself after a period of time, such as 20-30 seconds and then begin to recharge back up to full.
I don’t think a shield jumpstarter really makes sense. If it takes a lot of power to turn the shields back on then that is why the shields are inactive for a time. Its still drawing the same power from the ship’s reactors so I assume that it would be just charging up and once it gets enough power it would turn on the shields again.
Shields are very useful but also far from invincible. Yes, reflective shields will bounce beam weapons forever, but if you use blaster weapons, plasma, or missiles those shields will drop in only a few seconds of focused fire. Most of my cruisers use 3 shields. 1 reflective and 2 multiphasic, and those shields last only a couple seconds under any amount of heavy fire. If its just the occasional incoming missile then they’ll stay up forever. But missiles never come just one at a time. D:
If shields can restore themselves then if you are able to get that cruiser away from battle before the next missile volley obliterates the shield generators, the shields should be able to get back up and running after a time, which significantly extends the lifespan of everyone. Cruisers live longer and even frigates benefit. Frigate shields are only good to soak a couple shots before they drop, but if your frigate shields instead soak a couple hits, collapse, reform, soak a few more, and so forth, frigates become much more viable.
Just making shields better would break the balance, so a special capacitator would make less sense enginering-wise but practicaly such a module would be pretty decent to balance, just give it fully chrged at the start and have a 60-120 second reload time.
I’m not sure how it would break balance. Shields are very easy to crack. The restart time for when a shield drops could be in the module file for the shield, so each shield could have different restart times allowing it to be adjusted. Want a low durability shield with a fast restart time? It would add for some interesting strategy relying on essentially ablative shielding. Think shields that soak only a couple hits, but then are back up and running 2 seconds later. Very reliable shield in that it will always soak up some damage, but never soak up all of the damage.
The shields themselves might be balanced with the rest of the shields, but just giving all shields a bonus would make them relatively strongeb compared with other survival methods such as armor or repair systems. So then all shield systems should be nerfed slightly, which is a ludicrous amount of work. Compared to that adding a single module might be preferable.
I’ve had plenty of cruisers reflect the beam laser. fighters, yes but only b/c they largely fly under the shield and so, naturally, wouldn’t have their slots stopped.
I specifically mentioned “cruiser lasers”, that is, the weapon called “cruiser laser”, not beam lasers, since they usually get reflected (because of a “low” shield penetration value).
The cruiser laser however eats up shields faster than Takeru Kobayashi.
