ADDITIONAL SHIELD TYPES
Currently, we have two types of shield in the game: the Fortress Shield and the Reflection Shield. All shields share a few similar behaviors:
They use the entire shield battery to activate the shield and fill its capacitor.
They last for a maximum duration after being activated (but can fail earlier depending on the amount of damage they protect you against).
Each shield has a capacitor that sustains the effect and if it is depleted, the shield fails. Every time the shield is hit, its shield capacitor loses energy. The status of the capacitor is shown to the player in-game by the state of the shield itself. If you see the shield start to show cracks, then the capacitor is failing and needs to be replenished with energy.
Shields only help against direct projectile attacks. Area effect attacks are NOT stopped by shields, nor are any attacks that originate inside the shield boundary.
To make it clear what the differences are between the shields already in the game, let’s describe the Fortress and Reflection shields.
[h3]FORTRESS SHIELD[/h3]
When attacks hit the Fortress shield, the shield stops a certain amount of that attack’s energy from passing through to hit the protected player. The amount stopped is called its “damage threshold”.
For example: If a Fortress shield has a threshold that stops 10 points of damage, and its capacitor can soak up 50 total points of damage, then if the player is hit by five attacks in a row that do 15 points of damage each, each shot allows five points of damage to penetrate through to the player, but 50 total points of damage (5 shots x 10 damage stopped each shot) is stopped by the threshold, its capacitor is drained entirely, and the shield fails.
[h3]REFLECTION SHIELD[/h3]
A reflection shield bounces the attack back at the attacker in the same direction that the attack originated but in the opposite direction. A reflected shot does not automatically hit the attacker unless the shot is a Homing shot (in which case it *does* automatically guide toward the attacker, increasing the probability that the attacker is hit). Indirect shots are bounced back along the same arc that they came in from and often hit the location where they originated.
Reflection shields work against projectiles 100% of the time, but every point of damage stopped drains the shield’s capacitor slightly. If the amount of damage hitting the shield exceeds the amount remaining in the Reflection shield’s capacitor, then the shield fails and the entire shot penetrates through to hit its intended target. (No partial reflection occurs.)
So that’s the existing shields. Now let’s talk about the new kinds of shield we’ll add due to the success of this stretch goal!
[h2]NEW SHIELD TYPES[/h2]
We’ve always wanted to add more shield types. So here’s the three new ones we’ll be adding.
[h3]REDIRECT SHIELD[/h3]
This shield can be used to trap an incoming projectile, hold it in place, and then eject it back out in a direction decided by the player!
When a projectile comes toward the player, the shield is able to wrap around and catch the projectile. When the projectile gets to within 5m of the player, but before it impacts them, the player triggers the Redirect shield by holding down the number key that triggers their shield.
The hostile projectile nearest to the player is then moved into position to the front of the player, hovering approximately one meter in front of them. The projectile stays in that position until the player releases the number key, at which time the shield forcibly ejects the projectile toward wherever the player’s mouse cursor is positioned.
The released projectile becomes a Direct fire projectile (even if it was Indirect or Homing before being captured), but maintains all of its other characteristics (speed, size, damage effect, AoE, Delayed Multishot, etc.).
The shield’s capacitor drains in proportion to the strength of the attack that is captured. If the capacitor is insufficient to capture the attack, then the shield fails and the player is hit normally.
The Redirect shield does not protect the player in any way if a projectile is not captured. Consequently, while a shot is captured and held, the shield is not protecting against other shots. The Redirect shield can be used to capture projectiles from any angle as they approach the player, even if the projectile is coming from directly behind the player.
[h3]ABSORPTION SHIELD[/h3]
An absorption shield is a bubble of energy connected to a capacitor that the player carries. When the shield is hit by attacks, the energy from those attacks flows into the capacitor (instead of hitting the player) and that energy can be released in the form of an explosion. The more damage the incoming attack might cause, the more energy you flow into the shield’s capacitor.
The absorption shield only retains absorbed energy for a limited duration and energy begins to bleed out of the capacitor after a short time. The player can use the shield to absorb shots, release that energy as an explosion and then continue to absorb more shots thereafter, releasing as many explosions as desired until the shield duration has expired or the shield’s capacitor has absorbed too much total damage and needs to be shut down and restarted.
The more energy absorbed into the shield’s capacitor, the larger the explosion will be when it’s released. If a capacitor is filled, the shield can no longer absorb energy until energy is released and any attacks hitting the shield pass will pass through to hit the protected character. A charged explosion is fired by tapping the shield’s activation (number) key.
[h3]PHASE SHIELD[/h3]
Once activated, this creates a phasing shield around the character that moves them into a different phase of the world.
Projectiles that pass through that Phase Shield cause disruptions in the shield and the energy required to stabilize the shield while they pass through is drained from its capacitor. When enough energy passes through the shield, the capacitor is drained and the phase shield deactivates. Projectiles that phase through a shield will do no damage to the protected player. However, the player may not affect the world outside the field while phased. The Phase shield can be manually terminated by tapping the number key that activates it again.
It is possible that we may experiment with the Phase Shield allowing the player to move through solid objects, but if so, that would be incredibly draining on the shield’s capacitor and would probably be of very limited duration. Failure to be in a clear space when the Phasing ends would be…detrimental to the character’s health.
They use the entire shield battery to activate the shield and fill its capacitor.
They last for a maximum duration after being activated (but can fail earlier depending on the amount of damage they protect you against).
Each shield has a capacitor that sustains the effect and if it is depleted, the shield fails. Every time the shield is hit, its shield capacitor loses energy. The status of the capacitor is shown to the player in-game by the state of the shield itself. If you see the shield start to show cracks, then the capacitor is failing and needs to be replenished with energy.
Shields only help against direct projectile attacks. Area effect attacks are NOT stopped by shields, nor are any attacks that originate inside the shield boundary.
To make it clear what the differences are between the shields already in the game, let’s describe the Fortress and Reflection shields.
[h3]FORTRESS SHIELD[/h3]
When attacks hit the Fortress shield, the shield stops a certain amount of that attack’s energy from passing through to hit the protected player. The amount stopped is called its “damage threshold”.
For example: If a Fortress shield has a threshold that stops 10 points of damage, and its capacitor can soak up 50 total points of damage, then if the player is hit by five attacks in a row that do 15 points of damage each, each shot allows five points of damage to penetrate through to the player, but 50 total points of damage (5 shots x 10 damage stopped each shot) is stopped by the threshold, its capacitor is drained entirely, and the shield fails.
[h3]REFLECTION SHIELD[/h3]
A reflection shield bounces the attack back at the attacker in the same direction that the attack originated but in the opposite direction. A reflected shot does not automatically hit the attacker unless the shot is a Homing shot (in which case it *does* automatically guide toward the attacker, increasing the probability that the attacker is hit). Indirect shots are bounced back along the same arc that they came in from and often hit the location where they originated.
Reflection shields work against projectiles 100% of the time, but every point of damage stopped drains the shield’s capacitor slightly. If the amount of damage hitting the shield exceeds the amount remaining in the Reflection shield’s capacitor, then the shield fails and the entire shot penetrates through to hit its intended target. (No partial reflection occurs.)
So that’s the existing shields. Now let’s talk about the new kinds of shield we’ll add due to the success of this stretch goal!
[h2]NEW SHIELD TYPES[/h2]
We’ve always wanted to add more shield types. So here’s the three new ones we’ll be adding.
[h3]REDIRECT SHIELD[/h3]
This shield can be used to trap an incoming projectile, hold it in place, and then eject it back out in a direction decided by the player!
When a projectile comes toward the player, the shield is able to wrap around and catch the projectile. When the projectile gets to within 5m of the player, but before it impacts them, the player triggers the Redirect shield by holding down the number key that triggers their shield.
The hostile projectile nearest to the player is then moved into position to the front of the player, hovering approximately one meter in front of them. The projectile stays in that position until the player releases the number key, at which time the shield forcibly ejects the projectile toward wherever the player’s mouse cursor is positioned.
The released projectile becomes a Direct fire projectile (even if it was Indirect or Homing before being captured), but maintains all of its other characteristics (speed, size, damage effect, AoE, Delayed Multishot, etc.).
The shield’s capacitor drains in proportion to the strength of the attack that is captured. If the capacitor is insufficient to capture the attack, then the shield fails and the player is hit normally.
The Redirect shield does not protect the player in any way if a projectile is not captured. Consequently, while a shot is captured and held, the shield is not protecting against other shots. The Redirect shield can be used to capture projectiles from any angle as they approach the player, even if the projectile is coming from directly behind the player.
[h3]ABSORPTION SHIELD[/h3]
An absorption shield is a bubble of energy connected to a capacitor that the player carries. When the shield is hit by attacks, the energy from those attacks flows into the capacitor (instead of hitting the player) and that energy can be released in the form of an explosion. The more damage the incoming attack might cause, the more energy you flow into the shield’s capacitor.
The absorption shield only retains absorbed energy for a limited duration and energy begins to bleed out of the capacitor after a short time. The player can use the shield to absorb shots, release that energy as an explosion and then continue to absorb more shots thereafter, releasing as many explosions as desired until the shield duration has expired or the shield’s capacitor has absorbed too much total damage and needs to be shut down and restarted.
The more energy absorbed into the shield’s capacitor, the larger the explosion will be when it’s released. If a capacitor is filled, the shield can no longer absorb energy until energy is released and any attacks hitting the shield pass will pass through to hit the protected character. A charged explosion is fired by tapping the shield’s activation (number) key.
[h3]PHASE SHIELD[/h3]
Once activated, this creates a phasing shield around the character that moves them into a different phase of the world.
Projectiles that pass through that Phase Shield cause disruptions in the shield and the energy required to stabilize the shield while they pass through is drained from its capacitor. When enough energy passes through the shield, the capacitor is drained and the phase shield deactivates. Projectiles that phase through a shield will do no damage to the protected player. However, the player may not affect the world outside the field while phased. The Phase shield can be manually terminated by tapping the number key that activates it again.
It is possible that we may experiment with the Phase Shield allowing the player to move through solid objects, but if so, that would be incredibly draining on the shield’s capacitor and would probably be of very limited duration. Failure to be in a clear space when the Phasing ends would be…detrimental to the character’s health.