Personal shield generators

[Guest]

 

Defensive belt-mounted technology capable, upon activation, of projecting a field of energy that would protect the user from energy projectiles, the elements and other hazards. Required to be worn on the belt slot in order to activate.

As with most compact deflector systems, the shields in themselves required large amounts of energy in the form of energy cells or a portable generator. While the generator provided the most efficiency, it was larger and bulkier. The power requirements meant that shields tended to be used only when traversal through combat or hazards was expected. Intended to replace the outdated and lesser-used ablative armor technology, however, personal shield generators sold and used predominately by the NanoTrasen corporation are still within their betaphase of development, and are subject to malfunctions to the device. Non-civilian models are currently within their deltaphase of development, suffering much less in technical errors and are much more cost-efficient on the power cells.

Both models have not managed to compensate for ballistics, most operators happen to wear bullet-proof gear in tandem with the personal shield generators, given that the shield generators are designed to soak energy-based projectiles.

Given that the shield created by the generator is reminiscent of a visible, blue bubble, it becomes difficult for operators to be mobile within the limiting field, and are automatically set to walk when the shield generator is on. In addition, operators are not advised to use energy weapons whilst their personal shield is activated, as it will hit the inside of the shield and a shot will be wasted. Since the majority of the energy that the shield generator disperses is to primarily stop external energy blasts, the shield generator can very quickly overheat and short out, once again causing the operator to be greatly exposed to energy weaponry. (See the section on ablation for more details.)

Energy-based melee weapons impacting with the shield will cause an intense recoil back at the attacker, due to the physics of the bubble detecting the blow and automatically creating a wave of repulsive energy. This drains the power cell of the personal shield generator much more dramatically than if the shield generator were to absorb a standard energy bolt. Stun batons switched to "on", and used against personal shields will yield nasty results for the attacker.

Standard melee weapons and vibroweaponry are more than capable of moving past the energy shield with ease, however, a smart operator will not allow other combatants to gain distance.

Due to the nature of ablation, the personal shield becomes greatly weakened with use, as well as the shield itself overheating from the intense amounts of energy absorption. Beta-class shields are known to take up to 5 bolts of energy (with a standard high-cap cell) before failing and requiring an energy cell replacement. More advanced, yet expensive, tiers of energy cells would allow for additional hits to be taken with the betatype shield. Delta-class shields (designed and painted in a variety of identifiable schemes) absorb 8-10 bolts of energy with a high-capacity cell. Once again, this threshold can be escalated even higher with more advanced power-cells. (As a side note, infinity power cells would most likely make these things broken as shit, given that they're coded to be, well, infinite.)

There has been no known solution to ion energy or electromagnetic blasts being an overwhelming counter to personal shields. Incidents have occurred in which the operator suffers intense shocks and severe burns from the generator overloading when the shield is switched on.

Personal shields issued to personnel in intense heat environments are given a good deal of precious seconds in order to survive. For a short time, they also allow the operator to be contained within their own vacuum, albeit this rarely makes a difference due to the average longevity of a personal shield (between 10-20 seconds, at most).

It is ill-advised for operators and non-operators to stick their appendages through the shield, given the energy field emits trace amounts of radiation and can generate intense electromagnetic fields. To repeat: It is not recommended to stick unprotected fingers, hands, arms or any part of your body through a personal shield, as it can lead to dangerous results.

As an OOC note to justify "why" I think we should have this. One, to discourage e-gun/taser spam, which can often be rather ridiculous in many situations that call for intelligent use of force rather than the opposite. I'm in your suggestions subforum, killing your meta. Two, it's very possible it can create interesting situations regarding how Aurora's security and antags deal with conflict. There's nothing more entertaining than the thought of ded security officers crying in deadchat in how the antag managed to robust and outplay them by using defensive mechanics, but likewise, the living and smart sec officers will find a way to put a dude running around with a bubble into a jail cell for their terroristic antics. Thus, the conflict has become interesting, because it was dealt with by characters who think, live and breathe with or against their fellow characters. Three: Because this is supposed to be sci-fi, and I think this device would do quite well in shaking up the meta-expectations of the playerbase, as well as further reinforcing that THE CURRENT YEAR is 2458, and thus we should be quite advanced in some capacity, don't you think?

[Conservatron]

mechanics

i think it should last for no longer than 1 minute after engaged (heavy duty power cell), can be toggled off. no native regeneration, must be worn in belt slot to be activated.

batteries can be swapped out at diminishing returns, hypercap maxing out at 2.5 minutes of constant protection

a laser shot should remove 1500 charge from battery, allowing a fully charged default shield to soak roughly 3 shots before failing

sounds cool imo

[coolbc2000]

Ah, Two questions.

-What about the lore side? Who built it, who is producing it i.e...

-Will it be restricted to Security staff only...Or something else?

[Guest]

-What about the lore side? Who built it, who is producing it i.e...

 

NT 'acquired' the design and the rights to use/market them as they see fit. The original alpha prototypes were designed by some bellend, nameless Mid-rimworld research and development team with a focus on shield generators. From a lore perspective, they've been around for awhile, though not too long.

 

-Will it be restricted to Security staff only...Or something else?

 

Anyone can use the beta-type shields. Engineers, sec, etc. Naturally, with great power shields also comes great responsibility.

Delta-phase shield generators are very easy to pick out compared to the betaphase tier shields. The former are less bulky, lasts for 1.5x longer than the beta, and are more cost-efficient.

 

mechanics

i think it should last for no longer than 1 minute after engaged (heavy duty power cell), can be toggled off. no native regeneration, must be worn in belt slot to be activated.

batteries can be swapped out at diminishing returns, hypercap maxing out at 2.5 minutes of constant protection

a laser shot should remove 1500 charge from battery, allowing a fully charged default shield to soak roughly 3 shots before failing

sounds cool imo

 

Pretty much what I had in mind. Special circumstances can change how much of a shot the shield soaks, such as being hit by a sniper bolt. LWAPs and laser cannons will both dramatically drain the charge of a energy shield (or at least more than your typical peashooter laser would) due to their high impact.

[hivefleetchicken]

What will the nuke ops have to make their stock shields not pieces of worthless shit now and balance out this addition?

EDIT: I get the setbacks on the personal generators, but still, being able to wear your shield like in lifeweb still makes them extremely useful (moreso than nuke shields) because they don't take up a hand slot. Plus the nuke shields just offer an RNG defense bonus where it looks like theses shield generators give you 100% protection as long as they're up.

[Guest]

They'll have two of these spawned at the syndiebase, with TC to buy more. They get the upgraded variants (delta-phase x] ) by default.

Also gives more purpose to the high-cap power cells in the closets.

[Zundy]

If a laser rifle beam and the shield projection field come into contact, it should cause a nuclear level explosion that rivals the power of the family's atomics.

Too few people get the reference. I think the shield should produce ozone gas when in contact with oxygen.

 

And slow melee attacks should bypass it.

[MagnificentMelkior]

And slow melee attacks should bypass it.

 

Eh, no, it wouldn't matter. Only droideka shields have that feature, personal shields do not.

So how does it let air through, and presumably, objects using the GIVE verb?

[Guest]

And slow melee attacks should bypass it.

 

Eh, no, it wouldn't matter. Only droideka shields have that feature, personal shields do not.

So how does it let air through, and presumably, objects using the GIVE verb?

 

A sudden pressure change/spess wind can cause someone with a shield to fall down. So they react normally to atmos, their personal shield doesn't give them magboots. Within the shield is an extremely temporary (30 seconds word) contained atmosphere, so anyone in a bubble can survive for 30 seconds provided they were in a 100kpa~ ish environment before popping their shield. This prevents them from roasting/suffocating inside their own shield. In terms of physics it probably doesn't make any sense, but I'm not one with a physics degree. so, whatever.

Nope, you can't give people objects through shields. Personal shields have a small amount of electromagnetic field shit going on, in addition to emitting trace amounts of radiation. Exposing yourself to that as an organic would cause issues. IPCs are excluded from the rad damage, but their parts being exposed to those fields would likely blow them up. So, instead, they'd decide to not risk exploding. Diona would potentially also give a shit, since the EM fields might do some fucky things. So in terms of all races, there's individual excuses for why the mechanic bars being able to give people objects. Naturally, throwing non-energy shit at them will still penetrate through the shield.

[Guest]

A sudden pressure change/spess wind can cause someone with a shield to fall down. So they react normally to atmos, their personal shield doesn't give them magboots. Within the shield is an extremely temporary (30 seconds word) contained atmosphere, so anyone in a bubble can survive for 30 seconds provided they were in a 100kpa~ ish environment before popping their shield. This prevents them from roasting/suffocating inside their own shield. In terms of physics it probably doesn't make any sense, but I'm not one with a physics degree. so, whatever.

Nope, you can't give people objects through shields. Personal shields have a small amount of electromagnetic field shit going on, in addition to emitting trace amounts of radiation. Exposing yourself to that as an organic would cause issues. IPCs are excluded from the rad damage, but their parts being exposed to those fields would likely blow them up. So, instead, they'd decide to not risk exploding. Diona would potentially also give a shit, since the EM fields might do some fucky things. So in terms of all races, there's individual excuses for why the mechanic bars being able to give people objects. Naturally, throwing non-energy shit at them will still penetrate through the shield.

This is extremely nonsensical and contrived. If the shields let visible light through, they wouldn't be able to stop lasers either. If you want to make it a kinetic shield, while still allowing the user to breath, there are two methods you can go with: porous/net or speed-based.

Porous would form a spungy hardlight mass or a tight, suspended net around the user that functions as a physical object, with its own mass. However, it would be the elasticity of the net that gives it strength to stop projectiles, not some magical force. Due to the holes, it lets air in and out, but not large, slow-moving objects.

Speed-based functions as a bubble with large, permissible surface. The surface exterts pressure from the inside. This allows it to function as a solid object when things hit it at high speed. The question is, where does the energy disperse? Maybe as a form of a dynamo, the energy transfers back into the shield generator. Like water's surface, slow-moving objects will be let through without much issue. Although, air particles actually move at high speeds. High enough not to be let through by the shield. But that can be ignored for the sake of simplicity.

So, solution would probably be the mixture of the two. In the end though, considering we have gravity generators, singularity engines, micro-3D printers, teleportation, cloning devices, super-powers and other nonesense garbage, you are worrying too much about the phyical validity of this, not to mention shields are already part of the game. Just have them function in the same way and you are set.

[SierraKomodo]

http://aurorastation.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=20

- Keep posts related to the thread unless in the off-topic board

 

Thread cleaned up at the request of an admin, so let's keep things on topic shall we?

[Guest]

This is extremely nonsensical and contrived. If the shields let visible light through, they wouldn't be able to stop lasers either. If you want to make it a kinetic shield, while still allowing the user to breath, there are two methods you can go with: porous/net or speed-based.

Porous would form a spungy hardlight mass or a tight, suspended net around the user that functions as a physical object, with its own mass. However, it would be the elasticity of the net that gives it strength to stop projectiles, not some magical force. Due to the holes, it lets air in and out, but not large, slow-moving objects.

Speed-based functions as a bubble with large, permissible surface. The surface exterts pressure from the inside. This allows it to function as a solid object when things hit it at high speed. The question is, where does the energy disperse? Maybe as a form of a dynamo, the energy transfers back into the shield generator. Like water's surface, slow-moving objects will be let through without much issue. Although, air particles actually move at high speeds. High enough not to be let through by the shield. But that can be ignored for the sake of simplicity.

So, solution would probably be the mixture of the two. In the end though, considering we have gravity generators, singularity engines, micro-3D printers, teleportation, cloning devices, super-powers and other nonesense garbage, you are worrying too much about the phyical validity of this, not to mention shields are already part of the game. Just have them function in the same way and you are set.

 

You need to keep in mind that the physics of laser ablation in the context of a shield, intend to stop the pulse and absorb the intense heat produced by the laser beam. The light itself is not stopped, you would be able to see inside of a personal shield as well as outside of it, and there's nothing stopping anyone from aiming directly at your eyes in an attempt to blind you. Same concept with laser pointers.

I'm not suggesting particle-based shields. Particle shields could potentially allow someone to tank a sledge with their kinetically-shielded face and that's a suggestion for another time. Melee shields some other time, not today. This suggestion is being able to sensibly counter energy weaponry, with added utility and protection against hazards.

But yeah anyway, I remember that you suggested that the shields should be charged and kept stable by the high-energy generator, which creates a fair deal of static electricity, which in turn would create a subtle amount of ozone as it's on. So basically if it's used way too frequently, it begins to poison present atmosphere with ozone. We're honestly getting close to breaking the limits of physics, given energy shields in particular convert energy into both force and/or mass, in their own way, which might sound rather stupid.

I don't know how I feel about net-like shields. I might honestly consider scrapping the idea of having a contained atmosphere within the energy shield, given that air can and should just pass through it normally. Since it makes more sense. In addition, nets in themselves wouldn't be able to stop high-speed energy projectiles efficiently, nor would they ablate lasers or heat effectively.

Speed-based shields would be more proper. Given lasers are almost instantaneous at the range they're intended for, it would be more sensible to create an object created by energy designed to absorb the blast. Since pressure exerts from in-to-out, upon the shield being hit by the laser, the shape of the shield will tighten a bit. The heat absorbed by the shield, rather than by the person in it, would cause the bubble surrounding the person to expel heat outward (albeit slowly) so as to avoid the operator from cooking on the inside. The generator would also attempt in readjusting the original shape of the shield before it was hit by the laser.

The power cells are mostly intended on feeding power to keeping the shield cool and still operational. As the shield heats up, more and more energy is diverted to attempt in cooling it and keeping the shield operational. Turning the shield generator on with a depleted battery would cause intense escalation of heat both outside of the shield and inside of it. Hardsuited folks, regardless if they're in an atmos one or not (though being in an atmos one would give you precious needed seconds), would quickly melt and burn.

I might be worrying too much, but something new, fresh and complex/challenging is something I've heard coders lament about not having.