Shielding the station from meteors.

Some of this is speculation, and it's early in the morning. Sue me.

Meteors: Bubble. Carp: Hull. (Credit goes to Jan Fischer)

While a hull shield will protect the station somewhat. I think meteors explode on impact. Which can get around the shield having the bubble shield which throws up a single wall x meters in every direction from the station will have them explode away from most things important. Screw Toxin's test site It's made to go boom.

Location: As central to the station as possible usually the bridge specifically where the charger on the table is. It can be put in other locations, but be aware the shield only extends 100 meters, and it is possible for it to (Bubble) to extend off map, and do nothing.

Radius: Max, or near max the station is wider than it is tall, and I haven't done the math on the best possible position which is probably somewhere east of the bridge.

Strength: At least 2. Hull at max radius won't get there, but if you set it to one the shield won't come up. This does present a problem since it tries to strength the shield before it recharges sections so any part of the shield that fails stays down until the generator is reset.

Charge rate: 0.1. Yeah Minimum all around on shields that size.

The limiting factor in shield generation is the capacitor, it can only suck up so much power and it's REALLY easy to hit that cap. A hull Shield barely has enough power to keep itself sustained let alone charge, and a bubble shield can get up to 3 before running into the same problem. Power is first diverted to maintaining the shield, and when that's 90% of the power it can get the other 10 goes to making the shield stronger which might be a fraction of what it actually needs, and that's at the lowest charge rate. And no. Adding more capacitors doesn't work. We've tried it will only pull power from one.

Something that used to be right into the map was a meteor shield before we had shields. A wire grille was around the bridge to protect it, and I wish people would do that, build one around the station. Much better looking, and faster. I remember asking before we shifted code if we were allowed to build it around the whole station, and they said it was fine.

and faster.

Setting up the shield from scratch in an emergency takes like 2-3 minutes, running a wire grille around the entire station would take at least 15. WHAT ARE YOU HIGH ON AND WILL YOU PLEASE PASS IT

Takes way longer to do a whiffle shield now. Less movement speed overall and a larger station area, in addition to the fact that moving anywhere near the engine ejection port will get you irradiated one way or another.

Also, a whiffle shield takes like 400 metal sheets, and thats only for 'critical' areas. The old map never had a full shield anyway, just a partial shield around command to block the glass. Its good for isolated locations, tossing up a shield around xenobio, virology, or medical, but fully encapsulating the station isn't worth the time or resources.

and faster.

 

Setting up the shield from scratch in an emergency takes like 2-3 minutes, running a wire grille around the entire station would take at least 15. WHAT ARE YOU HIGH ON AND WILL YOU PLEASE PASS IT

Shush. Im trying to convince the masses. Plus, making a grille around the station doesn't mean you need to either run to the bridge everytime it's needed, and wait for it to power up.

and faster.

 

Setting up the shield from scratch in an emergency takes like 2-3 minutes, running a wire grille around the entire station would take at least 15. WHAT ARE YOU HIGH ON AND WILL YOU PLEASE PASS IT

 

Shush. Im trying to convince the masses. Plus, making a grille around the station doesn't mean you need to either run to the bridge everytime it's needed, and wait for it to power up.

Just ask the AI,Command (They MIGHT just be doing their jobs instead of trying to acquire their shift dose of valids), or a borg to turn on the shield. If none of those options are available, you can just turn on the shield right after you are done setting it up. All of these, even running to the bridge, take less time and resources than building a grille shield around the station. Grilles can also be eaten by carp, making them worthless.

Leaving the shield on all shift is considered power gaming.

Leaving the shield on all shift is considered power gaming.

Oh really? Can an admin (or mod) post and confirm what you said? Why is leaving the shield on all shift powergaming? It would be something I would do in case there was nobody to turn the shield on when the inevitable meteor storm came.

Leaving the shield on all shift is considered power gaming.

Oh really? Can an admin (or mod) post and confirm what you said? Why is leaving the shield on all shift powergaming? It would be something I would do in case there was nobody to turn the shield on when the inevitable meteor storm came.

Keep in mind it doesn't have to be central, it's just optimal, it could be in the bar if people wanted to. So if there's no one to turn it on that is capable, then there shouldn't have been a person capable of installing it.

Leaving the shield on all shift is considered power gaming.

Oh really? Can an admin (or mod) post and confirm what you said? Why is leaving the shield on all shift powergaming? It would be something I would do in case there was nobody to turn the shield on when the inevitable meteor storm came.

 

Keep in mind it doesn't have to be central, it's just optimal, it could be in the bar if people wanted to. So if there's no one to turn it on that is capable, then there shouldn't have been a person capable of installing it.

There was a public warning about this on the MotD a few weeks ago. It was up for about a month, made by Garn.

It's considered bad gameplay at the very least, because it stops everyone from going in and out of the station. So, please turn it off when you don't need it. It's not that hard, and you're given plenty of warning when a storm does hit.

Leaving the shield on all shift is considered power gaming.

Oh really? Can an admin (or mod) post and confirm what you said? Why is leaving the shield on all shift powergaming? It would be something I would do in case there was nobody to turn the shield on when the inevitable meteor storm came.

Leaving the shield on all shift is considered power gaming.

Oh really? Can an admin (or mod) post and confirm what you said? Why is leaving the shield on all shift powergaming? It would be something I would do in case there was nobody to turn the shield on when the inevitable meteor storm came.

 

Apologies then. I don't follow the Aurora Discord, sorry for not knowing beforehand.

Apologies then. I don't follow the Aurora Discord, sorry for not knowing beforehand.

That wasn't a smart move to assume someone is isn't honest.

That wasn't a smart move to assume someone is isn't honest.

Yeah. That'll teach him to ask for some authoritative clarification on an ambiguous aspect of the informal code of conduct on a section of the forum specifically made for that purpose, then genuinely apologise when corrected! What a bastard, right?

Don't mind me, just changing the thread title back because OCD.

Is it possible to expand the shield outwards so it doesn't effect ships and EVA? I'm sure I remember there being a shield that stretched further out once.

Don't mind me, just changing the thread title back because OCD.

Is it possible to expand the shield outwards so it doesn't effect ships and EVA? I'm sure I remember there being a shield that stretched further out once.

There's two types of shields, hull and bubble. Hull hugs the outer lining of the station and will block shuttles if they aren't docked, it also makes it hard to get out of the station without blowing a hole in it. Bubble shield is deployed at a radius in all directions. So yes, you can use the bubble shield to not screw with all of that but the placement is more important and it isn't ideal for every situation, carp for example may spawn inside of it and still attack the windows.

Its power gaming.

Ahem.

Lets pretend the shield puts off a small amount of radiation, ionized particles, and other scifi nastiness when its on. Sure, its safe to have on for a short period against a much more serious threat, but we'd want to turn it off when no meteors are approaching. There should always be someone able to get to the bridge as a matter of policy. Sometimes everyone's dead, and that's just good dramatics.

Its also possible to add a new element to the shield generator; heat. We're talking about an energy projecting machine that takes hundreds of thousands of watts of power, converts them at some less-than-ideal efficiency to shields, and dumps that inefficient portion as heat. If the shield generator put off a lot of heat in the room its installed in, we'd have a problem if we left it on constantly, unless we engineer a solution. Which is all good fun.

Oh yeah.

WHIPPLE SHIELD. WHIP-PLE. WITH A P.