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Shield Types


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#1 Shifty McSwift

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Posted 24 March 2017 - 10:57 PM

Melee weapons would be nice, but require a lot of work in applying them to MWO, but what about shielding hardpoints? Specific types of shields could be mounted within specific hardpoints, from the basic arm shield types we all think of to more particular ones, like umbrella style shielding for helping vs missiles and getting shot from high positions.

There could also be variants in the makeup of the shields, from basic metals (working almost like limbs or components of their own) to laser reflective materials, or anti ballistic types or even to laser based ones that chew heat and need to be switched on and off.

Thoughts?

Edited by Shifty McSwift, 24 March 2017 - 11:02 PM.


#2 Cichol Balor

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Posted 25 March 2017 - 01:03 AM

there are already mechs with these built in

#3 Shifty McSwift

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Posted 25 March 2017 - 01:09 AM

View PostCichol Balor, on 25 March 2017 - 01:03 AM, said:

there are already mechs with these built in


Yep I know what you mean, like how the Awesome's shoulder's come up higher, but I mean actual bought and installed shield components (installed like weapons) that have their own individual health rates and conditions.

And for mechs like the awesome, whose twisting shielding capacity is greater than others, they could benefit even moreso from arm shields that better protect the torso when turning (picture a shield the width of the forearm that extends to about the length of the torso).

Edited by Shifty McSwift, 25 March 2017 - 01:43 AM.


#4 Cichol Balor

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Posted 25 March 2017 - 06:29 AM

adding them to just be a part of the arms hit box may be doable but i'm not sure if the engine could give them their own hitbox and health

#5 Shifty McSwift

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Posted 26 March 2017 - 02:44 AM

View PostCichol Balor, on 25 March 2017 - 06:29 AM, said:

adding them to just be a part of the arms hit box may be doable but i'm not sure if the engine could give them their own hitbox and health


Great point, part of the suggestion is that it would be much easier to add than many other things, so if there is problems in how they add it, then that offsets half the ideal behind it.

I was thinking like how weapons work, in adding extra attachments that are hit-able that have values of their own, but I was picturing them as having separate health values from the limb they are attached to, so in practice a shield on a mechs arm for example could be destroyed independently from the arm if hit enough times first, this would also mean that a destroyed torso would destroy a potentially full health arm shield too, like how arms can go in general.

But yeah it would be a new mechanic to have a slot attachment that could be targeted out independently of the armor of the limb it is attached to, hmmm, but I guess just having them function as weapons do could still work, it would basically be like making your arm bigger I guess, extending your shoulders sort of thing.

Good point though :)

#6 Athom83

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Posted 27 March 2017 - 04:43 AM

Adding the shield should probably increase the HB of the arm its mounted on. However, they should increase the armor value of that arm (like armor quirks) based on the size of the shield (larger and heavier shields give more armor and coverage, smaller ones giving less but can fit easier). Useful for mechs with full armor values on their arms and want more, less useful for mechs without full armor on the arms.

Edited by Athom83, 27 March 2017 - 04:43 AM.


#7 Shifty McSwift

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Posted 27 March 2017 - 10:52 PM

View PostAthom83, on 27 March 2017 - 04:43 AM, said:

Adding the shield should probably increase the HB of the arm its mounted on. However, they should increase the armor value of that arm (like armor quirks) based on the size of the shield (larger and heavier shields give more armor and coverage, smaller ones giving less but can fit easier). Useful for mechs with full armor values on their arms and want more, less useful for mechs without full armor on the arms.


Yeah I was having a bit more of a think on this and it could actually work out better with that difference in mind.

At first I had been picturing basically a mech riot shield, or LRM umbrella that had its own health rates etc but..

Actually focusing more on changing a mechs arm (increasing its size, shape, weight, crit slots etc), with different potential install-ables would be much easier to do and be just as effective in some cases.

With the example of the awesome again, it seems like one of the most prominent "shield arm" type mechs, being that often one of its arms has no weapons at all, combined with it having one of the best arm shape/size in the game for arm shielding. If the shielding idea was a simple as being able to cycle through a choice of arm sizes or arm/shoulder add-ons, at the cost of crit slots and weight for the more defensively shaped arms it would still function well, while not being as comprehensive, still functional.

And IMO the idea overall would help to mitigate the extreme damage rates (huge damage over very small periods of time) that teams are capable of with concentrated fire and new tech etc. That assault mech might be a lot happier to be the first one out if he had a kind of guarantee that he could absorb some damage without that risk of it instantly ruining him for the rest of the game.





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