Shield Frequencies

[Haxus]

A player recently suggested a system of shield frequencies. I think it would work kind of like this.

• Defending shield station sets a number, which is the shield frequency. Perhaps has to be set before shields are brought up.
  
• Attacking weapon station sets a number, to penetrate shields using that frequency.
  
• If you get lucky, and your weapon frequency matches their shield frequency, their shield is nullified.
  

Is this idea worth adopting?

• NPC gunners would fire using random frequencies until they got lucky, then would continue using the same frequency.
  
• NPC defenders would lower shields, change frequency, then raise shields when attacker gets lucky.
  
• Frequency would need to be 3 digits or less or the odds of the gunner getting lucky would be extremely low. Is 1 to 255 enough?
  
• Anyone who sits at a shield station aboard a ship should see its frequency number.
  

[Vectorus]

I'd have to think about this one.

It sounds to me that, with this system, you're essentially giving each hit a fixed chance (depending on the number range you allow) to ignore shields. And that, in turn, is essentially equivalent to giving each weapon a fixed bleedthrough rate at which damage will bypass shields - except in very short engagements. I'm not entirely sure I like that, but as I say, I'll have to think.

Random observations:

The critical hit system already encourages you to put as many small weapons bays as you can on a ship. A ship with 35 weapons bays (or about that) would be the favoured loadout under this system. I'm just noting that - not sure if it's good or bad yet. With each bay firing every five seconds, it's only going to take you two and a half minutes at most to find that three figure frequency.

In principle humans should be able to do all ship jobs, to encourage cooperative play. But cycling the number manually between each shot would be a bit tedious for a human, especially if he has to actually type it into a field.

In Star Trek, where I think this idea came from, getting the enemy's shield frequency right is very rare: you really have to by privy to special information beforehand. You don't "get lucky". Kirk only managed in the film because Khan didn't really understand Starfleet protocol. In Hazeron, any situation where you know the enemy's shield frequency beforehand, you'll also be able to switch the shield off outright and permanently.

Transporters should logically follow the same system. The transporter has a slow activation cycle, but the NPC crewman would keep dialing until he got through and you were able to beam across.

If cities can't lower their shields, can they change their frequencies, or are they permanently vulnerable once cracked?

[Deantwo]

Seems overly complicated for almost no gain.

And frequencies for weapons doesn't make much sense unless you are only talking about lasers, at which point this is just a weird nerf to the only reliable weapon in the game.

Off-topic: Still wish you would separate ballistic weapons into cannons which projectile and "other" which do direct damage like lasers. The projectiles make ballistic weapons extremely unreliable when new any gravity well, which is almost always.

[Haxus]

Seems overly complicated for almost no gain.

That is why I hesitated to do this while working on shields. It didn't seem like it would add much, in terms of game play.


Thank you for your thoughts. Let's just kill the idea.

[Vectorus]

If the person who actually suggested it wants to elaborate in more detail, perhaps we should wait for them to make their case?

[AnrDaemon]

How many possible variants would be there? If too few, it'd be a matter of setting ship with enough weapon slots to cover all possible choices. If too many, it effectively become redundant.
Besides, I can't call current state of SoH combat mechanics "working".

[Hannibal]

i think its a good idea for teleporters, not for weapons

[Deantwo]

i think its a good idea for teleporters, not for weapons

Being boarded is pretty devastating, so it happening at random rather than a result of being fired on seem like a really bad idea.
Even more so if you can do it before declaring war.