No system shield for you

Droplede · #1 June 6th, 2001, 04:33 AM

Hmmmm. This is distressing. In a test, I tried out nebula and black-hole creators in a system with a System Gravitational Shield Facility. Both worked on one of my own ships, despite the shield facility, duplicating my first error. So I transfered control of the ships to another player, with a war treaty between us, to try again, and the systems still blew up. Made no difference friend or foe.

I was running with the TDM ModPack in Version 1.35. I'll try to duplicate the experiment in the base 1.35 Version and in different types of system. I'll send MM my findings.

Has ANYBODY had a system shield facility work correctly? Please post.

By the way: Tested tectonic bombs against planets with Planetary Gravitational Shield Facilities, too. The shields worked just fine. But in one case, they worked too well. Had a shield facility on the moon of a gas giant. Sent the tectonic bomb ship to the sector, told it to blow up the gas giant (not the shielded moon), and the shield still protected it. It seems you only need one per sector, regardless that the tectonic bomb dialog screen makes you select a specific planet in the sector.

[This message has been edited by Droplede (edited 06 June 2001).]

DirectorTsaarx · #2 June 6th, 2001, 05:12 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Droplede:
Hmmmm. This is distressing. In a test, I tried out nebula and black-hole creators in a system with a System Gravitational Shield Facility. Both worked on one of my own ships, despite the shield facility, duplicating my first error. So I transfered control of the ships to another player, with a war treaty between us, to try again, and the systems still blew up. Made no difference friend or foe.

I was running with the TDM ModPack in Version 1.35. I'll try to duplicate the experiment in the base 1.35 Version and in different types of system. I'll send MM my findings.

Has ANYBODY had a system shield facility work correctly? Please post.

I've never taken the opportunity to test it, although I've built a system shield facility...

quote:
Originally posted by Droplede:
By the way: Tested tectonic bombs against planets with Planetary Gravitational Shield Facilities, too. The shields worked just fine. But in one case, they worked too well. Had a shield facility on the moon of a gas giant. Sent the tectonic bomb ship to the sector, told it to blow up the gas giant (not the shielded moon), and the shield still protected it. It seems you only need one per sector, regardless that the tectonic bomb dialog screen makes you select a specific planet in the sector.

[This message has been edited by Droplede (edited 06 June 2001).]

Well, didn't Star Wars: Return of the Jedi put the second Death Star's shield on a moon of Endor? Could be a similar idea (i.e., the Planetary Gravitational Shield can be projected on all planets/moons in a sector).

Baron Munchausen · #3 June 6th, 2001, 08:43 PM

It's not that suprising that no one has run across this before. Stellar manipulation is a late game tech, and the AI doesn't use it very often anyway. Most people don't get that far in a game before abandoning it to try some new data file tweak.

It's also not suprising that Planetary Gravity Shields work in an entire sector. The Black Hole or Nebula preventers are supposed to work in an entire SYSTEM, after all, even if they don't right now.

The ability description is not very clear. It could easily be some "field" effect that covers all planets in a sector, though.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 06 June 2001).]

Nitram Draw · #4 June 6th, 2001, 08:56 PM

The abilities file doesn't exactly provide a detailed description of how the abilities work.
Do the other abilities work, ie stop nebulae creator, stop star destroyer etc?

Droplede · #5 June 7th, 2001, 12:43 AM

Yeah, Baron. I consider the one Planetary Shield per sector a feature, as opposed to a bug. Just thought it worth noting.

I completed a completely unmodded test in 1.35, and came up with the same results: nebula creators and black hole creators both will work in a system with a System Gravitational Shield Facility. Presence of ring or sphereworld in the system makes no difference, either -- not that they logically would, I was just trying to be thorough.

Martin: I haven't tried modding the facility with the "Stop Star Destroyer" ability yet to test it, but that's next on the list. Wouldn't hold out much hope for it, as two of the other system-scope "Stop xxxx" abilities don't seem to.

Haven't heard from Aaron yet. Gee, you don't think he's busy, do ya?

And I'm not sure this is a super vital issue, given Baron's point that these things rarely become useful in the scope of a normal game.

Again: Anybody out there have a system-wide shield facility work?

<edit: Hmmmm. Y'know, I probably should try assigning the "Stop nebula creator" ability to something else in the system, huh? Make sure it's the ability that isn't working as opposed to the facility itself -- not that it's too likely, but still ....

[This message has been edited by Droplede (edited 06 June 2001).]

rdouglass · #6 June 8th, 2001, 01:38 AM

IMO the shield thing is not a big deal, but it may be for others. For game balance, there should be a defence for EVERY offense - that ol' Rock-Paper-Scissors thing.....

Kimball · #7 June 7th, 2001, 02:16 PM

Assuming that the game allows a player to destroy his own system, that would be the ultimate weapon against an unbeatable armada.

"If I can't have this system, no one can have this system. And I am taking you out with me!"

A system of only few planets is well worth destroying a fleet of dreadnaughts, baseships and battleships. You could even lay a trap for nasty empires.