Shield's Offline Indicator.

posted on September 7th, 2009, 1:47 pm

Bridge Commander had light flickers when an unshielded ship is hit.

The other thing you could do is mabye a little closer to the series.
A bit like shields still have an effect, Shot passes through unhinderd but mabye causes the shield to flair with red sparks or other effects.

posted on September 7th, 2009, 4:37 pm

Hmm, sounds like a good effect for weapons that do direct hull damage.

posted on September 8th, 2009, 1:28 am

That is also a fine idea, seeing as borg torps have a chance to do direct hull damage.

posted on September 8th, 2009, 1:44 am

Why not have the shields break down, like in 'Yesterday's Enterprise'?

posted on September 8th, 2009, 11:12 am

Or like in the TNG episode Redemption when the two BoPs are firing on Gowrons Vor'Cha.
The shields had failed but there was a red discharge coming off the when the ship was fired upon.

posted on September 9th, 2009, 12:12 am

I think it would be cool if unshielded ships had little flickers of flamer come off, and when destroyed blow apart instead of just completely blowing up. You know, like that Breen warship that the Defiant destroyed with the quantum torps in that one episode with the second battle of Chin'Toka. But in the first battle of Chin'Toka, the ships that were hit had pieces of their hull burn off, and break apart, and don't only explode.

posted on September 9th, 2009, 4:13 am

I think it would be cool if unshielded ships had little flickers of flamer come off, and when destroyed blow apart instead of just completely blowing up. You know, like that Breen warship that the Defiant destroyed with the quantum torps in that one episode with the second battle of Chin'Toka. But in the first battle of Chin'Toka, the ships that were hit had pieces of their hull burn off, and break apart, and don't only explode.

I said that earlier comparing the explosions to Haegemonia

posted on September 9th, 2009, 8:25 pm

Oh...whatever. Busting up is a little realistic.

posted on May 13th, 2010, 5:16 pm

Sorry to bust up an old thread, but it is mine and I think it sums up the old arguments rather nicely, and I want to expand on what has already been said.

Building on what I said, I really am starting to dislike the flashing shield effect. It doesn't seem to sit well with the rest of the awesome graphics, especially since we have these awesome animations. I can tell instanly now based on weapon effects whether my shields are up or down.

And on a realted topic, I think direct hull weapons (borg torp mod 2+ or vet akira or galaxy) need to have their own animation or just use the animation for just hitting the hull, if possible. It doesn't really make sense that you do direct hull damage and yet the torpedoes are exploding on the shields.

posted on May 13th, 2010, 5:45 pm

wow that is serious necroing. jan will soon comment.

but i agree with your point, the shield flash should be removed now that the explosions happen on the hull when shields are down.

on a side note i dont believe torps should make explosions when hitting shields, most of the time when torps are used in canon they are absorbed by the shields, and the explosion effect is muted.

posted on May 13th, 2010, 7:21 pm

I just think that if I made a new topic people might repeat what has already been said.

Agreed about the torpedoes actually, it would make the explosions even better indicators.

posted on May 14th, 2010, 10:12 am

there is no problem with continuing older threads

we don't plan to change the shield-down effect anytime soon

posted on May 14th, 2010, 10:35 am

Any reason why? It seems ugly to me and other members, although I'm not speaking for the whole community. An option to turn it off would also be useful, if it didn't change game versions.

posted on May 14th, 2010, 10:48 am

it may still be better to keep the flickering shield as indicator, to better see after a battle if a ship has a damaged shield generator - also in-battle it's easier to see which ship takes a beating. better than to wait for it to be hit by a torpedo. what about reducing flicker rate? not sure how it would work out if the effect is removed completely..

are the shield explosion hits that clearly depicted in the show? what we have now in fleet operations is more a compromise of the 'shield-less' ds9 battles/early 90s tng special effects/star trek "realism". the shield and hull explosion effects in fleet operations are not the same btw.

posted on May 14th, 2010, 12:24 pm

And on a realted topic, I think direct hull weapons (borg torp mod 2+ or vet akira or galaxy) need to have their own animation or just use the animation for just hitting the hull, if possible. It doesn't really make sense that you do direct hull damage and yet the torpedoes are exploding on the shields.

What about this point?