Shielding

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Mechagerbil
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Shielding

Post by Mechagerbil »

I couldn't access the vast libraries of information that I was assumed to have read. So, here goes:

How do the shield systems work? Or maybe Why do the shield systems work?
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Post by jackS »

Shields belong to the class of things in VS that work, from a RL perspective, by *magic*. We have, however, made efforts towards limiting the number of "root" *magical* principles. In particular, they rely on the same assumption that both forms of FTL, grav drives, cloaks (although a VS cloak isn't much at all like an ST cloak), and a few weapons rely on - namely, that there exists some remarkably energy-efficient means of being able to warp space-time as easily as twiddling strings around one's fingers, provided the region one desires to warp is topologically flat and empty.

Shields are Gordian Knot-like distortions woven around a vessel. Such distortions are unstable, and require constant energy input to maintain the stressing of local space. Interactions with matter, energy, or any other distortions, move the distorted space closer to its normal topology. Even a "collapsed" shield is vastly preferable to none at all, however, when interacting with other shields, as matter tends to react poorly when subjected to pseudo-gravitational forces that vary sharply over minute distances unless protected by a device capable of interceding in it's contact with distorted space topologies.

Spacecraft also tend to posess mechanisms for redirecting charged particles away from the craft (this being a far simpler task than redirecting uncharged particles or photons). These EM "shields" are often integrated into the main shielding installation, as they are relatively small and both need to be, at least in part, externally mounted. This sometimes leads to such devices being called GEM shields, (Gravitic & Electro-Magnetic)

Various implementations of shields are constructed that feature different degrees of decoupling between protected arcs.
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Post by Zeog »

The real *magic* is that the light passes the shields which you need in order to see something or to make your scanners work so that you can detect the faintest star and the tiniest signal. But then there is the "bad" light that comes from lasers and might harm you which is of course blocked. :wink:
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Post by smbarbour »

My explanation: The shields block ultra-focused phase-locked light but allows other light through. How it differentiates between them, I have no clue. But I will take it for granted that it just works.
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Post by jackS »

Incoming signals, just like anything else, come through the shields scattered, phase shifted, frequency shifted, attenuated, and otherwise distorted. Ships are equipped with a plethora of sensors that reconstruct (with private knowledge of the arrangement of their own shield and significant processing power) incoming signals (in both visible and non-visible regions of the spectrum) to develop a model of the outside world. In short, the pilot is _not_ staring out of a translucent cockpit to eyeball distances to other vehicles. The pilot is interacting with a HUD best-guess representation of what the outside world looks like.

Weapons stats are still being tweaked to reflect the degree of damage that "should" be dealt regardless of shields for photon emitting weaponry. Likewise the increassing permeability of shields at less stressed topologies is still a work in (minimal) progress.
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Post by tiny paintings »

Eh... so that pretty much voids cockpits with windows?
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Post by rubikcube »

tiny paintings wrote:Eh... so that pretty much voids cockpits with windows?
Not really, for most (human) beings it still is much easier to navigate a craft if you get the impression that you are looking through windows.
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Post by tiny paintings »

EDIT: Didn't think before posting...

What I meant was that if all incoming signals required heavy processing there would be no sense in having visible cockpit windows from outside the craft.
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Post by rubikcube »

That's true, there's no need for windows, but at least in passenger cruisers they might might have a certain value. Maybe as a backup when your HUD is broken?
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Post by klauss »

Hm... that makes me think what would happen if you get badly damaged, and your reconstruction software/hardware breaks.
You would be either shieldless or blind.
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Post by smbarbour »

With the shields up, it wouldn't be completely dark. The light is scattered. Perhaps like frosted glass, but probably more like very turbulent water.
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Post by tiny paintings »

rubikcube wrote:That's true, there's no need for windows, but at least in passenger cruisers they might might have a certain value. Maybe as a backup when your HUD is broken?
Purely civlian crafts won't be equipped with shields at all (presumably its costy technology, and not having to equip the ship with the infrastructure to support shields will yield large savings). Thus windows have a good role among purely civilian crafts (people like to watch the views! and windows are surely cheaper than sensors + reconstructive processing units). Well, that's my opinion.
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Post by jackS »

For collision reasons, even "purely civilian" ships would maintain minimal topological maintenance shields (so as to not have chunks of their ship turned to confetti if bumped by a shielded vessel). However, the distortion effect from such shields would be minimal, and cruise and other passenger ships would undoubtedly have windows for the space tourists. Even on a shielded civilian ship, one could always drop the shields to look out their windows if they were so inclined.
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Post by pincushionman »

tiny paintings wrote:Eh... so that pretty much voids cockpits with windows?
Synthetic vision systems don't rule out windows. The image could be projected onto the windows, or applied through some kind of head-mounted display, or provided by direct stimulation of the brain vision center, but in any of these systems you could be seein both the digital image AND through the windows at the same time. (this technique is referred to as "augmented reality" and in terms of projecting information onto a transparent HMD so you still see the real world beyond, there is work being done on real-world applications of it).
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Post by tiny paintings »

To clarify, I was refering to windows visible from the outside. Thought that was obvious, of course it doesn't rule out seeing what's out there.
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Post by pincushionman »

I was talking about windows that see outside, and are seen on the outside. Like in a modern F-16 HUD - you actually see outside, and it uses a limited form of "synthetic vision," projecting information on top of your real-life sight so you see both at the same time. Or that night-vision thing that Cadillac had (has?), where you saw both out the windshield and the projected image.

So the synthetic vision system only has to render things you can't see otherwise. If your shields are up and the real image becomes corrupted, it opaque-ifies the glass and renders everything in its place. But if your shields are down or very low, providing little or no distortion, the synthetic vision makes the window tranparent again and you actually see what's outside, plus the "non-real" things like targeting boxes and stuff.

This also means you can use sensor systems that are much less fail-safe, and thus much cheaper, for civilian craft because the redundant system if your sensors fail is drop your shields and look out the window, whereas a fully-protected combat ship would have to rely on sensor information no matter what, which would be more expensive. MOST civilian traffic should not have to rely on heavy shielding for 99.9% of their flights.
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Post by smbarbour »

[Whiny Mode]
I want a REAL HUD in my car! I want to see EVERYTHING projected on the windshield. I want to see a wireframe rendition of everything in front of me.

I also want a custom control interface. I want steering to be a stick in the center console, throttle to be a left hand slider, squeeze the handle for brakes.

But I don't have the money to build a concept car like this. I still want it!
[/Whiny Mode]

Sorry for the OT. Just had to get it out, talking about augmented reality and HUDs.
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I've kicked the MMO habit for now, but if I maintain enough money for an EVE-Online subscription, I'll be gone again.
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Post by Mechagerbil »

Waht happens when your ship gets damaged to the point where the sensors are down, but the shield regenerates?

The only reason I ask is that I would like to see a "frosted glass" effect out the window. That'd be cool. Then try to fly in that. I wish I could contribute by adding this feature but I don't know how. :cry:
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Post by jimb »

From outside the shield... the shielded object wouldn't be visible. you'd just see the frosted glass shape of the shield.

all incoming light goes through the shield and any reflection has to go back out through the shield.

much easier to just say "it's magic"

smbarbour is right, we should all have VR sets in our cars to simulate traffic jams in glorious wireframe detail. why leave home when you can be stuck in a traffic jam IN YOUR OWN DRIVEWAY!!!!
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Post by Tarran »

just as a curiousity.. about how much gravity can be produced with the shield? also.. what is the distance from a shear plane that the gravity affects objects?
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