Author Topic: Mod idea : "Protection shield"  (Read 14197 times)

Offline Aldorn

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 750
    • View Profile
Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« on: April 02, 2013, 12:51:15 am »
It is just an idea that came to me : possibility to equip soldiers with a shield
I do not know if it could be modded with existing rulesets (and would need some sprite)

This shield :
- would protect as a light armor (cumulative)
- perhaps just front, or front and sides
- has to be hold on hand to be effective ; possible to be kept in bagpack (3X3 ?)
- may be strucked up to destruction ; shield is hit first, then armor (if any), then hit points ; if to difficult, another way could perhaps to add some hitpoints to soldier
- no idea if it could be bought or should be researched and produced
- could be very useful in some situations, to save your life...
« Last Edit: May 22, 2014, 02:59:08 am by Aldorn »

Offline pmprog

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 647
  • Contributor
    • View Profile
    • Polymath Programming
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2013, 09:43:09 am »
Your thinking something like the shields from XCOM: Apocalypse.

It would be possible, if you set an "ammo qty" on the shield, then what you would need to do is mod the damage code to decrease shield qty until 0 before injuring the unit holding it.

Offline Warboy1982

  • Administrator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2333
  • Developer
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2013, 01:29:28 pm »
dead (or unconscious) aliens (or civilians) could make half decent shields too...

Offline luke83

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 1558
    • View Profile
    • openxcommods
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2013, 01:50:59 pm »
We already have some "art" for shields
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,383.0.html

we just need battlescape sprite to display shield ( maybe something similar to the On fire sprite but around the entire solider) and a coder to work some magic and we are there.

Offline Warboy1982

  • Administrator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2333
  • Developer
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2013, 04:06:34 pm »
i thought he meant more like a riot shield than a force field, but BOTH are good ideas. a force field would basically be the same deal as a riot shield only it'd work in ALL directions instead of just the front. i doubly like this idea because it has both human (starter) and alien (advanced) versions attainable through research, as all things should in my opinion.

Offline moriarty

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 1421
    • View Profile
    • Luke's OX mod site
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2013, 05:07:03 pm »
you mean a riot shield as starting tech and a portable unidirectional shield as advanced tech? plus possibly a full energy "shell" (all four sides of the tile) as a third version? that sounds like a cool thing.

we could also say that one energy shield protects one side, so in order to have quadrilateral protection you need four shield units (and are still vulnerable to shots from directly above or below :) ) - hmmm... so for full protection you'd need six shield units... a standard soldier's belt can hold six 1x1 items... coincidence? ;)

Offline xracer

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 564
  • X-COM lover, we've gone at it everywhere
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2013, 06:01:54 pm »
I don't know if i agree with the idea of a riot shield, first (as i have used in several occasions) they are cumbersome and hard to maneuver, second they ARE cumbersome, third they make you a larger target, fourth you are restricted to use only one hand so any weapon that requires 2 hands is out of the question, fifth they do not add much extra protection if any against projectile weapons, they only improve protection against a unarmored foe in closed quarters, and lastly did by any chance i mentioned they are cumbersome!!!! :)

However with that in mind, energy fields are a whole different animal, and i do see those as being something that a great addition to the game. and i think i like Moriarty idea at the single side protection, how about that is implemented and further research will give you a full shield, i think that it should be made hard to research because of power issues and the need to be compact.

Offline Warboy1982

  • Administrator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2333
  • Developer
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2013, 07:18:33 pm »
i'm sure we can take some artistic liscence with their ability to stop projectiles, besides, it's a good base-line. think of them as an analog to rifles/pistols.
an upgraded version might be an alien alloy variant that offers superior protection against plasma. think of that as an analog to laser weapons.
later on the aliens start using belt-mounted personal force field type equipment that must be captured (INTACT!) and researched, this provides the analog to plasma weaponry.


Offline 54x

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 208
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2013, 08:59:59 am »
I don't know if i agree with the idea of a riot shield, first (as i have used in several occasions) they are cumbersome and hard to maneuver, second they ARE cumbersome, third they make you a larger target, fourth you are restricted to use only one hand so any weapon that requires 2 hands is out of the question, fifth they do not add much extra protection if any against projectile weapons, they only improve protection against a unarmored foe in closed quarters, and lastly did by any chance i mentioned they are cumbersome!!!! :)

However with that in mind, energy fields are a whole different animal, and i do see those as being something that a great addition to the game. and i think i like Moriarty idea at the single side protection, how about that is implemented and further research will give you a full shield, i think that it should be made hard to research because of power issues and the need to be compact.

Yeah I'd want some good two-handed/one-handed weapon distinction if riot shields were implemented, as for instance the rocket launchers, blaster launchers, autocannons, and heavy * weapons seem to all be designed as two-handed. The other natural restrictions of riot shields can mostly be gamified by giving them a very high weight. :)

I'd LOVE a force fields mod though, that sounds really awesome, especially if it works very well against missiles, ie. blaster bombs, you could put it at an escalation point after blaster launchers so the aliens FIRST start killing you off with launchers, THEN they start bringing shields so you can't even use any of the damn things to kill them back. ^_^ It should be really easy to do a variety of sprite art for force fields, even with the restriction of having only binary transparency instead of an alpha channel for partial transparency, so we could have different types of "field projectors" that function in different manners, too.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2013, 09:04:44 am by 54x »

Offline AMX

  • Sergeant
  • **
  • Posts: 35
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2013, 01:39:10 pm »
I don't know if i agree with the idea of a riot shield, first (as i have used in several occasions) they are cumbersome and hard to maneuver, second they ARE cumbersome, third they make you a larger target, fourth you are restricted to use only one hand so any weapon that requires 2 hands is out of the question, fifth they do not add much extra protection if any against projectile weapons, they only improve protection against a unarmored foe in closed quarters, and lastly did by any chance i mentioned they are cumbersome!!!! :)

However with that in mind, energy fields are a whole different animal, and i do see those as being something that a great addition to the game. and i think i like Moriarty idea at the single side protection, how about that is implemented and further research will give you a full shield, i think that it should be made hard to research because of power issues and the need to be compact.
Well, some riot shields have a sort of gun port built in to address the issue with two-handed weapons. Extremely rare, but they exist.
And protection levels range all the way up to NIJ IV - basically "rifle-proof." But those are so heavy, they are not actually carried - they need wheels...

Offline pmprog

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 647
  • Contributor
    • View Profile
    • Polymath Programming
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2013, 09:28:49 am »
But those are so heavy, they are not actually carried - they need wheels...
Adding APC's now? ;)

Offline Aldorn

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 750
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2013, 01:20:40 pm »
This idea was apparently in pipe, as I can see that Chiko already created a "Personal shield" sprite !!
Not really important if not of size 3X3 neither 2X2 but only 1X1, use motion scanner shape is a wonderful idea !

Offline Aldorn

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 750
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2014, 05:17:33 pm »
As I can see, there are lot of propositions for offering a new kind of protection.
I like particularly Moriarty's ideas

Quote
you mean a riot shield as starting tech and a portable unidirectional shield as advanced tech? plus possibly a full energy "shell" (all four sides of the tile) as a third version?

Quote
we could also say that one energy shield protects one side, so in order to have quadrilateral protection you need four shield units (and are still vulnerable to shots from directly above or below :) ) - hmmm... so for full protection you'd need six shield units... a standard soldier's belt can hold six 1x1 items... coincidence? ;)

To make a test, I tried to use Luke83's FOXC shield, but problem is in "Items" section, as is it not possible to define any "frontArmor" attribute as in "Armor" section
Luke is apparently using it as a weapon able to make some crushing hits
« Last Edit: February 18, 2014, 05:20:51 pm by Aldorn »

Offline Warboy1982

  • Administrator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2333
  • Developer
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #13 on: February 27, 2014, 05:32:15 pm »
you could make it increase health? maybe bravery too?

Offline Aldorn

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 750
    • View Profile
Re: Mod idea : "Protection shield"
« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2014, 03:58:31 am »
you could make it increase health? maybe bravery too?
How to ??
I get it if you know the way

EDIT : I just discovered the "Show new replies to your posts." functionality... :-[
« Last Edit: May 21, 2014, 04:02:06 am by Aldorn »