A time when the base shields were a cool art object...

[Cain]

So lets us recap :

 

1. You can't be bombarded from space.

2. All the enemy's infantry troops can enter your base shield (AT-ATs included).

3. The shield generators must be outside the shield it self so they are not protected and any "Bird" can fly over it and drop "bombs" - I assume they will also be able to fly inside your shield.

4. Vader was insane and Ozzel was right. Ozzel knew that you can't bombard a planet (*the rules) but he also knew that you can send every available bomber to destroy it or even stromtroopers to throw stones in the generator at close range since it is that vulnerable.

5. This shields only seem good to prevent the enemy troops to fire before they enter inside the shielded area ... but since you can send any bomber to take out the generator ... then you have no shield ... . In the end it only seems to be an expenisve toy.

 

The conclusion:

 

Base shields don't have any short or long-term strategic use. But if you have enough credits to waste on expensive art objects ... then they will look cool inside your base.

 

Question - Why you can't bombard a planet if you can blow them all up with the DS ? There are tones of ways to lower the impact of a planet bombardment for the sake of game balance:

 

1. If you have a base shield you will only make a nice image effect video when you bombard on it.

 

2. You can only bombard once when you enter a planet map due to big reload times.

 

3. The planet spins around its axes no? So you will have to bombard when the base is near you.

 

4. You will need special upgrades to heavy ships to get a reasonable damage to an unprotected base.

 

5. Even so you will mostly damage buildings and maybe destroy a few but the enemy troops will survive since they can hide.

 

6. You can't bombard in a land battle due to the possibility to hit your own troops. And even if you do it, it will be like a minimal bombardment over a small area and will not be instant and will happen only once etc.

 

So in the end .... its clear to me that I will never build shields on a planet.

 

But then ... maybe Delphi-PG or Ishmael-PG can prove me wrong...

[Siddus]

Interesting Cain But you say what the shields cannot do, we don't really what he will be able to

 

But Delphi or anyother, please, it would be cool to have answers

[JanGaarni]

Just a small insert: They have said that the generator will sometimes be inside the shields.

[Cain]

Yup - we need a petroglyph game designer here to clear this issue ...

[Foshjedi2004]

It will probably depend on the level of the power generators and the strength of the emitters.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn 889]

yeah but that shouldn't make any difference to the shield it shouldn't let anything in that is what shield's AKA Forcefields were supposed to do.

[AquaIllusion]

3. The planet spins around its axes no? So you will have to bombard when the base is near you.

 

Well that's easy to counter, just follow the planet's rotation. In other words, just put the ship in a geostationary orbit and pound away!

[Cobra848]

You do not have a conclusion due to the fact that you did not even play the game let. You only have assumation that you made on how the game will be played. You don't know if the bombers can even take the generator out. Yes, you did see DEMO videos of what happens when a generator is taken out by bombers, but those were DEMO vidoes.

You don't know about any short or long-term strategic use, because you have not played the game. You should play the game and have facts before you make such accusation.

 

You only have assumation on what it is and isn't. There is a reason why the first three letters in 'assume' are there.

 

 

I try not to talk about my assumation. But it may be only way to help you understand

I assume bombers and landing crafts can not enter the shields to bomb or land. Only friendly vehicles can fly through it, because they are turn off right before they exit(Like in the movies).

The shields are small, for gameplay on ground battles. Also how they build the ground war with reinforcement points. If the shields were huge, the invader would have easy time getting in, but harder time with reinforcements, since landing craft can't get by the shields. It would be very different ground war.

 

The way I see it.

Shields forece the enemy to fight on the defenders terms. A defender can use all of his forces in the shield to attack the front line of the enemy. Also can force the enemy into bottlenecks. I don't know since I haven't played any of the maps or the game for that matter.

Another thing is it would be your fault for not putting AA around the shields when they are outside.

 

You just got think about it instead of just using your eyes.

 

 

As for the bombardment of a planet.

 

They chosse not to put it in game. They are trying to make a great RTS game. It is even harder to make a good Star Wars game with all the things that exsit in the SW universe.

 

They want the game to be more about Strategy then super weapons of mass desruction. (I know there is the DS, but you can't have a SW RTS with out a DS.)

 

I want to be defeated by an enemy that used better stratgy, then bigger weapons.

[WhiteSkull]

sevral things

 

in the demo vido they said units are NOT ment to pass thru the shield and that they are working on that.

 

 

Also the moron said the generator was outside in true starwars fashion yet that was a complete lie.

 

In ep5 the battle for hoth had the generator INSIDE the shield thats why they landed troops to blow it up so there ships could bombard the planet.

[Garbageben]

Well this brings a delima. I'm going to present the two "balanced" possibilities.

 

The shield does stop units and weapons, but the generator is outside of the shield radius.

The shield does not stop units but does stop weapons from penetrating from the outside, and the generator is on the inside of the shield (True to the SW universe).

 

Since they've already said that the generators will be on the outside of the shield, I'm assuming they are mostly going with the second one (because they said sometimes generators would be in the shield). Which begs the question why even have them if they only have limited use? About the only thing they'd be good for would be to stop initial artillery barrages, but soon enough the shield will get taken down and your very small advantage gone.

 

Like Cain said: "Why would we build them in the first place?"

[Cain]

sevral things

 

in the demo vido they said units are NOT ment to pass thru the shield and that they are working on that.

 

 

Wow this is becoming complicated ...

 

Ok let's say that you can't go with your troops and bombers inside a shield - you can't bombard it anyway so ? You can't destroy it.

 

Anyway I assume you can go with your troops inside a shield to blow it up because the shield is there to protect you from an orbital bombardament, no ?! But if anyway the enemy passes true the shield and the game does not allow at least a single orbital bombardament .... why to use it ? The shield I mean.

 

So what ... I didn't played the demo - yes - but once you remove the orbital bombardament the base shields loose their primary role - and noone will build them - maybe someone from the German convention can enlighten us.

 

You can't use the shield as a wall if the bombers can bomb the generators - outside or inside the shields.

 

Maybe they use the shield as a wall to maximize firepower for the defenders but then again you can attack his base via multiple directions (its quite interesting to see how the AI will run from one area to another to defent the base and use the shield. (in case the generator is in and it can't be blowed up from outside.)

 

This hole issue of puting the generator in or out clearly reflects the fact that removeing the orbital bombardaments has created issues even for petroglyph in decideing how will they use shields.

 

Lets say that the generators will be insdie and you create a wall just behind the shield and you put all your troops behind that wall. Imagine the poor attackers - they will die wave after wave.

 

Maybe thats why they moved the shields outside - to give the attacker a chance ?!

 

The only solution that I see to such a shield is for it to be consumed in time and to have a slow recharge time. So if the shield takes heavy fire in time he will loose integrity and start to let projectiles in and in more time even to colapse.

 

Anyway - I just wish we could have had a simple form of orbital bombardament Maybe I don't want to blow a planet up with the DS maybe I just want to bombard it from space.

 

As for the necesity of the DS inside the game - loll - all of the things we now request had one time in the past a chance to be in the game - maybe some are there but not enabled etc.

 

The DS makeit the orbital bombardament no ... and this will only lead to an exagerated number of strongly defended enemy planets blown up.

 

Man ... it is still very confusing.

[Foshjedi2004]

Not really Cain. There are Particle and Ray shields in Star Wars. Ray shields prevent energy etc from hitting a target and as such create a massive EM shield around. The reason the Imps couldn't bombard was becasue they couldn't pinpoint it's position through the EM radiation.

 

Particle Shields prevent objects from getting through. So far we have only seen Ray shields in EAW as there are units moving in and out of shielded regions.

 

I suspect the additions they were doing was modifying what happens when the shields upgrade to both Ray and Particle...

[Stellar_Magic]

But... none of it seems to be true to star wars. Ray shields can disable ungrounded vehicles (Due to damage to the vehicle's electrical systems) which is why the Trade Federation had to assault the Gungan formation in episode I. Particle shields can kill troops on physical contact, but can be penetrated by well armored vehicles which are grounded, hence the AT-AT Walker assault on Hoth. Really, they needed some good technical advice on how shield systems work in Star Wars and didn't get it from LEC.

[Cain]

Interesting Fosh ... so lets say you have both shields types in one - then you can't send the troops in and you can't fire inside it.

 

We seen this in the Clone Wars cartoons. They had to bombard a good shield for months to bring it down. (*Anakin found a tunnel and ...)

 

I assume the guys at petroglyph had this same debate many months ago and the generator outside was their only solution at that time.

 

Then they decide to have it maybe in too ... since it whould have been easy to bombard.

 

And btw if you can send the bombers to bombard a planet why in God's name not to have one small chance to bombard it from space?

 

So about the shields issue ... here is the issue:

 

1. Why to build a shield if the enemy can blow your generator.

2. If the generator is in why to build a shield if the enemy can send his army by foot inside ?(*Since you don't have the orbital bombardament enabled anyway).

 

etc, etc, etc ... we all assume to much here and I bet the shield issue is still a bit open even at petroglyph since without orbital bombardaments the reason for haveing shields can really affect the gameplay one way or another.

 

And we all know how sensitive Petroglyph is at gameplay .... so we will have to wait and see if a game designer comes online and sees this topic.

 

Edit. "Sometimes the shield generator is in and sometimes is out" Why for god sake - if its out - Don't build something that will be easly destroyed.

 

I do remember that they once said you can protect that exposed generator with a similar shield - that has again the generator outside ... etc, and so on ... i think it was an very old preview.

[Foshjedi2004]

My proposition is that the Projectors and Generator can be upgraded thus expanding the size of the Area under the shield. Theis means that you can have your base completely under a shield. In the early stages only the projector and the main base is under. Just like Echo Base.....

[Gen.Vader]

hey here is a solution!

 

if the shield generators are outside the shield, and are susceptible to bombers, heres what you do.....

 

AA!!!!!!

 

simple as that, make a wall of AA of a shield of them

 

those buggers will never see what hit em, falling to thier doom after being sshot 50 times by my AA

 

BWHAAHAHAHAHA

[Delphi-PG]

1. You can't be bombarded from space.

 

Delphi - Heh

 

2. All the enemy's infantry troops can enter your base shield (AT-ATs included).

 

Delphi - True, base shields were only designed to block energy based weapons.

 

3. The shield generators must be outside the shield it self so they are not protected and any "Bird" can fly over it and drop "bombs" - I assume they will also be able to fly inside your shield.

 

Delphi - Not anymore... 85% of the maps were redesigned. Some POWER generators were left outside shield, but are in very secure strategic locations.

 

5. This shields only seem good to prevent the enemy troops to fire before they enter inside the shielded area ... but since you can send any bomber to take out the generator ... then you have no shield ... Confused . In the end it only seems to be an expenisve toy.

 

Delphi - See answer #3. In multiplayer tactical skirmish maps, 95% of all maps have power gens protected underneath shield. Keep in mind shield gens also prevent bombing runs.

[Garbageben]

Thanks for clearing things up Delphi! So it appears they are doing it the SW way. Very Good!

[Popcorn2008]

Well im glad to see that the shield gens can prevent bombing runs, that seems to be one good reason to have them around.

[jedi mike]

Shields will be very important, remember in the 47 min video the rebel artillery demolished the imperials because the imperials couldn't attack them and even if u can just walk through it you will take alot of damage before the battle even starts getting close to the shield

But the guy playing the imperials was kinda dumb he let his troops get killed so he could show off the retreat aspect of the game but i will build as many shield as i can.

[vasuba_pff]

based on delphis laugh to "cant be bombarded from space" im wondering if thats been changed.

 

Would make sense at least for the Imperials to not care who dies and bombard the planets as they did in many source materials. Rebels i dunno they were as bad as the empire in most ways but most of thier leaders wouldnt approve

[sanderke]

Hmm I can really see a use for this.

 

If rebel artillery can penetrate the shield while imperial artillery can't this could make for some really interesting strategies.

 

Like parking all your units a few centimeters from the edge of the shield (on the inside) and your artillery just behind it.

If the imperials come to attack they can't fire untill they pass through the shield and are at a short distance from your own units.

The imperial artillery is completely unuseable in this scenario and it also limits the amount of imperial units actually fighting. (because there is only a small strip of land inbetween the edge of the shield and the rebel defenceline)

 

This forces the imperials to either bunch up there troops in that small strip of free land and make those units a fine prey to the rebel artillery or spread out there units more and feed them to the rebels in small quantities. (while the rebel artillery showers the units waiting outside the shield)

 

Personally I can see this leading to some very interesting strategies.

Maybe I should reconsider and consider playing the rebels instead of the imperials

 

Now back to hoping that Delphi will grace my topic about heroes with a little visit *hint hint*

[BigInc]

Well, I brought this up a couple of months ago... People must ignore me:(

 

http://swempireatwar.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1369&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=biginc

 

Quote:

 

Please note that this is speculation*

 

O.K. So from what I've seen the shields on planets cover only your base. This is not to mention that the shield generator is also outside of the shield area, making it easy to destroy (if not protected properly). Chances are that those are the only shields you can build.

 

 

 

If I recall correctly, either in the live chat or from Delphi, they stated that on some planets the shield generator is outside the shield and on others it is actually inside the shield!! So, in some situations these planets will be harder to take over and planetary bombardments would not be as effective!

 

BigInc

[Delphi-PG]

For the record it is Power Generators you are referring to. Shield gens are always in the base as they produce the bubble dome.

[plokoon9619]

So we can't bombard planets even without a shield generator thats stupid.