You know I was thinking shields are quite sci-fi ish and would fit quite well into the natural selection universe. And shields can quite easly implemented and be cool looking on source.

What about the posiblity of having some kind of shield structure that would block off a hall way for a period of time. It would need to be balanced to it couldnt be used to just camp in base, so say it takes like 2000 damage and then it dies, a good use of a shield at the right time to stop the aliens from getting to a hive they are about to attack, or to cut off movement of aliens could be quite powerfull. It shouldnt be able to block huge areas so it would have a limit in size. It would need to have a fairly long build time, and would probabily need to be built right away or it overheats (so you cant just keep it unbuilt but almost built untill you need it then finish it). As a base defense or outpost defense it could be quite nice, when compared to turrets. Like a comm could block his base on the right side and then expand and get rts and hives to the left, with a warning if anyone attacks from the right. Could be used to help defenend a siege outpost a little while longer to take down a hive etc. I do think it should block both aliens and marines though, but can be recycled by the marines or killed by the aliens.

Overall I think it would add a lot of intresting tactical complexity and would look really cool.

i think a better way to stop aliens from going to a certain area would be, but using the maps environment , just as welding vents and doors shut, or operating a crane to move some crates to block a door way.

*before i read this i thought you meant like personal shields that marines carry like in medieval days. lol.

Yea clearly the enviromental blocking of areas would still be around. they are more perminate and harder to reverse (and cheaper). Thats up to the map maker to decide how and where. But this would be a structure that would cost res, and be much more versitle in that you could use it more dependably as part of a strategy, not all vents or doors are going to have wieldable or enivromental ways of blocking players.

I thought about the dune2 portable "blocky" shields

I dunno, but this is a nicer feature to be built into a map instead of portable. Either with a weldable/repairable shield, stacking stuff like in the zombie survival mods (zombie master) or welding stuff in doorways or something.

just imagine someone placing 10 shields in succession..

thats like 20k worth of health that the aliens have to neng thru.

too easily abused.

Well, yes and no. The idea of either a personal shield OR a force field type of shield [blocking a vent/hallway] would be fine when balanced. Only one thing needs to be figured, and that would be the res cost. Sure the marines could use a shield to block off theCC from attack, but the res would cost enough that they would have nothing left for an upgrade. So yes the marines could build shield after shield, but they would have 0 res left so it's pointless. Now as a benifit for marines blocking off a hive area while they build everything with incoming ONOS/Fades then it would be usefull, but again it would cost enough that it would only be used when need be [i.e. the commander hates to beacon, but when a fade is raping the bases IPs, gotta do it].

Personal shields would also be a great idea for ninjas. Guy walks into hive and starts building. Skulk sees him and attacks, but with his SG in hand, he is able to fend off any small to medium attacks long enough to build a PG or a TF, however again it costs enough res that the comm would have to consider it wisely.

I think just like issuing mines, the cost is enough to make it a decision in certain circumstances. Sometimes it's useful, sometimes it would be pointless and could cost the Commander the game.

I can see it now. COmmander builds shield to hold off entrance to base, too bad the gorges started building OCs and the fades started to brick the front of that shield. And the poor marines have only 4 res... Just a matter of time.

perhaps allow some weld points to cause blast doors to shut or similar item with a hp

using sci fi sheilds could make the idea of stacking and welding random stuff for baricades obsolite, which is an idea i prefer.

I would like hand held sheilds for the rines. It could be their primary weapon, and they could hold either their side arm or knife in the other hand. It could be an energy shrild or more of a metal riot shield. would be useful for getting past ocs, skulk parasite, and fade acid rocket. but i spose this idea should go in a new thread.

if you did want a big energy shield for blocking corridors, it could be a slow motion inducing thing rather than a barrier. e.g. u move at a 1/6 ur normal movement rate thru it making u a really easy target. and u cud have some cool visuals. And on construction or spell drop, it could last a limited period of time

if the shields would be implemented in the maps for special areas and be created oder destroyed through weldpoints (like a generator)
the idea would be nice. Well no it would be just a door that looks like the scan door in ns_origin <,<

Though the shields are a kind of neat idea, I don't like the thought of making marine sieges even easier to achieve. Aliens would need some form of counter, as on some maps you could prevent anything large-sized from going anywhere with one well-placed shield.

Actually you could use shields in a unique way for n/s .... give them to aliens (except lerk with gas and fade when they have acid shooting)

What I am saying is that in an outdoors enviroment the shields are 3-20m(Rine turretts and gorge bile distance roughly) away from the alien /sphere style and are useless at close range when either a rine "personal difuser pack" or nano bug zapper brings the alien shield down at close range. this could eliminate the skeet shoot aspect off a field attack so you could have rines or aliens attacking fixed targets such as forts , outposts, dams ,farms, villages, space ship bases(set up a combo map like cs oil rig with indoor and outdoor , alien/rine must race to get last ship as planet is infested and going to be "cleansed" nuclear style)and supply depots!

You could have the sphere expand to surround the melee so u dont get campin snipers sending in a "victim" to knock down the alien shield leving them exposed to camper attacks.

Anyone has played Perfect Dark for N64? i think the personal shield could be dropped by the commander like a dispositive, when the marines activate it they are protected for a limited ammount of attacks, and they can hold a weapon while shied is opperative


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This reminds of the cc spam [size="1"][/size]fun times.

I'd like devs to take a serious look at shields like this. Maybe some extra inhibitions could be that the shield generator can only be built within the range of a specific structure with only one within a large area.

I'm not so sure these really fit in the NS universe. We use bullets here, don't shields usually indicate energy weapons?

maybe for the "shield that blocks a corridor" idea, but not for personal shields.

while i loved the riot shield in CS, unfortunately i dont think it would suit the NS gameplay.

personally i'd prefer to weld pieces of metal together to form a barricade, than deploy a specific shield - energy or otherwise.