Adding Shields in Star Wars-like fashion

NEONecd888 · 10-14-2003, 07:55 PM

Is it possible to make it so that units are given a second bar underneath their health bar-- one for shields? Once the shield bar is at zero, a sphere around the unit would disappear, leaving the bare armor of the unit vulnerable for attack?

Or maybe just have it so that the shield is included in the health bar, but when the shield disappears, its health can not be renewed over that certain point which accounts for the shields?

I am the project leader of the Star Wars Mod, Imperial Assault, and right now I have a coder who is making it so that a sphere is around the unit and it absorbs all laser fire every second or so, so that when many enemies are firing at the unit, the shields would not be able to absorb it, leaving their armor vulnerable. Using the same code as paladins destroying missiles as it comes towards it.

However, this is not accurate to the star wars universe, in that really the shields are supposed to have a special amount of damage it can resist, and then the shields disappear, leaving the hull vulnerable to attacks.

So could something like the first two options be achieved? If so, how?

smurfbizkit · 10-14-2003, 08:06 PM

I am pretty sure that you cannot add another health bar to your units like that.

NEONecd888 · 10-14-2003, 08:10 PM

no other way you guys think a making "shields" is possible? Has anyone tried it before? I'm sure this isn't something that hasn't been thought about or attempted.

The_Blind_One · 10-14-2003, 08:11 PM

Yeah i think that would requere editing the exe.

But there is an alternative.

Make it have an heal update that will heal it upto a certain percentage.

Like say 50% and then heal everything up to blah blah expermiment with it.

Sorry really bussy now havnt looked at it bussy with tests

Dem0nEgg · 10-15-2003, 03:52 AM

Something that reminded me of "shields" was the way ECM tanks are coded..... have a look into that kinda idea maybe.... and give it a visible distortion field (microwave tank) and big..... blue dome like thing over it ; )

but you are not interested in graphics yet....

Anyway yeah look at the way the ECM works.... oh and flares and stuff like that.

NEONecd888 · 10-15-2003, 10:26 AM

yeah, we were gonna use that effect. But first of all, how can we code these shields?

Guarm · 10-15-2003, 12:18 PM

A rather weird idea, but could you use an invisible drone, that stays with a big dome over the unit until the drone/shield dies?

NEONecd888 · 10-15-2003, 01:21 PM

that's an interesting idea actually. then the vehicle can be upgraded to have the shields or not. But is that possible-- to have a drone that takes up the space of the unit itself, instead of being a separate entity? Or making a drone that is a hollow sphere?

CodeCat · 10-15-2003, 02:25 PM

Constantly displaying the shield might not look too great, and it will probably eat up resources as well. Why not have the normal "microwave" effect as a stand-by effect, and when the unit gets hit it displays a "EMP" sphere over it. Will probably look better in the end, but you may need to tweak the EMP thing a bit.

NEONecd888 · 10-15-2003, 02:55 PM

and how will i make it so that the shield can be destroyed and the unit's bare armor can be shot at? Using the drone idea?