new unit regarding the new shielding system

Hey there,

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I'm not going to discuss the new shielding system here, and if anyone does, I will close this topic. It's not the purpose of this topic. If you want to discuss the new shielding system, then go to the excellent topic BirdofPrey made. Thank you for your understanding.

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Since the new Protoss shields work differently and the Shield Battery is currently missing, we need a new unit.
The idea behind this unit is that Protoss units in combat have no way of regenerating their shields, only when
they arn't doing anything for a certain time.

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Unit name:
Shield Inductor

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Size:
About the size of a Phase Prism.

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Health:
300 HP and NO shields.
It will have no shields because it is a recharger for other units. Outgoing power isn't pointed at anything, so if it would have shields, it would just be regenerating it's own shields all the time while deployed.

Edit:
Another system could be to give it shields anyway. The most of you seem to want this, I would rather keep it as it is right now, but here it is:

160 HP and 100 shields
Abiltities stay the same, but I still can't really appreciate it.

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Ability: Regenerate
When deployed it acts as a mobile Shield Battery. It can repower shields of ANY unit or building in this state. When it runs out of energy it will stop regenerating. The regeneration will not go per shield point, instead, it will last for a certain time, regenerating any unit or building in it's range at the same rate. This is because it is an aura ability. It isn't targeted at anything specifically, so it can't save power or point it at something directly. That is part of the balance of this unit, because since it can move, you will have to position your units better to get the greatest advantage.

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Ability: Charge
When deployed as this it can regenerate it's power. When completely out of power it automatically goes into this state. It can't do anything until it has it's basic energy recharged.

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Ability: Force Field.
In this state the Shield Inductor DOES point it's energy at one point. It can cover an unit/area with an overlapping shield this way, giving them extra strength. It can use this ability only when it's NOT deployed, so it can't recharge in this state.

This shield will not use power, but the shield points of the Shield Inductor itself, since it's using its own shield. When it stops using this ability the shield power transfers back to the Shield Inductor, giving it the shield power that is left to protect itself.

Edit:
It could also use energy points instead of its own shield. That way, it keeps its own shielding, and the recharge thing would be more logical that way. I will inplement a poll now to see in what form you guys like this ability the most, and remove the idea with the least votes in 4 days.


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I will add more later on, because I first want to know what you guys thinck about the basics of this units. The details can wait until later.

Edit: I already changed a couple of things as you can see, all edited and added stuff is in a blue color.

Greetz,
Fo®Saken

:gossip:

 

I like this idea very much. Only thing I didn't like (and doesn't really make sense) is its lack of shields. The shield battery had shields yet it could recharge units... So I say have a medium sized flying unit with slightly more hitpoints than a Phase Prism (something like 100/160). When deployed, it can't move and its energy will be decreasing over time and will make units regenerate shields at a 1point/second rate.

An alternative idea to that would be to have this unit without energy points and instead have stats like 200/100. When deployed, it would lose shield points which would result in the same regeneration rate as in the previous example but by a different means: it would transfer its shields to units. When its shields have depleted, it would form into its moving stance. This unit would lose 1 shield point per second per unit so if your army consists of 10 units with damaged shields then the depletion would be 10 times faster so for a larger army you'd need several of these units as support.

However, I'd choose the good ole shield battery over this new unit any day.

 

Love the idea don't have time to add insite I will put it on in about 3 hours or so.

 

so is it like a phase prism field, and any unit in the field when deployed has increased shield regeneration rate?

 

I like the idea (and Kuvasz' addition) but I still like the idea of a stationary building.

Perhaps a building would have the advantage of a faster recharge rate, its own shields and/or the ability to recharge building shields and possibly unit energy

Also for a name of the unit how about "Shield Capacitor"?

 

I was thinking this could be more of a dragoon unit with the same armor concept as a phase prism, that would look cool.

 

It could also be Shield Inductor or Shield Prism.

 

Shield Inductor, thats cool and what about a ability to create like a shield that can spread around the unit pushing units back, this could be used for tactical attacks, though the shield strength is diminished it is spread over a large area. Name could be Shield Burst.

can we get that guy thats quite good at making protoss concepts draw up one for this, i really like this concept.

 

I like it have the unit have 2 modes.
One mode recharges shields the other creates a bubble shield to give units time to recharge shields on their own.

 

so the unit, gets in like a siege position were it is at and then extends a shield around it, this could be used to cover areas of maps, units could not get threw it and would be forced to attack it, since the unit is not moving or recharging shields all of its energy is put fourth to keep the shield on, giving time for the units behind the forcefield to get away or to recharge shields for a new enemy. is this what you meant? or did you mean that the unit would still be in a siege position but the bubble would only allow allied units in it?

 

If that were to happen, it would block all melee units too?

You would have to be able to attack that shield the unit creates. Perhaps an Arbiter style very slow phase disruptor attack, 3 damage?

 

I've changed the name into Shield Inductor. Thanks for the idea Kuvasz.

I like the idea of an extra force field "bubble". I've added some stuff about it to the original post. All edited stuff is recognizable through its blue color.

Now about that ability: it shouldn't block units, only provide extra shielding power. It would be like setting up some sort of wall, and that's more Terran like. (of course I'm referring to the new Supply Depots here) You can find my ideas about this one in the edits in the first post.

For the people who like a building over an unit, I also liked the original Shield battery. However, it got me pretty frustrated after some time. All that moving your units to that stupid building, especially slow moving units like the carrier sucked at this. That's why I'm secretly pretty happy about it (probably) not coming back.

 

All Protoss units and shields should still have shields. Even if the Shield Inductor's only purpose is to regenerate other units shields, it should still have shields of its own.

 

I'm not entirely sure if protoss should have a shield battery right now, seeing the new shield regeneration system. The need of moving units back when they run out of shields and waiting for 15 secs would be a lot sharper and much more needed if there isn't any kind of a shield battery. But I'd still like to see it, so my feelings are mixed and I can't really decide if I want it in the game or not.
Anyhow, I agree that a "shield inductor" should have shields. I like kuvazs idea of it losing its shields when deployed. And I think that there's no need for a secondary bubble ability, it would be a bit over the top, not to mention that the protoss already have the force field ability.

 

I don't think it should transfer its own Shield to the recipient units. It should use its Energy to restore the targets Shields. I don't like how it is an Area of Effect. Unless it was a very small increase in regeneration, it would make Protoss overpowered in battles, because their shields would constantly be regenerating, which would basically cancel out the enemies attack, making them do no damage, but the Protoss do normal damage. Then, if you wanted this small increase to regeneration when you're out of combat, it wouldn't really effect anything, because of the Protoss' new way of regenerating their shields.

 

My idea behind giving its own shields to the units was to make the shield inductor weaker if in use and easier to pick off during battle, for balance reasons. While I agree that a too fast regenaration rate would void attacks, the 1/second isn't much especially considering that the inductor would be one of the first units to be picked off. Also, since it would create a field in which units would regenerate, multiple inductors would be of no use as the field would remain the same, regeneration rates would not stack.

ps Forsaken, I meant 100 shield points and 160 hit points, to keep to the general shield/hp ratio of protoss units.

 

good idea - i was thinking about giving high templars an ability for this called 'Meditation', but this is a nice suggestion too

one thing: change the name for the ability to shield other units, high templar already get a forcefield ability, something like: 'Psionic Boon'

 

Mm, I like the idea of a mobile shield battery alot, but perhaps it shouldnt recharge the units shields,
but just create an area of 'extra shielding', so that when it deploys it'll shoot out a shield dome protecting all within.

To balance it, the added shield should be removed if the enemy attacker is also within the dome.

 

@ NateSMZ. I don't think that the High Templar should transfer its energy for shields. It would be much more beneficial for the High Templar to use its energy for spells like Psionic Storm, than it would be to use its energy to restore other units shields.
@ C20. The Mothership basically already has this ability. It is the Time Bomb.

 

Mmm, I guess. But does this new Timebomb actually completely stop the rockets like it did in the first demo?