shield implementation thoughts

Funnelwebs already do what you are suggesting. Did they have shields apart from the Funnelwebs?

yes they have had multiple static shields there too.

quote: Funnelwebs already do what you are suggesting.

i know about funnelwebs not/reduced recharging when shield takes damage.

but does it also
* not/reduced recharging when assisting(linking) other shields (under fire) to recharge?
* take link energy when under fire (meaning recharge from external link while own shiled does not contribute to recharge due to taking damage)
* you imply static shields (and probably other shield units too) and funnelwebs are inconsistent in their behaviour. why is that? (and i do not like this!)

Shieldporc is worrying, but I don't see much to worry about in this game. At what point in the game did you have the issue? I let the game run for a while and came back to it.

At 41:00 your team had 17k in units on that front and were trying to push into 40k in enemy units and defenses. There were some terraformed trenches partially blocking the way. On your side were two Merlins, a Tremor, and an Impaler. They were facing seven Funnelwebs and four Aegis. The Aegis were permanently drained the Funnelwebs were mostly drained, with some occasionally being swapped out.

Your side had built many defenses and had a Funnelweb. This Funnelweb was not protecting all the artillery from the enemy Bertha.

By 47:00 your side had three Tremors in addition to the Impaler and two Merlins. They were now facing eight Funnelwebs. Your opponents had some energy and factories in the area (this was their startbox) which you have managed to destroy. The Aegis have been destroyed. All the small supporting units have been destroyed. Your opposition is just a few turrets and a large number of Funnelwebs. I think this is pretty good work given the disparity in metal invested in this area.

On your side someone tried to build a Cerberus but it was killed by a Bertha. There is some terraform blocking the Bertha. There is a lack of shields and shield coordination.

At this point you could swarm an army through their Funnelwebs. Hermits could work. Halberds would work on the flat bits. Glaives could even work depending on the defenses.

Nothing much has changed by 51:00. Your side still only has around 12k in artillery facing off against 27k in Funnelwebs. The Funnelwebs have been pushed back about 300 elmos. Soon afterwards a Zenith is built and the game changes.

Relevant things may have happened prior to 41:00. Your side consistently had relatively little artillery so I don't expect anything to change if I rewatch the replay. Give a more precise timeframe (with screenshots) if you need to clarify this. Here are my thoughts:

• This has nothing to do with Aegis as there were very few and they died quite early. A single Tremor was draining them constantly.
• The Bertha was relevant to preventing advancement of artillery.
• The terrain of the map made assaulting with an army difficult, however this was never attempted.
• Your side made a lot of defenses in response to no opposing army. This wasted a lot of metal.

drp already pwns funnels. 1 drp can kill a ball of same cost in funnels super easy.. while funnels try hopelessly to micro rotation. shockey emp missile is blocked by funnels hard.

shock can make it through but i think you need like 7 to get past 2 funnels

SmokeDragon: It's untrue that DRP kills Funnelwebs easily.
A DRP has a rather poor DPS of 1742 against shields.
12 Funnelwebs cost 36000 and have a combined shield hp of 276000. Even in the best case scenario a DRP takes three minutes to get through.
Even a modest amount of micro will defend against the DRP indefinitely with their theoretical (perfect micro) shield regeneration of 3300hp/s (just have to occasionally cycle them out as I just did in sandbox).
Reducing the regen down to 200hp/s and the DRP Blue Shocker to 100% shield changes things so that the DRP is doing 3076dps vs shields and the Funnelwebs are regenning at most 2200hp/s, nowhere near enough.


raaar : There are a few reasons not to do linking and to have regen delay.
1. Linking massively overpowers felons. A Felon and a high hp shield to drain from becomes unstoppable.
2. Linking hugely increases the power of massed Funnelwebs, allowing them to have the combined shield regen of the entire group. The reasons Aspis can sort of get away with this are:
2a. A huge Aspis/shield ball is extremely vulnerable to Shockleys.
2b. The smaller shield radius means recluse (and other skirms) and cloaked snitches can somewhat counter the ball (also, Funnelwebs have too much hp to be snitched).
3. Regen delay introduces a counter to defensive Funnelweb use.

Now, in practice, once you get above about 4 Funnelwebs the regen delay becomes much less of an issue...

Funnelwebs even in their current state can be efficiently countered with Tremors, but they should also be counterable by a couple of other things too.


As a side note, I originally reduced the shield hp to make it more counterable by missile silos and to reduce the frustration of waiting for it to charge, but the accompanying weight reduction seems to have had the side effect of making massed Funnelwebs a thing. :/

I'm not changing the amount of damage Blue Shocker deals to shields since aim is for status effects to consistently deal 1/3 damage to shields. You have more chance:

• changing the amount of damage Blue Shocker deals, or
• making status effects deal a different amount of damage to shields (the candidates are 1/2 and full damage).

placeholders are good vs shields too because they stop them running away.. and placeholder are firepluck killers.. if firepluck is playing make them to grab his d-gun com and he will always fear.. those and widow.. killing firepluck is worth so much morale boost for team because he always resigns after he looses com

least efficient player award? nullAi award?

quote: placeholders are good vs shields too because they stop them running away

Placeholder weaponry is entirely blocked by shields. Shields hard-counter placeholders.