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Right, had a browse through ICS again.

Forgive me if Im asking questions that have already been answered/debated to death...or not *shrug*

The Shields of SW vessels are generally supposed to be seperated out into shield sections, although I don't recall anything supporting this in the films, (for capital ships anyway) but SW tech does appear to scale up quite nicely.

So a vessels "shields" will have a max energy threshhold that once surpassed the shields begin to fail completely, rather than just fluctuating at stressed points etc.

Theres no indication AFAIK that the shield threshold number is divided between the particle and ray shields, but does it seem highly illogical that the number would be divided between the shield sections ?

So each shield section would have a percentage of the total threshold as its "soak" before it went down and the ship either rotates to reveal a fresh section or just takes the fire on its hull.


Any thoughts ?

Rather, there's a finite amount of energy to be divided among the various shield sections. If the enemy is on the port side of the ship, fortify the port shields. If you're in the middle of a heated battle, divide the energy equally among all sections.

white_rabbit wrote:So a vessels "shields" will have a max energy threshhold that once surpassed the shields begin to fail completely, rather than just fluctuating at stressed points etc.

Not necesarially. The value given in ICS2 appears to be a heat dissipation value, since one ship has a higher shield value than reactor value. Shield equipment begins to overheat if heat is not dissipated quickly enough (too much incoming energy), and equipment will eventually break down if it is strained for too long from overheating. The pattern I've seen most often is a gradual degredation of defense capabilities, then a sudden collapse of the shields as the projectors blow out or are shut down.

Theres no indication AFAIK that the shield threshold number is divided between the particle and ray shields, but does it seem highly illogical that the number would be divided between the shield sections ?

So each shield section would have a percentage of the total threshold as its "soak" before it went down and the ship either rotates to reveal a fresh section or just takes the fire on its hull.

I think it's more likely that the power directed to each shield section determines how much incoming energy can be dealt with. More power naturally means incoming attacks can be dealt with better (less bleedthrough). Depending on how heat dissipation is accomplished, more power may also increase the dissipation rate (up to the maximum level).

bump....anymore thinking ?

Rather, there's a finite amount of energy to be divided among the various shield sections. If the enemy is on the port side of the ship, fortify the port shields. If you're in the middle of a heated battle, divide the energy equally among all sections.

That sounds like it ties in with fighter level screens, although it obviously leaves you vunerable if someone gets in behind you......might be a good use of fighters...

Mad wrote:
Not necesarially. The value given in ICS2 appears to be a heat dissipation value, since one ship has a higher shield value than reactor value. Shield equipment begins to overheat if heat is not dissipated quickly enough (too much incoming energy), and equipment will eventually break down if it is strained for too long from overheating. The pattern I've seen most often is a gradual degredation of defense capabilities, then a sudden collapse of the shields as the projectors blow out or are shut down.

I believe Saxton explained that the values where indeed heat dissipation in an email.

SPOOFE wrote:Rather, there's a finite amount of energy to be divided among the various shield sections. If the enemy is on the port side of the ship, fortify the port shields. If you're in the middle of a heated battle, divide the energy equally among all sections.

I don't think so, I think they're just split up like that for easy redistribution of shield energies across the hull, efficiency reasons IOW, there is to my knowledge only one shield matrix that holds the absorbed energies gathered from the shield "surface".

So one shield section if it's the only one under attack, would have all the power of the ships total absorption abilities, like one shield section on an Acclamator could take 7e22w if it needed, or two shield sections could take 3,5e22w.
So it's not dependant on sections really, but on the central energy sink and dissipation rates.

There is no energy thats to be divided up you see, shields don't work that way, shield performance can be greater than the reactor output even.

I wish people would stop assuming that a shield is a piece of energy floating in space. There is no evidence for that theoretical construct, nor is there any reason to assume that the energy drawn by a shield system is somehow related to the energy it must be capable of deflecting.

AdmiralKanos wrote:I wish people would stop assuming that a shield is a piece of energy floating in space. There is no evidence for that theoretical construct

Hmm, what do you think it is then?

This does seem to speak of "something" that can be outside the hull:
Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon
pg.233: Then he unlatched a metal cover over a graduated knob. Normally it was at a tiny minus value, placing the main strength of the shields just under the first few molecules of the ships skin. There were sound reasons for this, but Lando didn't care about them right now. He turned the knob, slowly, very carefully. The ships structure groaned as the shields expanded, first a millimeter, then a centimeter from the surface of the hull. Stresses were transmitted through the hull members to the heavily butressed casing of the field generator. Lando turned the knob a little more.

The Falcon had been tightly wedged within the rock, the wheel of her upper airlock hatch scraping one side of the crevice, the bottom of her hull abraded by the other. There hadn't been a millimeter to spare. Now Lando was demanding more room, expanding the shields against the asteroids surface.

His Divine Shadow wrote:So one shield section if it's the only one under attack, would have all the power of the ships total absorption abilities, like one shield section on an Acclamator could take 7e22w if it needed, or two shield sections could take 3,5e22w.
So it's not dependant on sections really, but on the central energy sink and dissipation rates.

Not quite. We know that doubling up the shields ("Put your deflectors on, double-front") will allow greater defense capability. Of course, that determines how much power is going to the shields in that area. More power means greater absorption and deflection capability. Not enough power and energy bleedthrough will occur, causing hull damage. Absorbed energy has to be radiated out, and the maximum figure for that is what's given in ICS.

A shield should be capable of deflecting more incoming energy than the power directed to it could suggest. If a turbolaser shot is deflected away, the shields will only have to expend enough energy to prevent the weapon from striking the hull, for example.

His Divine Shadow wrote:

AdmiralKanos wrote:I wish people would stop assuming that a shield is a piece of energy floating in space. There is no evidence for that theoretical construct

Hmm, what do you think it is then?

Perhaps some kind of volumetric forcefield effect with a clearly defined boundary.

This does seem to speak of "something" that can be outside the hull:
Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon
pg.233: Then he unlatched a metal cover over a graduated knob. Normally it was at a tiny minus value, placing the main strength of the shields just under the first few molecules of the ships skin. There were sound reasons for this, but Lando didn't care about them right now. He turned the knob, slowly, very carefully. The ships structure groaned as the shields expanded, first a millimeter, then a centimeter from the surface of the hull. Stresses were transmitted through the hull members to the heavily butressed casing of the field generator. Lando turned the knob a little more.

The Falcon had been tightly wedged within the rock, the wheel of her upper airlock hatch scraping one side of the crevice, the bottom of her hull abraded by the other. There hadn't been a millimeter to spare. Now Lando was demanding more room, expanding the shields against the asteroids surface.

The final battle of ROTJ as well as several other incidents make it clear that it's not that difficult to extend the particle shields beyond the hull surface.

Mad wrote:Not quite. We know that doubling up the shields ("Put your deflectors on, double-front") will allow greater defense capability. Of course, that determines how much power is going to the shields in that area. More power means greater absorption and deflection capability. Not enough power and energy bleedthrough will occur, causing hull damage. Absorbed energy has to be radiated out, and the maximum figure for that is what's given in ICS.

I think it's more a matter of efficiency of the shields integrity myself.
I liken the shield matrix to a pool of energy and the dissipation ratio is the rate it can be emptied.

As a side note, that quote makes me think that the stress or momentum or whatever from things that impact the shield aren't all applied to the field generator itself, but distributed along the entire surface of the hull. Only if you separate the field, the generator itself takes all the hits.

Apparently the shield "leans" on the hull.