Community opinion: Armor or Shields?

[darthkarki]

I don’t suppose there’s a way to get an actual poll on this forum so people can vote on ideas, is there?

Anyway, I’d like to get a general idea of the public’s opinion: should your health be called Armor or Shields?

Forgive me if this was discussed and I missed it, but I’m curious why it is called Armor in Overload instead of Shields. My assumption would be the change was a way to distance Overload from Descent, but Shields are a pretty standard science fiction convention so I don’t think that would be necessary.

The term “armor” most commonly implies a physical form of protection, whereas a “shield” is more generally used as “a thing that protects”, which is why fictional forms of protection such as energy barriers in scifi generally use this term as they are not a physical thing. Spaceships in particular can and usually do have an energy barrier “shield” while also having physical metal “armor” plating, so also calling the energy barrier “armor” is confusing.

This is of course assuming the “armor” in Overload actually is an energy barrier, and we are not picking up containers of micromachines that actually repair the physical metal plating on our ship. Because that could be the intention. It’s just confusing. 🙂

[CDN_Merlin]

I prefer shields and this ship is more futuristic.

[TwoCables]

Armor, because it makes more sense. As Mike and Luke pointed out, it never made any sense in Descent that the ship blows up as soon as the shields are completely depleted (and it was clearly an ENERGY shield that was protecting your PHYSICAL ship). So, we don’t have shields, we have armor. It simply makes far more sense, even though this is an arcade 6DoF shooter and even though it’s a spiritual successor to Descent which used the term Shields. They decided on Armor, and I’m glad they did.

So, it will always be Armor in Overload. I know that because that’s we’ve been told, and the explanation is above: it just makes more sense.

Yeah, I know, let’s have both. Shields are cool! We all want shields! Well, I’m sorry, but no. Just, no. Let’s keep this game simple. That’s a part of this game’s beauty.

That doesn’t mean you can’t say “shield” and “shields”. Say whatever you want. The game will always say “Armor” though and you know what: so will I.

Prepare for Overload…

[LotharBot]

IMO “Hull strength” would be even better. It could plausibly be some combination of physical armor and electromagnetic reinforcement. And when it depletes, your ship disintegrates.

[krayzkrok]

Frankly I preferred shields because they can be recharged / repaired. Armour though? Once you physically destroy armour, it needs replacing, which to me makes less sense when you collect a pickup. But hell, it’s a game, who cares. 😉

I grew up watching Star Trek. Once your shields are down, it’s all over, Captain!

[Haunted Parrasp]

I don’t think it matters either way. The mechanic’s the same.
Though, shield would at least not be spelled wrong. 🙂

Ship’s cat, MPSV Iberia
Check out his original music @ http://vertigofox.bandcamp.com/

[Yoshimitsu]

In Descent your ship didn’t die at 0 shields. I’ve survived at 0 pretty often. You die when you get hit with no shields left. Also both other modern 6dof games I play have both armor and shields which makes far more sense to me in terms of the actual item we pick up.

It’s kind of hard to believe that a glowing blue ball of energy gives you metal plating but it’s easy to believe that it charges your energy barrier!

I vote for shields.

[A Future Pilot]

Why don’t we just have polarized hull plating like the NX-01? 😉

[JTWrecker]

From memory – in Descent, the cockpit view featured an icon of the ship with your shield level as a visual buffer around it. You could see the shields depleting as more than just a number.

In Overload, no such view is present – and that is fine. If we really wanted to drive the point of ‘armor’ home, the existing blue sphere texture could have like a rotating ‘shield’ icon on the side of it or something – but I think that would be a little heavy-handed.

I can see the point of the ‘Shield’ advocates – that it’s harder to visualize blue energy balls repairing physical damage, which is what you think ‘Armor’ implies. At the same time, this is a futuristic scifi setting and we don’t need to look overly hard at the realism of it 🙂 Try wrapping your head around how a full ordinance load (max # of missiles X visual size of missiles in comparison to ship one launched) can fit inside the little ship we’re flying around!

Honestly, if at some point we had a visual of an external view of the ship with its surface briefly glowing/rippling blue – either alone or on impact – to drive home that it’s a form of powered armor, I suspect much of the confusion would melt away.

[krayzkrok]

Haunted Parrasp wrote:

Though, shield would at least not be spelled wrong.

*fistbump*

[Haunted Parrasp]

Didn’t realise you were from around here too. 😛

Ship’s cat, MPSV Iberia
Check out his original music @ http://vertigofox.bandcamp.com/

[Azuvector]

JTWrecker wrote:

From memory – in Descent, the cockpit view featured an icon of the ship with your shield level as a visual buffer around it. You could see the shields depleting as more than just a number.

In Overload, no such view is present – and that is fine. If we really wanted to drive the point of ‘armor’ home, the existing blue sphere texture could have like a rotating ‘shield’ icon on the side of it or something – but I think that would be a little heavy-handed.

I can see the point of the ‘Shield’ advocates – that it’s harder to visualize blue energy balls repairing physical damage, which is what you think ‘Armor’ implies. At the same time, this is a futuristic scifi setting and we don’t need to look overly hard at the realism of it 🙂 Try wrapping your head around how a full ordinance load (max # of missiles X visual size of missiles in comparison to ship one launched) can fit inside the little ship we’re flying around!

Honestly, if at some point we had a visual of an external view of the ship with its surface briefly glowing/rippling blue – either alone or on impact – to drive home that it’s a form of powered armor, I suspect much of the confusion would melt away.

Sounds about how I feel. ‘Armour’ and repairs from glowing orbs or energy fields can easily be explained with scifi nanotech or something, too. It’s semantics, and I don’t think it matters hugely.

[TwoCables]

Yeah, it’s not a simulator. It’s an arcade 6DoF shooter; a spiritual successor to Descent. It’s ok if some things don’t exactly make sense.

Prepare for Overload…

[Yoshimitsu]

That I do agree on. 😉

[Sirius]

I’m not losing sleep over it, but shields do work a little more naturally with the model we’re using – flat numbers instead of by location, powerups that glow blue, all of that.

[Author]

Posts