Shield Techs: For Better of Worse

Whilst not directly a "Ship" post, it is related in general to the Starship mythology/fiction.

Shield's are almost synonymous to starships as many fictions that have starships, uses shields as a means of defense. Some prefer the term energy barriers, or voids and other terms that may offer 'cooler' sounding terminology than simply "Shields".

Shields affect people and their ships in different manner and availability depending on the source-fiction.

EVE Online:
In EVE shields are the first line of defense or HP (hitpoints) for any ship, starbase structure, drones and such subjects. Shields are usually (but not exclusively) resistant to damage types that are inversed to that of armor. Depleted shields can be replenished automatically at stations at no cost at all, compared to armor, and in flight it passively regenerates on its own, unlike armor.

However a number of people do not prefer shield "tanking", and after further study, i can see why. Consider the armor repair variant of the capitol class modules versus the shield counterpart. A capitol shield booster boosts only 7200HP compared to 9600 of the armor variant. Add a second module, the Shield Boost Amplifier II (tech 2 modules are most commonly used modules in EVE being cheaper and easily replaced but relatively sturdy enough for most combats) and you get a 36% increase, that is 9792 HP. Armor repair modules do not have boost amplifiers, but you can put a second repair module that doubles the 9600 repair amount. And all through that, I found out that the armor repair modules (double rep setup) still uses less capacitor that the single Capitol class Shield Booster.

So why Shield Tank? Perhaps the one strong point of it is that while's it's Cap-intensive, it is not powergrid intensive. Armor repair modules uses up much more powergrid than shield modules, thus leading me to conclude that ranged combat with bigger, more powergrid intensive guns can make use of shields, whilst the deadly knife fights of close combatants can use the extra powergrid to make use of the armor's strong repping ability. Also shields are usable by smaller-less-capacitor intensive ships which make use of the shield's passive regeneration ability (though it by no means can supplant active boosting/tanking in terms of survivability).

Star Trek:
Energy Field bubbles that protect the ship, the one thing that make's it so "geeky" is that the shield's are not always overwhelmed by force alone, but also by "frequencies", as star trek ships uses all manner of frequencies in their mythos that a smaller ship can pierce through the bigger one's defenses simply by knowing the shield frequency of the latter.

That said, since such information is not always available, force is still a usable method to eventually deplete the shields. But pioneering the shield tech, Star Trek ships also divide their shields to quadrants; based on areas, much like a tank that has weaker armor at sides and rear, but with the ability to reinforce any side as necessary by flowing additional power to specified shield quadrants.

Star trek ships almost exclusively use shields for protection, as thus far from what I've seen, mostly, they have crap for armor.

Star Wars:
Star Wars ships employ shields as a second skin of sorts. Whilst also divided into sections and can reinforce as necesary like it's Star Trek variant, the shields of the Star Wars universe are not overly evident on ships, and as such, for Empire most especially, their units still field relative strong armor.

While there are shield bubbles, most ships have shields that are distance away from their immediate hulls, so it largely follows the contours of the ship rather than forming a spherical bubble.

In short, I'd say that the Star Wars universe gives shield as a first line of defense out of several, instead of strongly putting their eggs onto that one basket.

Legacy:
In our fiction, Shields are something exclusive to a higher civilization and the standard ones still rely fully on armor.

I'd protest early on, but I think it's better off we're making things more 'grounded'; and keeping such abundantly reused idea as something more of a unique idea that few can obtain.

It also enables us to further armor tech, the improvisation of solid defenses that has been slightly lacking in a large collection of sci-fi fiction. I take the cue from Babylon 5, where the impressive Victory-class Destroyers use special alloys as armor that deflects most of the incoming fire rather than absorb.

Finally, the end:

There's lots of other shield tech references out there, and many creative niches used in fiction to make shields ever more unique, but I'll leave that out for now, you can try looking on your own, but for the avid enthusiast, check this out:

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Shields/Shield2.html

Interesting argument on shields (if somewhat tech-nerdy) with some scientific considerations to it.

Larsatay: Weaver class Missile Cruiser

Another quick update.

Among the least common race from our development side is the reptilian Larsatay. the galaxy's rogues and crooks. An extremely vain species that prefers underhanded methods that direct confrontation, the Larsatay are notorious, untrustworthy pirates in all but name.

The Houses of Lar employ a great many types of vessels in their ad-hoc navy, as each House sought to have better vessels than their brethren of the other noble Houses. But when war threatened the collective resources of the major houses were pooled to create a standardized Fleet vessel capable of destrying large capitol ships of the other races.

The Weaver is a heavy cruiser with enormous missile banks and smoothed curved surfaces on its hull designed more to deflects enemy fire than absorb. Despite its intention as a fleet vessel, the size, protection and to some extent the cruise speed is not at par with ships of the other races. What it does have is an extremely efficient warp drive system, powerful forward scanners and extreme missile fire range that it can almost always obliterate larger targets before the enemy can close in and return fire.

Larsatay designers have always opted for a more organic look as a matter of aesthetics and reflection of the Larsatay's preference of what they call 'exotic designs'.

Being nearest to the Tortun system, speculations have mentioned that the Larsatay had been influenced also to obtain a design for their war ship that would break the solid sturfy Tortun wall of ships, said to be the best in defensive fleet warfare.

Procyons: The Monolith Project

I know I seem to be neglecting the other races, but so far the Procyons have got it right and closest to finalization in terms of design, so I can't help but follow through with it.

I always thought that there was a deficiency in Procyon Fleet in the War of Ignorance, as their staple capitol ship is the venerated Sol'Karis Battlecruiser. By definition alone we know that ship, as a capitol ship, lacks protection, sacrificing the said aspect for better handling and speed. In light that the New Procyons exhibit a more darker, egoistic and slight aloofness compared to the Old Procyons, the Codenamed: Monolith Project came from the Emperor himself, blessed be the honored Ernz Ara'Kun and his descendents, that takes designs back to the very root of Procyon shipbuilding, namely the vertical orientation and maximum forward firing capabilities.

Massive cannons, 30 x 3750mm Capitol Mass Drivers mounted in 10 triple turrets, with 3 large Torpedo Launchers and a triple forward Tachyon Beam systems, coupled with a myriad other secondary armaments. Heavy armor plating, enough material to build squadrons of frigates, has been placed to cover all core areas. Speed, a prized attribute in Procyon Fleet vessels have been somewhat sacrificed in this vessel, a testament to the authority of the Emperor, and the vast ego of the new Procyon government.

Cenayans: The Legacy

The namesake of the Legacy-fiction concepts is actually a renegade ship that is rumored to be the creation of the long-gone race, Cenayans; formerly the guradian race of the Council of Six and by far the most advanced of all known races, prior to or after the arrival of the humans.

Shown here is the first of all the Legacy sketches, the first ship designed for this fiction.

Aside from my personalized race, the Procyons, color schemes have yet to be decided on other races and furthermore I felt it very nostalgic to post the image as is, seeing as it is the first of all my sketches.

The design is inspired from a host of sources, but most of all from ships in the Stargate series, as well as some Galactic civilization series and Homeworld 2. The key design feature is that a large number of weapons are concealed and the surfaces are largely smooth. This gives us that high-tech feel to it as well as emphasis on its agility and speed. Cenayans are an elagant race, unlike the haphazardness of Procyon or Fadrun design, or the bulk feel of Terran and Tortuns. Perhaps the closest to mimick the Cenayan aesthetics are the Larsatay, but even so, Larsatay smoothness exhibits a sense of vanity and organic feel, whilst the Cenayans are about simple elegance.

EVE Online: Rokh class Battleship

My latest baby. The biggest ship in my hangar.For the moment though she's on reserve as I continually tweak her settings, and browse for suitable set ups. Primarily though I'm reserving her forany fire support roles, because as a sniper she's one of the best.

The Rokh is a solid shield tanking ship too, and balancing that long range with solid shields is my aim for the moment. With luck she might be capable of the higher end missions soon. Then I be making them big bucks... which will lead to an even mightier ship, maybe even a dreadnought.

Anyways, her build at the moment is an intermediate one, balancing both weapon and tanking, but that means not enough power for 8 guns, so for now she operates with 6 guns, 425mm Railguns, and 2 Cruise Missile Launchers. Using shorter range weapons I suppose the tanking could be increased, while minimizing tank can allow this beauty to shoot targets at great distances, maybe even over 200km. It's all about the loadout, which I think can be quite flexible.

What she needs however is capacitor, to which among the other things I am working for is to get her triple Capacitor recharge rigs. Also to note she's the second of my beauties to bear a Claire Danes character name.... hehehe

For vanity's sake, this is among the best ships I can figure to get. I'm not to big on hybrid weapons, as flying a Matari ship with projectiles and no cap usage in firing, for some 6 months or so, has made me fond of the no-cap, high salvo damage weapon, even though its rate of fire is more sluggish and has slightly lesser range. But when a battleship looks this cool, you'd be willing to forgive anything....

EVE Online: Providence Freighter

Getting a new system to work on here means so much hassle in getting it up to working order as was ones previous system. I haven't the tool to do proper image editing but I feel I have to put some posts on regardless...

This is from EVE Online as well. I do not fly this vessel and in fact it's etched deep somewhere in the Industrial like of a race I do specialize in. (I'm in the military line, long range fire support.)

This ship is gorgeous enough to be a battleship. Truly, if the designers were to make it a battleship... or dreadnought or carrier, I would work for it. The Providence class Freighter here is the Amarr's freighter, ranking third in cargo capacity (out of 4) but argued to be one of the most durable.

I've seen the ship several times, and frankly I'm baffled as wto why it has not received some limelightas opposed to its other sisters; the Gallentean Obelisk for example is somehow so popular despite being somewhat... (oh, fine I'll say it but I'm sure some die hards are gonna shoot me) a horrendous looking flying-apartment block. Then again, maybe I'm just hanging with so many true blue Gallenteans. My next choice of freighter would be the Caldari Charon coz it's blobky robust appearence appeals to my sense of inclination for blocky ships (like the Rokh), but even so it pales for compared to my preference for the Providence.

Look at that. So beautiful.

Eve Online: Minmatar Battlecruiser Hurricane

I play Eve Online as much as I can. I'm not in an MMO for the usual things of ganging up with all sorts of "real" people to fight against other bands of human players. True, it would be nice to be able to do that once in a while. But my reason for being in the game is also related to why I play Eve and not WoW or other of such games.

The ships. The beautiful starships. I love starships.

One such example is the workhorse of my gaming efforts on Eve for a long time (I figure in my 6-7 months of Eve playing, more than half of that time has been on this ship), running missions, occasional mining (which is also for missions, ie Materials for War) and once provided supporting fire against an enemy player.

This is my Minmatar battlecruiser, Hurricane class, my "Mirabelle".


Prior to having this ship, I was flying a Stabber-class Cruiser, but when I got 'killed' by damned gate-campers, I used a destroyer all the way to work up the funds to get this ship. I was still new when I got this baby, so I had a mixed autocannon/artillery setup (that's having both short range and long range weapons) but later on I realized that I had to choose one.

In fashion of the 1912 HMS Dreadnought, I opted for a All-Big-Gun ship. Powergrid restrictions does not allow me to stock all 8 turret slots with guns, so I have 5 x 720mm Prototype Siege Guns on it along with 3 Heavy Missile Launchers.

I'm one to opt for sniper builds, I love long range, so I added a moderate defensive (tank) modules to it, but I focused a lot on damage and range for my weapons mostly. I'll not discuss my current loadout, since its only what I randomly fit for my mission uses, but suffice to say that I was intrigued by a Passive-Shield-Tank setup for it, (involving Shield extenders and passive shield recharging rather than resistance) though that means downsizing my guns to 650mm variants, (less power use, but probably I can fit more guns; 6 is better than 5 anyhow)

Anyways, closing off, here's a sample of my Battlecruiser in comparison to a Titan. (that's a Caldari Titan at Caldari Prime)

Procyons: Sol'Karis class Battlecruiser

The Sol'Karis Class Battlecruiser is the mainstay of the Procyon Navy, typically severing as Flagship of the Commanding Admiral of any particular Fleet. In accordance to Procyon design philosophy, ships are design to maximize forward firepower. Typically this is done in a vertical hull pattern, but the Sol'Karis is designed instead with a wide horizontal flying-wing-style pattern.

Procyon ships function largely as raiders, ambushers, and fast assault units, thus while the armor of these vessels are capable of shrugging off all but really large shells, it is still considered relatively light for a vessel of its class. To counteract this deficiency, the Procyons employ a trademark system used commonly on their fleet vessels; Cloaking Fields. The Sol'Karis is the largest vessel to date with cloaking abilities.

Weapon systems of the Procyons are typically medium range Particle Projector Cannons, to which the Sol'Karis has 15 Heavy variants of it mounted in 12 Dual turrets and 1 triple turret. These weapons are essentially deadly projectiles charged in high energy that punctures armors and disrupts subsystems. A smaller fast tracking variant is mounted under the "chin" of the forward hull. Lastly, as with most larger ships of a Fleet, the Sol'Karis has one large bay of Siege-capable torpedoes for heavy bombardment.

Further note: Procyon ships are typically said to be "Black" ships, though they are actually dark gray with yellow linings. Weapon tips are usually colored red. Reference as below:-

Well, thats the first ship entry for the day. More will come hopefully.

Welcome Message to Venn Sol'Kala

Welcome to Venn Sol' Kala, translated to Terran Basic language of English as Port Valkyrie. In Procyon mythology, Angels would come down from Heaven (Sol'Karis; which you will note is also used as a classification of a ship type later on) at the day of Judgment, to bring those worthy to stand by their Great God, Athuki's side. Many sources reputedly depict these angels as females, and the close Earth equivalent being the Norse Mythology's Valkyries. In Procyon society they are called Sol' Kala.

In recent Procyon history, Port Valkyrie or Venn Sol'Kala (you would correctly guess that Venn is the Procyon word for Port) is the main Imperial Procyon Fleet Headquarters located on the far moon of their capitol Procyon Imperialis. This base has been abandoned at the time of the Great Destroyers, but at the coming of the Terrans many generations later, Venn Sol'Kala has re-established itself in its original purpose.

Venn Sol' Kala is a massive complex that houses and maintains Procyon Fleet assets, quarters crewman as well as having a massive factory blocks, the Sol'kalian Forge, to produce war vessels for the Fleets.



That being the backstory fiction anyways.



The purpose of this site is simple. It is a place where I would post ship designs and other starship related materials, be it my own creation, ships I play in games (EVE Online being the most prominent,) or other starship designs that greatly inspire me