Unit - The "Shield"

[Qwerty Quazo]

Similar to the shield in CW3, but with a twist: It works only for high-level creeper.

For example, if waves of height 20 come rushing in, a shield will block anything over 15, but leave the rest untouched.

Or even, a unit that blocks creeper from going higher than the unit's terrain level.

[Sorrontis]

I really wonder how the shield will work if its included. Will it be a column or a hemisphere? What will happen if creeper height is higher than the dome height? Can a shield be submerged in creeper?

[GoodMorning]

Well, repulsors exist, and the CW3 shield could function submerged at one point.

[pawel345]

I would think that a shield could work as artificially raising the terrain level of an area. So that small waves are 100% blocked but large waves could wash over the shield. If the shield is submerged in creeper it takes damage. Structures protected by a shield would not take damage until the shield exists.

[Keeper Decagon]

I would think that a shield could work as artificially raising the terrain level of an area. So that small waves are 100% blocked but large waves could wash over the shield. If the shield is submerged in creeper it takes damage. Structures protected by a shield would not take damage until the shield exists.

Or perhaps the shield takes more and more energy to sustain as the amount of Creeper it is submerged in increases. Though if you could manage to sustain that, you could potentially have your entire base submerged beneath an ocean of Creeper, Command Node and all, protected by the shield domes. I think that'd be really cool. :P

[Hilol1000]

I think i have a good idea for the shields in CW4. When the Creeper touches the shield it will need to take energy to keep the shield up and the more Creeper is touching the shield the more energy it needs to be active. You can set at how high the shield is but the higher it is the more energy it will take to keep it up per unit of Creeper. You could have Creeper all around the shield but that will take a lot of energy to keep active. So Creeper can wash over the shields but you have the ability to set the shields higher so it blocks the wave.  ;D  :D

[FluppyGuppy]

I think it's hard to find a good way to implement shields until we know what the plan is for repulsors. Are they they same thing with a different name? Could we justify having two versions to each suit a niche situation?

I would think that a shield could work as artificially raising the terrain level of an area.

That's given me an idea. I think the current version of repulsors basically do that already but with infinite height. If it was reduced to a height of even just 1 or 2 they could be very useful. It would make for an excelent defense against waves, walling off vulnerable valleys, and giving mortars some breathing room. Maybe instead of a line of individual units it could be more like a forcefield 'fence' between two 'poles' on equal level terrain? Longer distance = exponentially increasing power consumption, but shorter distance means you need to make more poles. Should they be moveable? That could be fun. What happens when the creeper overflows them? Could be catastrophic for the flood to instantly be released.


That said I still love the idea of shields being hemispheres. Imagining structures submerged in a bubble of safety really seems just so cool.

[Karsten75]

I think i have a good idea for the shields in CW4. When the Creeper touches the shield it will need to take energy to keep the shield up and the more Creeper is touching the shield the more energy it needs to be active. You can set at how high the shield is but the higher it is the more energy it will take to keep it up per unit of Creeper. You could have Creeper all around the shield but that will take a lot of energy to keep active. So Creeper can wash over the shields but you have the ability to set the shields higher so it blocks the wave.  ;D  :D

That said I still love the idea of shields being hemispheres. Imagining structures submerged in a bubble of safety really seems just so cool.

Both these ideas have fundamental problems.  With creeper that high, a large surrounding area will be covered. It'll be really hard to keep up an energy supply once the supply lines are destroyed. Now I know micro-rifts are coming, and that may partially ameliorate some of the issues, but I'm still not convinced it'll be viable.

In reality, we can speculate as much as we want, but which and how force/field-based units are implemented is not even on the radar right now.  Of course, hopefully there can be any number of custom units, and then we'll have to have the discussion if any units can operate submerged in creeper and if packet transmission can take place through creeper - remember in CW2 packets got destroyed by creeper and I don't think that is unreasonable. Again, I cede the micro-rift exception. ;)

[FluppyGuppy]

Both these ideas have fundamental problems.  With creeper that high, a large surrounding area will be covered. It'll be really hard to keep up an energy supply once the supply lines are destroyed. Now I know micro-rifts are coming, and that may partially ameliorate some of the issues, but I'm still not convinced it'll be viable.

Well I think that's a bit of an extreme case. In a normal game to game situation I would expect the player to prevent the creeper from completely overflowing the shield and cutting it off. Normally you use shields on the front line. Besides, having flaws is not a bad thing in itself: if you use it poorly you will lose it.

In reality, we can speculate as much as we want, but which and how force/field-based units are implemented is not even on the radar right now.  Of course, hopefully there can be any number of custom units, and then we'll have to have the discussion if any units can operate submerged in creeper and if packet transmission can take place through creeper - remember in CW2 packets got destroyed by creeper and I don't think that is unreasonable. Again, I cede the micro-rift exception. ;)

Now is as good a time as any for making ideas. Who knows? Maybe the reason we haven't heard about shields is because there haven't been any good ones yet!  ;D