Shields

Shields offer an additional protection for units and building which is used before the health is damaged. Shields restore themself after beeing deployed after a significant higher rate than health does, with the benefit of not consuming metal. Energy is required to maintain shields.

Base shields
Shields in SupCom were essential for any base since there were many mechanisms which could only be countered by shields. The concept of shields domes however didn't work as expected since shields were stacked in multiple layers to enhance the protection beyond reason.


 * Shields?

Shield Domes
A base shield is spanned by a single shield generator. The size of the shield depends only on the actual shield generator. Multiple shield domes can overlap. Every dome causes a fixed energy consumption.

This is the classic approach from SupCom and SupCom:FA. It offers the easiest way to protect a fixed area and all buildings inside the area are protected.

Allows to deploy large shields with minimum effort. Allows to cover fragile buildings with rather strong shields. Shields can be penetrated by moving attacking forces inside the shield, but stacked shields break that mechanism. Stacked shields allow to increase defenses to far. Shields can be established to easy, they become essential. The number of protected units has no effect on the energy consumption.

Shield Domes with Central Power Generator
Like above, but for every amount oft shields(10?) needs a power generator unit. like above establishing first shield is more difficult shield spam needs a lot of space if the power generator unit is reletively big(you can only build a defined amount of shields before you need to spend another big area to the generator) its more difficult to build shields in a small expansion base if the generator unit dont share power supply global)

Linked Shield Domes
Shields can be penetrated by moving attacking forces inside the shield. Allows to deploy large shields with minimum effort Allows to cover fragile buildings with rather strong shields When shields overlapping, Shield Generators become linked and share Shield HP, secondary generator adds only 10% of it's total Shield HP to total shield quota. Secondary shield generators consume only 25% of energy and total Shield HP takes same time to restore as Primary Shield Generator - it means greater shield regen speed. Priority goes to stronger Shield Generator. Even if stronger Shield Generator were built second, it becomes "Primary" to receive Shield HP bonus from weaker shield generators. Renders stacked shields useless, since units can move under shield and take out generators. Huge shield networks have immense Shield HP, but when shield is depleted or there is not enough energy, entire shield network falls and needs time to recharge. Provides almost perfect protection against artillery, but very vulnerable to Deep Strike attacks.

Pylons
A shield is spanned over multiple shields. Contrary to shield domes, shields can not be stacked, the shield will just become bigger. Multiple pylons build close together will not form a stronger shield, but the shield will restore faster. Every pylon causes a fixed energy consumption.

Shields are much more flexible, bases of any shape can be protected A full shield takes longer to establish, making shields less attractive for quick build outposts Shields can be penetrated by moving attacking forces inside the shield Shield strength can not be exploited by stacking shields, a shield can always be broken with a strong enough hit If one shield brakes, a large area stays unprotected The number of protected units has no effect on the energy consumption

Individual Shields
Shields don't form a solid dome, instead each unit and building within range of the shield tower has an individual shield. If the individual shield breaks, other shields stay unaffected. The energy consumption and the strength of the shield scales with the number and size of units protected.

Shields are flexible, any type of structure can be protected Individual shields on small units can be easily penetrated Energy usage scales with the number of protected units Doesn't look very impressive Has almost the same effect as repair towers, except for causing a permanent energy drain

Tessellated Shields
A shield dome composed of many sections who can be broken individually and rarely survive more than one shot.

Effective against imprecise artillery attacks, but not against direct-fire weapons Artilleries with fragmenting projectiles break it easily Possibly very computing-intensive

No Shields
Remove base shields from the game all together. This leaves bases vulnerable to any type of damage.

No trouble with shield exploiting Long range attacks like artillery lack a counter measure Even minor attacks cause permanent damage which costs metal to repair