Shields Rework

[inner trench]

The shield meta right now is... Boring. Regen is used in RS, alpha in BLS (if you actually want to win) and WS has some variety, but it's still mostly alpha, maybe some impulse. So I would propose the following shield changes:

Alpha: Get rid of it, replace it with some kind of 'stealth' that protects the BS from all weapon damage, but is useless against AoE

Omega: Buff it, no one uses it now, so it could really use some love.

All shields: Getting rid of alpha obviously creates a problem: there are just too many instant-kill effects. Therefore, make it so any damage source cannot both damage a shield and the bs hull. That would make anyone with a shield other than motion/stealth be able to survive two such effects, making shield choice more varried.

[tepid sparrow]

would need some balancing but seems like a good start
its missing one thing though
-# i'll let you guess

also making alpha ignore normal damage but not aoe kinda defeats the point of alpha

maybe make it the other way around? or make the time its on way shorter

[molten hamlet]

This is true, it would be nice to have more diversity in shield choice, I think a simple solution may be just to match an approximate shield volume per minute across shield types, by adjusting the cooldowns.

TL;DR

in Red Star, shields should be balanced based on the amount of protection they provide your ship over the course of the RS
Regen should not produce 3.5x the protection as it's closest relative Omega

Reasoning

Sorry to get number crunchy here, but just as an example Regen (At Level 10) shield has 5 300 in and recovers 100% in 54s
So it generates about 5 889 shield volume per minute (sv/m).
-# Calculations: 5 300<maxVol> / 54<recovery time> = 98.148<volPerSecond> | 98.148 * 60<secondsPerMin> = 5 888.88

Compared with Omega Shield's (At Level 10) 1 650 sv/m, it would give Omega shield an advantage at that level if it had a 70s or 75s cooldown instead of a 4 minute cooldown. At 70s instead of 5m it gives 5 657sv/m closer to Regen shield, but it still has different characteristics.
-# Calculations
-# Current sv/m (6 600 / 240 = 27.5 | 27.5 * 60 = 1 650)
-# Getting a better sv/m (6 600<maxVol> / 95<desiredSV/Second> = 69.47<shieldCooldown>)
-# New sv/m (6 600 / 70 = 94.28 | 94.28 * 60 = 5 657.14)

I'm not saying they all need to be the same, they are not equal in any way, Impulse provides movement and damage in addition to protection, and shouldn't have the same sv/m as Regen and Omega, what I am saying is that the difference between Regen and it's closest counterpart Omega, should not be a difference of 4 269 sv/m.
In a 15 minute RS that's the difference between
L10 Regen absorbing 41 223 over the course of 7 minutes of fighting (7 minutes of resting)
and
L10 Omega's 24,750 over the ENTIRE 15 MINUTE STAR

[tepid sparrow]

dang i knew it was worse i never knew it was half😭

[molten hamlet]

It's so rough, there's no comparison at all

[tepid sparrow]

maybe a decrease in activation length?

so you can refresh it more?

[molten hamlet]

yeah, booth length and CD, would be needed, the calculations are based on the 4m cool down, even if you could only activate it once every 5 minutes because of it's uptime

[dense crown]

Regen isn't going to always be regenerating, you are going to be spending some time in combat so actual Regen value could be lower by 33%-50%

[molten hamlet]

Yeah that’s fair, in hindsight sight equalizing the sv/m isn’t even a good objective for those two shields. Still the moral is that the difference is too great right now for those two shield types. And I did account for the recharge time at the end

[mental lynx]

simply reduce cooldown and activation duration of all shields (except regen, alpha and motion) to 2m and there problem fixed

[wind dove]

So, Blast shield or Ally shield?

[tepid sparrow]

wdym?

[wind dove]

Sorry, the comment I wad replying to isn't here. Odd. Something about blast damage defense as in if Alpha is just specialized against blast then we already have a shield for that.

[tepid sparrow]

oh

[wind dove]

Mirror & Omega aren't useful. Making Omega just a larger bucket of points doesn't feel like a solution as that's just Alpha (largest bucket in the game). Increasing the number of hitpoints for Mirror does feel like a solution as it's not about it lasting but about what it can reflect back so the more points the more it can reflect back, it needs a bigger bucket.

Blast shield, as is, is a vast improvement over preDN. Ally shield also protecting against Blast and aoe splash feels like it's a worse version of preDN Blast which impacts less because Blast exists and is used so often in WSs so the problem is less of one.

What if Omega shield took half damage from Blast damage?

[tepid sparrow]

for that last one,
no use in rs
alpha is generally better for that in bls
no use in ws because of blast

i think all the activated shields should have lower active time/cd

[wind dove]

An Omega that takes half damage from Blast means a ship that can push ahead without relying on another ship with Blast for protection as Blast doesn't protect against direct weapons but Omega does. This would have use in all the three star types (clearing Bombers in RSs & WSs and protecting against the many booms in BLSs) but yeah I agree Alpha is a better but that applies to everything anyway.

[tepid sparrow]

fair point for ws
i dont see it being used in rs unless it gets another buff though

no clue for bls

[wind dove]

A cooldown that's too short just changes the shield to Regenerating that you have to keep turning back on. Perhaps part of the solution is to reduce the hitpoints of Regenerating slightly? (As has been said by others already). And a small buff to the point bucket for Mirror and Omega.

[wind dove]

I like the idea of Omega rocket existing and Omega shield taking half damage from it.

[tepid sparrow]

i wouldnt make it too short
but 4m cooldown in rs for a shield that would break in 1-2 is too much waiting time
maybe 1 minute off at most
but yeah more shield hp would be nice

[left trail]

Hmm...buff 'Motion Shield;' to ignore 'Barrier?'

[dense crown]

absolutely not

[tepid sparrow]

new ws meta just dropped

[left trail]

To simplify; just movement through the Barrier. You'll still take damage should you Teleport in it.

[inner trench]

See, I think it provides a needed soft nerf to alpha, and would make shields with short cooldowns important against blast one-hits. (Also maybe people would use blast shield again)
-# wow, it took me some time to respond to this xD

[tepid sparrow]

maybe

but what about ws? i feel like alpha is mostly used just live long enough for veng

[inner trench]

It would certainly be harder to veng bomb, but a stealth alpha would still block cr fire, and the short activation would make it hard to get an explosion off before veng activated. Plus tp-veng would still be a perfectly valid strategy.

It would also encourage more ship on ship fighting in WS, instead of just sending one immortal ship with a big bomb to blow up the entire enemy team