How to Build: Mass Effect shields

[Barwickian]

Looking for ideas on how to build Mass Effect's 'forcefield' shields in Hero 6.

 

For those unfamiliar iwth Mass Effect, shields provide defence to individuals or vehicles (so Resistant Defence is more appropriate than Barrier), weaken as they absorb damage (they're Ablative), and they recharge when not under fire for a while.

 

It's this latter aspect, the recharging, I'm unsure how to model in Hero.

 

The simplest option I can think of is to use the Ablative variant where damage reduces the point value of the power. The shield can be turned into a Compound Power, adding an Aid with the a Trigger (when shield is damaged), the limitation Requires Extra Time (1 Turn, -1 1/2) and the custom limitation Only When Not Taking Damage (which I think is serious enough to justify a -1).

 

Any other suggestions?

[Ndreare]

Have you considered ablative defense as above, but instead of aid give it a single pip/die of healing with reduced reuse time? Just set the reuse time to match the repair time desired. For example per minute would allow a force field that recovers completely between battles but still is limited in battle.

[Netzilla]

Simplest way that I can think of off-hand is a focus granting extra Body (that's the shield itself). Then (in the same focus) regeneration that only regens the extra body and has a limitation like 'only after X time without taking damage'.

[NuSoardGraphite]

There are many was to do this.

 

 

Extra Body: this is about as straight forward as you get. Buy extra body with Regeneration. Have the extra body Cost Endurance and you are good to go. Or continuing charges to represent power drain.

 

Ablative Resistant Defense: another straight forward one. Set the condition of the ablative roll recovering be a specific amount of time (5 minutes per point)

 

Defense on Charges: this one is trickier. Place the Defense on Continuing Charges with a custom limitation that the Charge is used up if the defense is penetrated. I would use a layered approach. Lets say you want 20 def force field. I would buy it in layers of 5. Each with 5 continuing charges (5 minutes each) so when an attack penetrates the first two layers, they each lose a charge, but the 3rd and 4th layers are fine. Finally, the first two layers run out of charges and only the 3rd and 4th layer are present, so the defense drops from 20 to 10.

 

Defensive Absorbtion: it could be done as the defensive version of the absorbtion power. Not sure how good of an option this would be. Let me reread that power and think about some potential uses for it in this circumstance.

[Barwickian]

Healing - that's what I meant instead of Aid.

 

Yes, that would work in combination with Ablative. The shields in Mass Effect do recover in battle - provided you take no damage for a time. I think a full turn should cover the recovery period.

 

The Extra Body with Recovery is an interesting approach. It would have to have the limitation 'not protected by armour'. This may be the simplest approach in play.

 

Thanks for the input.

[Mister E]

Modern combat hard-suits have a "triple canopy" of protection: shields, armor, and self-repair.

This is really neato. & tricky.

 

The outermost layer is created through kinetic barrier emitters, which detect objects incoming at a high rate of speed and generate deflecting "shields" provided they have enough energy in their power cells.

An END Reserve w/ lots of REC.

 

Sense High Speed Incoming Objects w/ Targeting PLUS Missile Deflection w/ Trigger (no time/auto reset).

 

Resistant PD. No ED.

 

(APG 62) Damage-Based Endurance Cost:

 

For a -1/2 Limitation the Defense Power costs its Active Points divided by 10 to activate. It costs no END to maintain (unless it takes the Costs Endurance [to maintain] Limitation). However any time the defense is hit by any damage it protects against the character pays 1 END for every 5 points of STUN damage (or fraction thereof).

 

For a -1/4 Limitation decrease the END cost to 1 END for every 10 points of damage (or fraction thereof).

 

If the character ever has no END to spend (or STUN if out of END) the Defense Power has no effect.

 

If a bullet or other incoming object gets past the barrier, it contends with the more traditional body armor. A sealed suit of non-porous ballistic cloth provides kinetic and environmental protection, reinforced by lightweight composite ceramic plates in areas that either don't need to flex or require additional coverage, such as the chest and head. When the armor is hit by directed energy weapons, the plates boil away or ablate rather than burning the wearer.

Ablative Resistant PD & ED.

 

Note the ablative armor is inside the "shield". Thus it ought not be ablated if an attack does not get through the "shield".

 

BODY & CON w/ OIF.

 

The last level of protection is provided by the suit's microframe computers, whose input detectors are woven throughout the fabric. These manage the self-healing system, which finds rents in the fabric and, assuming any such tear would wound the flesh underneath, seals the area off with sterile, non-conductive medi-gel. This stanches minor wounds and plugs holes in the suit that could prove fatal in vacuum or toxic environments. Soldiers are not always fond of the "squish skin" that oozes gel on them at a moment's notice, but fatalities have dropped sharply since the system was implemented.

Life Supports w/ OIF.

 

Sense Rents In Fabric.

 

Both Heal Ablative Defenses & either Paramedics w/ Trigger (no time/auto reset) or Does Not Bleed w/ OIF.

 

REC w/ OIF.

 

Regeneration for the BODY of the suit.

 

Having an actual Computer built into the suit would be cool.

[Altair]

So, this is incredibly relevant to my interests. Love the setting, love the game, running something (not in Hero) in it for 2 years and counting now. My thoughts are actually pretty simple: I'd have a reserve pool of BODY & STUN that represented the kinetic barrier. 

 

 

  Kinetic Barriers:  Multipower, 30-point reserve, (30 Active Points); all slots OIF (Shield Generator (The reason why my armor & clothing glow); -1/2)  

1) Physical Shields:  +30 BODY (30 Active Points); OIF (Shield Generator (The reason why my armor & clothing glow); -1/2)

4v  

2) Technical Shields:  +60 STUN (30 Active Points); OIF (Shield Generator (The reason why my armor & clothing glow); -1/2)

4v 3 Shield Recharge:  Healing Kinetic Barriers Multipower 3d6 (30 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about two-thirds of its effectiveness (Only to recharge shields; -1 1/2)

 

Not sure if the shield recharge power (healing goes to the multipower) is legit or not, but it seems like a thing. 

 

Anyway! Lots of ways to do this, but this gives that same kind of feel, which in the video game is basically a health bar atop your actual health. Since Hero distinguishes between BODY and STUN, I figured that the shields could calibrate for different types of resistance, and you could alter the pools to reflect how you had your shields set up. Having those stats in a multipower is potentially problematic - I don't know if this has come up for anybody. 

 

/2 cp

[Netzilla]

Yeah, the 30-point reserve on the MP means that none of those 3 powers can be run at full strength without completely turning the other two off.  They should all be separate powers, but I'd say that, in addition to the OIF, they'd also qualify for the Unified Power limitation.  I could also see an additional -1/4 to -1/2 limitation for having Body and Stun outside other defenses (assuming the GM didn't rule that being a focus didn't already do that).

[Altair]

Ah, that was my HD formatting issue - the recharge isn't supposed to be in the multipower. The idea was to have shields that could be calibrated towards lethal (BOD) or non-lethal (STUN) damage; in actual play, I'd probably make them separate just for the sake of my sanity. Unified, for sure.