Re: Capital vs. others Debate

Aaron Teske wrote:
>> One thing to consider is does the shield extender provide a globe
like area
>> effect to all ships within it's reach or is it projected to each
friendly
>> ship within it's 6" radius.	I would prefer the latter.
>
>Yes, but how realistic is that?  In Star Trek, where I seem to recall
>they've shaped their shields on occation, it would likely work, but it
>doesn't seem that practical to me.  (Like the idea of shields
themselves
>is realistic... oh, well.  Actually, I guess it does depend (sorta) on
>what you think the shields are.)

Kinda answered your own question.  Either method could work in sci-fi,
but
absorbing all energy weapon damage in its area of effect might seem more
believable.

>The shield on the Castellan (the Space Fleet ship you mentioned)
>absorbed *all* damage caused within its area of effect, whether the
>impacts were on friendly or enemy ships... it acted a lot like Niven &
>Pournelle's CoDo Langston Fields, absorbing weapons hits (not rams) and
>exploding if it absorbed too much.  A two-edged sword, and all that.

The Black Globe generator in Traveller worked similar to this, except it
was
used for individual ships, not an area effect device.  If the shields
capacitors absorbed too much energy, then could fail and explode.

Mike Miserendino