[FT] Shields and Screens

As a part of my ongoing, 
never-to-be-finished-or-even-put-into-a-playble-form, personal universe,

I've been working on ideas for Shields (as opposed to screens) for FT.	
Standard screens (at least in MY Universe, and yes, the skies are 
awfully pretty there) are essentially intense magnetic fields, capable 
of deflecting plasma or particle beams under ideal circumstances.  
Ideal, in other words, for the relatively low-tech Terrans.  My 
Imperials, on the other hand, have access to better, more effective, 
technology.  I was originally going to represent this by allowing them 
to use Class 3 screens, but the current discussion shields and hardened 
systems has led to an entirely different idea.

Submitted for your (dis)approval: Shield Generators.  (Please forgive 
the disjointed nature of these notes--this is all very impromptu.)
			     *****
Shield Generators are rated anywhere from 1 to 6 points; this rating is 
equal to the amount of damage that the shield can absorb each turn.

ANY damage that a ship suffers from an attack is first applied to its 
shields, regardless of the source of this damage.

A successful Needle Beam attack against a shielded ship will do One 
point of damage to the shield.

Each point of damage that a shield stops reduces its strength by one 
point.

Any damage that exceeds the shield rating is applied to the ship, as 
normal.

Every time that a shield's rating is exceeded, the Shield Generator must

make a threshold check.  If this check is failed, the generator goes 
down, and must be repaired before it can function again--Damage Control 
parties will be capable of these repairs.

Any shield that has a functioning Shield Generator may attempt to 
regenerate its shields-this attempt occurs at the beginning of the turn,

before Orders are written.

To regenerate a shield, the player must roll one die.
	1-2 One Point is recovered.
	3-4 Two Points are recovered.
	5-6 Three Points are recovered.

And that's it.	Simple, eh?

Class one shields would be pretty useless, but the higher ratings could 
be pretty effective, I think.

I can certainly see making use of directional shields, but I don't think

that I would want to be bothered with the resulting paperwork.	But 
that's just me.  Does the basic idea seem workable, though?  I'd want to

add a row of boxes to the SSD to help keep track of the current shield 
strength, or perhaps just add a d6 to each shielded ship's base, but 
that should be all of the extra effort that you would need.

John Crimmins

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