Shielding

Shielding
A Baltimore with full shielding

Shielding is a protective barrier present on vehicles that have an active Shield Generator. Like Hull, shielding does not regenerate over time, but Brigador shields can be regenerated by collecting Shield Particles left by destroyed vehicles that had shield generators.

All Pilotable Vehicles carry at least a small amount of shielding, but some enemy vehicles, particularly small vehicles, have none at all. Enemy units initially have their shields powered down, but will start charging their shields to full capacity upon sighting the Brigador, or once an alert has been triggered.

Different weapons affect shields in different ways. For example, Bonesaw 8mm FMJ machine gun rounds are weaker against shields than Hull, but Lockdown EMP machine gun rounds are much stronger against shields, and very weak against hull.

Overcharge
A Baltimore with overcharged shields

Overcharge

Overcharge is a further step of shielding only available to Brigador vehicles. Overcharge has the same damage-resisting properties as shielding, but degenerates over time. Eventually, the overcharge will reduce to zero, where normal shielding takes over. 10 units of overcharge take roughly 6.7 seconds to dissipate.

Faction Differences

Vehicles typically have different hull/shield/overcharge ratios depending on the vehicle's faction, which can lead to a suggested playstyle for each faction;

• Corvid Vehicles tend to have low Hull and shields, but high overcharge, encouraging fast battles with constant progress to maintain the overcharge.
• Loyalist Vehicles tend to have high hull but low shields and overcharge, leading to a more passive/stealthy approach to mitigate permanent hull damage.
• Spacer Vehicles tend to have low hull and overcharge, but high shields, offering the player more choice in strategy.

Acquisitions Entry

Armchair historians like to run their mouths about how hardshields "revolutionized modern combat". They're idiots. Or at best premature with that assessment. Gunpowder was a revolution, but it was centuries before it outperformed crossbows and trebuchets. Tanks and planes came hand in hand, but those took nearly fifty years of sustained combat and development to really take shape. Hardshields have been around for a while now, but for the most part they're just an extra layer of armor and a drain on the power plant, adding a few more rounds to a boxing match doesn't remake the sport.

Increased survivability does change a few things, though. Keep damage off the hull and you can get units back into operation a lot faster, just juice those shields up. That extra toughness means you get some real cowboys, think they're invincible so they go in for close range, want to smell the ozone when their target's shielding pops—nothing puts blood in the water quite like that smell and the loud crack of a dying emitter. The knife fights and protracted slugfests mean collateral damage piles up even faster though; I've seen a 105mm round ricochet off a Citadel's emitters, directly into the apartment buildings it's supposed to protect. Like with most military tech, civilians end up with a raw deal.

-MB