Armorsmith Archive

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DoWei wrote:
... It also seems that the shield should only be protection against an energy blast coming from a ranged attack. The PSG creates a protective shield, not an impenetrable shell.

This seems to make sense.

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I agree -- that makes sense.Unfortunately, it'snot the real problem, which is that PSGs won't help non-combatants. Protection against energy doesn't mitigate the kinetic damage done by the more commonshort-range (melee) attacks.

So here's a crazy idea: Why not offer PSGs that protect against kinetic damage?

PLUSSES

• Crafters checking their harvesters (and other non-combatants) win because they have a better chance of staying alive.


• Armorsmiths win because you get a new schematic (and one that would likely be very popular).


• Developers win because they would demonstrate that they do in fact understand and respond to the needs of their customers.

NEGATIVES

• The artists and programmers would have to develop this new schematic, and it would have to be playtested.


• A kinetic PSG couldn't be as effective as kinetic armor or it would cannibalize armor sales.


• PSGs seem (from the movies, at least) to be about stopping energy attacks. So a kinetic PSG isn't canon.

To try to address a couple of the negatives:

Kinetic PSG vs. Kinetic Armor: What if kinetic and energy protections in PSGs worked similar to elemental damage protections? That is, what if a great kinetic PSG left you more vulnerable to energy damage, and vice versa? Would that take some of the sting out of PSGs vs. armor?

PSGs Don't Stop Kinetic in the Movies!: Admitted... but why not? Why can't I just snap my fingers and say, "We've modified the older shield generator technology -- by doping the field emitter coil with a nanoconductive lubricant [or some such pseudoscientific gibberish], we're able to create a field that blocks some amount of one-way kinetic force. Unfortunately this renders the field susceptible to energy beams, but our top scientists are working on that!" In other words, given that SWG has already done some things that add to the SW canon, why not kinetic PSGs, too?

So -- given all that,do the negatives stilloutweigh the positives?

Or is this concept worth pursuing?

--Flatfingers (crafter since Day One)

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DoWei wrote:
... The PSG creates a protective shield, not an impenetrable shell.

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FYI, the PSG doesn't even do that. On both Live and TC-EP3, the PSG's don't work at all. They occasionally function for a few seconds if you un-equip and re-equip them as you're crossing a server boundary, but that's all. It has been broken on Live like this for months without any acknowledgment from the Devs, and now the same thing has re-surfaced on the testcenters.

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IGN = oo-ka'pu (alt = calico') Server = Bria
"You cannot Stop Conversing while riding a mount." - SWG
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- I can't believe I wasted so much of my life on this.

To allow for more protection in PSGs without introducing unbalancing issues for combatants, what about allowing for a Mk. 4 PSG that has better damage type coverage, including kinetic, but is only wearable by a non-combatant? ...perhaps only a double-Master crafter. This being a highly technical device, we could say that the higher level of protection requires a higher technical level to operate.?.

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testing SWG again