force fields

berserk · 2002-04-01T18:10:49

I''m having trouble deciding how to handle force fields, or shields, in my game. Think of a typical space shooter, they usually have some kind of force fields around the ships. Lets say that a force field is produced by a shield generator. If I have 1 generator on the ship, I have 2 choices: 1. force field represents a bounding sphere about the ship. This can get weird for large long ships. 2. force field is layered right on top of armor, so if armor gets hit, first you deduct points from the shield, then armor. Also, since its just one shield generator, it doesn''t matter from which side the ship gets hit, there''s no "front" and "back" shields. If the ship has 2 shield generators, then there are more decisions to make: 1. both force fields overlap and can be treated as one, only stronger 2. force fields divide the ship, so you could have "front" and "back" shielding. If this option is chosen, then how to decide where exactly the 2 force fields meet on each ship? And what if there are 3 shield generators, how to divide the ship in 3 even sections? What do you think is the best approach here? Anyone got any other ideas about force fields?