Just an idea for an SEXP (or flagged in ships.tbl, but I figure SEXP-ing could be more flexible)
Basically, the game reacts to the lowest shield quadrant and directs all energy to that until it's full or (to prevent a sort of logic error where 1 quad is full and the others are down, and thus all 3 are attempted to be raised) another (any) quadrant is under a certain value.
i.e. it autoequalizes the shields to buffer up the lowest one, presuming it is the area under direct threat (I figure that checking for incoming fire could be a bit too slow...obviously not sure, I'm not proficient enough with C++ / C to actually do this, even if me compiler worked
).
Um...like
while(lowestQuad)<10% and (allotherQuads)>10%
{
direct all power to (lowestPowerQuad)
//or, equalize shield?
}
(I'm not sure all the possible scenarios, but I'd assume the function to get the lowest quadrant could check how long that quadrant had been at that level (i.e. how recently it had been knocked down), or double check in a short space to check if it dropped (was under fire), or simply prioritize back/front/left/right when multiple quads are at the same level)
I'm assuming that the game regards the shield as in quadrants based on the special sexps and the HUD ani.
Just an idea.... it might be useful for stuff, like a lower-difficulty aid, or simulating new technology... or maybe not.
Another idea (which i think has been suggested) would be render the shieldhit ani when 2 shields intersect, i.e. in a collision. regardless of whether it prevent sthe iompact, it could look cool. Especially with large shielded craft colliding.
