[fightermedic]

i'd like to suggest two, i think quite easy to implement, additions to the engine here, if i'm not simply too blind to see them that is
first a WEAPON flag that allows only a certain percentage (the amount should come with the flag) of damage to pierce the shield, the rest damaging the shield as usual
second a SHIP flag that allows the shield of this ship to absorb a certain percentage (the amount should come with the flag too) of damage from shield piercing weapons, so circumventing the shield piercing for this ship only

both pierce values could be % based or flat damage, which then gets converted to shield damage (or both options available to choose from)
if it is % based then a ship with 100% absorption would be immune to shield piercing completely; same if the flat damage value is higher than the weapon damage of the weapon firing on the shield
to calculate the actual final damage to the shield, the shield damage value of a weapon should be used then, instead of the hull damage value that is being used to calculate the damage that pierces through the shield to the hull itself; this calculations might work better with % based piercing values

if a ship with partial piercing weapons fires on a ship with partial absorption, the weapon piercing should be calculated first, and the remaining pierce damage then further reduced by the amount the shield absorbs piercing

i see a lot of fun weapons and ship ideas coming out of this possibility, and with what is i hope limited effort to implement
please let me hear your opinion on this idea

[Dragon]

Already implemented via Armor.tbl, though probably with somewhat less flexibility.
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Armor.tbl#.2BShield_Piercing_Percentage:

[Black Wolf]

I think there's a code freeze on, but this would be a pretty cool post-Capella weapon idea, so I'd be keen to see it added in eventually. I suppose it might be more complex than it sounds in that the engine would have to calculate collision points for both the hull and shield - and occasionally something might hit the shield but wouldn't pass through and hit the hull, but the engine probably has that covered in some fashion already.

[fightermedic]

Already implemented via Armor.tbl, though probably with somewhat less flexibility.
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Armor.tbl#.2BShield_Piercing_Percentage:

oh, i didn't know of that, should take care of some of my ideas, thank you

[zookeeper]

I suppose it might be more complex than it sounds in that the engine would have to calculate collision points for both the hull and shield - and occasionally something might hit the shield but wouldn't pass through and hit the hull, but the engine probably has that covered in some fashion already.

Having worked with that code recently, I don't think that's a problem. At least after my little re-organization for the auto spread shields patch, anyway.

[fightermedic]

Already implemented via Armor.tbl, though probably with somewhat less flexibility.
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Armor.tbl#.2BShield_Piercing_Percentage:

i've implemented it this way some time ago, and it works quite well, so thanks again

the only downside is that you have to change every single beam in the game to not pierce shields, and then in the armour table define how much DOES in fact pierce
maybe this could be automated through a check on the damage type of the beam vs the shield piercing value of the armour against that weapon: if the shield is not 100% pierced by this beam the beam would be set to not pierce the required amount automatically, without having to set every beam to not piercing first
i hope i'm talking sense here

just an idea