[DarthWang]

Would it be possible to make it so when a beam hits a target, it would be deflected at an angle?

[Bobboau]

yeah, if you wanted to code it you could make that happen, wouldn't be easy but harder things have been done.

[NGTM-1R]

You could always fake it with another turret too, which would be loads simpler probably.

[Akalabeth Angel]

You could always fake it with another turret too, which would be loads simpler probably.

       I get the impression he wants it a regular staple of battle rather than a one-off occurance.

[Vertigo 7]

Oooo just think of the possibilities.... a ship designed to deflect beams or even reflect the offending ships beams back at it

[DarthWang]

The idea was a kind of multi-part cannon composed of multiple ships/stations, that fire beams the reflect off each other in a pattern before they energize the main cannon to fire the huge uberbeam

[Stormkeeper]

The idea was a kind of multi-part cannon composed of multiple ships/stations, that fire beams the reflect off each other in a pattern before they energize the main cannon to fire the huge uberbeam

You mean like the Requiem in Gundam Seed Destiny?

The Requiem was a giant beam weapon based on the dark side of the Moon. The Earth Alliance used massive magnetic fields in mobile tube colonies to bend the beam around, enabling the Requiem to basically hit any target in the system.

[Admiral_Stones]

Yes Stormies, probably that.

Note I only wrote this here to call him Stormies... aww, so cuuutte.

[Stormkeeper]

Its Stormy not Stormies there is only one of me, singular, not plural, but singular, one, and only one!

[Ace]

It'd actually be something interesting to add to the armor code: deflection values and weapon types deflected. (laser, ballistic, beam)

[Droid803]

And perhaps a % chance of deflection...

[Vertigo 7]

hmmm % chance of deflection AND % chance of reflection... that would be interesting

[Stormkeeper]

hmmm % chance of deflection AND % chance of reflection... that would be interesting

So you would have a chance of killing yourself with your own Subach blasts?

[Flipside]

Y'See, this is what we call feature creep in action

[Retsof]

Feature creep?

[Vertigo 7]

hmmm % chance of deflection AND % chance of reflection... that would be interesting

So you would have a chance of killing yourself with your own Subach blasts?

lol well... i was thinking about a new way to counter the shivan threat... send their beams right back at em =D

I had been kickin around the thought of some kind of absorbant armor that would build a charge from beam fire to a certain point then release it in a massive blast at the nearest enemy cap ship... but that'd be harder to do imo than reflective armor =p

[Droid803]

Reflective armor, best against energy-base weapons.
So I'd assume Maxims and Avengers would not get reflected, nor with missiles.

It'd add tactical depth (as in, you may want to load up on something that can crack reflective armor).
Armor.tbl already adds a bit of that (as in, you can tone down beam damage to 0), but this adds in the visual effect of shunting the projectile/beam elsewhere, rather than just absorbing it.

[Akalabeth Angel]

Making weapons deflectable would also be cool against larger ships. If it could be setup that a large ship only takes damage from bombs and the like, one could have other lesser weapons just deflect off (because the armour is too thick). Would be a cool effect.

[Vertigo 7]

the more and more i think about it, the more i like it! can we make it happen?

[Flipside]

You'd need to work out the cosine of the angle of intersection between the beam and the polygon it is hitting and then take it from there.

As Bobboau put it, not impossible, but you'd need to find a coder willing to do it.

Edit: I suppose you could use the normal of the contact polygon, but that would look weird at sharp angles.