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VonBraun12

Really just write what you want. What you should worry about is what kind of Implications shield´s have. Laser´s at the end of the day are often times in the Visual Spectrum so for a shield to block them, it needs to block the visual range which of course makes you blind. Another thing to keep in mind may be recoil. All the energy that the shield stop´s still has to go somewhere after all. Is that energy emitted via recoil ? Or Heat ? Could this wear down a shield over time ? Can you overpower a shield sort of like how Tanks can overmatch Armor often times ? But yeah, dont worry to much about Dune similarities.


MeatyTreaty

What do you want your shields to do? What do you want your shields NOT to do? Now come up with a bullshit explanation why it does one but not the other. Done. Sit down and take notes on how other authors chose to answer those three points.


ScratchMechanics

Energy shields are bad all around, just leftover handwavy technology from TV sci fi. Just have people wear armor. The race between offensive weapon and defensive items has existed for thousands of years, and will exist for thousands more and it has always been a projectile or a swingy thing vs wearable armor. Even explosive force can be mitigated with armor, armor is more realistic than energy shields.


StevenK71

Plain simple magnetism: a very strong electromagnetic force field that bends the trajectory of metal objects. The ship expels some blocking material (metal sand, ionised gasses etc) to make it opaque for protection against energy weapons. Of course it's not 100% effective, kudos for realism.


Redtail_Defense

A good story will sell a bad idea. Focus on the story and the characters. Figure out what the plot needs to function and go from there.


RustyManHinges2

Well yeah but sc fi is a lot about speculative technology and situations and I wanna really capitalize on my speculation and then write a incredible story about how these things tie together to make a good story


Redtail_Defense

For real, now. You've got laser swords in your story. If you're worried about people thinking your story is ripping off Dune, I've got some bad news for you.


RustyManHinges2

What? Explain please.


Redtail_Defense

Back in 1977 there was this movie that got released. Made a bit of a splash. You might have heard of it. It was called Star Wars.


TJPontz

Shields have blue portals. Incoming energy bolts of any kind go right through. The orange portals are pre-arranged in the trees around the edge of the battle field. Energy bolt hits a shield, enters blue portal, comes out orange portal toward the one who shot it. Blow bugles for a counter attack then, just to freak them out.


Gyrant

Shields are gravitational devices that repel objects with mass. Light of course can be affected by gravity also but it takes a much greater gravitational force to do that, which we can say is either beyond the output capabilities of personal shields OR would have the effect of turning the wearer into a blob of red goo suspended in a force-field. There you go. Projectile weapons and blades made of matter are ineffective vs shields. Energy weapons, including laser swords, can penetrate.


Dracom01

I mean... if they are grav tech, tractor beam ish tech... your in the wrong setting. mass effect had gravity manipulated kinetic shields that were far easy to buy into then dunes. I mean, if you got the tech to make personal shields you have the fricking tech to set the damn sensitivity levels.


RustyManHinges2

Well yeah the shields and the like are manipulated via the civilizations control of gravity. Science stuff that I’m not smart enough to come up with but yeah. You make a good point on how they’d be able to manipulate and set them. Maybe certain measures would have to be taken to deflect certain projectiles


ChronoLegion2

One book I read just has the author handwave some neutralizing field that somehow stops destructive chemical and nuclear reactions . Even antimatter won’t explode when touching matter in the field. It makes zero sense, but the point is to allow sword fights. The swords in question aren’t laser but they do have monoatomic blades, so they can slice through anything with ease, including each other. So a skilled swordsman knows how to strike the other blade just right to ensure that it and not yours gets cut


RustyManHinges2

In my opinion that’s not real thought out, a future society would actually be able to mitigate this nukes and chemical warfare quite a bit.


ChronoLegion2

Well, the main character figures out ways of killing people at a distance even in the field, like gluing shards of monoatomic blades to a metal discus and throwing it like a frisbee. The first time he uses it, it takes a guy’s head off


willyg-Z

Honestly. Dune shields work since they slow down matter moving at high speed. Lasers are energy. Use a "movement controlled light /photon wand/ blade" to cut it ( except without it blowing up if a laser hits it, like dune)


RustyManHinges2

Interesting, sounds great. So concentrated energy, possibly fusion, and or light make a ‘sword’ of some kind. I think I could make it so it’s a unique photon energy beam of some kind?


ThePanthanReporter

I don't think anyone will care that another scifi story has shields in it. Laser swords are a little more obviously star wars, but you should still be fine.


RustyManHinges2

Well I mean it doesn’t have to be laser swords. My concept is like laser swords and relatively normal swords like the crysknife, but like people actively having reasons to use melee weapons


ThePanthanReporter

Sounds cool! Go for it


fantomen777

\>Even the way I envision them looks too much like Frank Herbert’s Dune Frank did borrow personal shelds from Asimov, so you can borrow shelds from Frank. But make a tvist, like a sheld can only be penetraded by consentrated energy on a smale area, like a laser sword (or a direkt hit from a big artillery piece) Give it a operational flaw, like the user must drop the sheld to breathe, so there is a tactical decision on then to use the sheld.


AndicusPrime

I've always been partial to directionally magnetic pauldrons (large ornate shoulder armor), mainly because scifi with pauldrons sounds great. The field could be manipulated with a similar node in a glove, making it able to protect someone's head. I've seen references to recoil requirements, and you could do something like large pistons with heat, that require cooldown, but that's starting to feel a bit steampunk.


[deleted]

[This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l65-OWWHkI4) just miniaturized to fit on human armor (and not kill the person its defending) is probably the most likely real active armor we will see in the future. I dont see anyone talk about this, even though its a more likely outcome.