Borg Sheilding

posted on July 7th, 2009, 9:10 am

Maybe a shield module for certain chassis? First module increases subsystem hitpoints, second or third creates a full shield around the ship.

I mentioned the ones around the Plexus, but smaller ships have been known to use proper ones (most likely depending on the ships actual intended use). You can transport through your own shields in both FO and regular A2.

Um, when could you transport through your own shields without them going down? The whole point of the borg not having shields was to prevent that problem. Or do you mean that it is possible to set them in odfs or code not to drop shields when transporting?

posted on July 7th, 2009, 9:19 am

There is a command (first used in FO, I think) that allows you to transport without disabling Shields. It also works in a stock game, I've had it on my stock Borg ships since I found it.

disableshieldsontransport = 1

posted on July 7th, 2009, 9:40 am

in voyager borg vessels do have external sheilds and they are mentioned a lot. although they do seam to drop when they are being remodulated hence how voyager managed to beam a photon torpedo onto a sphere which then blew it up.

also in end game i think the sphere was destroyed from the inside and those transphasic torpedos are very powerfull

posted on July 7th, 2009, 1:46 pm

The Devs based FO Borg on TNG, not Voyager and since we don't see shields in TNG Borg...

ALso, Voyager beamed a torpedo onto a probe: and indeed it had "remodulating shields", but I guess refer to above.

posted on July 7th, 2009, 5:04 pm

I think one of the main issues is people are confusing damage-absorbing shielding and teleport-blocking shielding. Borg ships clearly had the latter in TNG (The Best of Both Worlds Part 2 demonstrates that) but also lacked the former (again, Best of Both Worlds 2, if a shuttle can pass through the 'shields' of the borg ship then it's almost certain that a torpedo can, ST doesn't have velocity-based shields). Not to mention Q-Who where the borg ship took a torpedo blast right to the hull (then repaired it) or First Contact where the borg cube was taking numberous hull shots (not a single shield effect in that movie, even when the cube was fighting) without stopping. Borg ships in TNG are clearly shown to not have shields on every appearance, whether they've been fighting before or not (the Q-Who cube was just sitting around doing nothing and it still got hull-shotted).

posted on July 7th, 2009, 6:24 pm

You're forgetting the episode where Ro Laren took a shuttle through the shields of the Enterprise.  Most shields are designed to stop high-velocity objects and energy weapons.  It's possible that they would allow a slower-moving object through.

But yes, you can see, even in Voyager's Endgame, that the Borg Cube does not have visible shields.  However, it does seem to absorb weapons fire instead of taking damage.  So perhaps "invisible" shields instead of the standard green/yellow/red sprites?

posted on July 7th, 2009, 6:27 pm

You're forgetting the episode where Ro Laren took a shuttle through the shields of the Enterprise.  Most shields are designed to stop high-velocity objects and energy weapons.  It's possible that they would allow a slower-moving object through.

If you mean the time she 'defected' to the Maquis, that was Engineered by the Enterprise. Opening a whole to make it seem like she broke through with the fighter.

But yes, you can see, even in Voyager's Endgame, that the Borg Cube does not have visible shields.  However, it does seem to absorb weapons fire instead of taking damage.  So perhaps "invisible" shields instead of the standard green/yellow/red sprites?

Invisible shields would go well, especially for the bigger ships.

posted on July 7th, 2009, 6:28 pm

In Best of Both Worlds, you can see shields several times.  Geordi refers to them as 'the Borg's subspace field'.  Look close, because they are just off the hull, and only glow immediately around the impact point.  Which makes perfect sense.  A big visible display is energy inefficient, and the Borg aren't big fans of inefficiency.

posted on July 7th, 2009, 6:32 pm

I would think that invisible shielding makes more sense, because that's what modern science says should happen. Maybe, the beam would be a little distorted when it hit, but there wouldn't be this huge glow or anything. Plus, why wouldn't the Borg have shields? They are an extremely powerful advanced race with technology from all over, and they don't have shields?     

posted on July 7th, 2009, 6:33 pm

I would agree with that.  If you look closely at the video I linked to above, you can see a slight spread, which could either be hull or shield absorption.  Either way would work.

And yeah Tyler, I know. 

posted on July 7th, 2009, 7:08 pm

I Agree the the borg are very efficent . I feel that they do have  Minimal sheild system  wich protects the ship from damage. However I feel that it does not  put a vast bubble of sheild around the ship , but a  form fitting skin of sheilding around the ship a few meters off the surface of the ship. By doing so It would protect the ship from damage but lessen the power load  needed for other critical systems.The Fereration  type of sheilds could likened to Space Armor of modern times , by providing a stand off distance from the ship to dissipate the force of the weaponds discharge. I often postulate that the borg have  "asorbitive shilding " where the energy of the weaponds  discharge is refocused in to other systems. TO do so is  A trick that i fee the borg would use. Like in Martial arts  where one uses  the energy of an opponents attack aginst themselves.

posted on July 8th, 2009, 2:08 am

I also find it more likely that the Borg have the especially close shielding. They also may not be activated the whole time, especially at first contact with an ignorant species, they might just keep them off, until time for combat, defense, or any other important threat. When off, power could be given to other systems such as weapons, adaptation devices, engines, structural tech, communications, or most probably regenerative purposes. I think that some ships may also have better shielding than others, such as a probe may have the cycling shields so that it can survive long enough to bring up reconnaissance but does have a couple of weaknesses, like beaming torpedoes aboard. Meanwhile a detector, may just have minimal or even no shielding because it is not a very important vessel. 

posted on July 9th, 2009, 1:45 pm

I think shieldless borg fit the stuff we see from episodes best

posted on July 9th, 2009, 6:32 pm

I'm overall fine with them shieldless (though I would love to be able to install shield modules on them if I felt the need to.  For example, against a steamrunner-heavy fed force.)

I just get annoyed when people insist that the Borg have no shields in the show.