Shield Rules

Entelect Challenge 2017 Technical Support
1

Hi folks,

I’m trying to get some more details on shields (I’ve only read the rules, I haven’t looked at the code). Specifically, my questions are as follows:

1.) How does one use a shield? Is it a command that one issues in place of a fire command?
2.) What happens in the map.txt file when you shoot at the opponent’s board and hit a shield? Will it just not register a hit and still show water in the targeted spot instead of a hit or a miss? That would make sense to me.

Cheers,
Riaan

2

Hi rfnel,

To place a shield you have to send through a command, 8,<x:pos>,<y:pos> that is the center point of the shield and it will then protect a square around the given center point.

When a shield is hit on either map it, it displays an @ symbol on the respective map for the duration of the shield.
When the shield is gone the shot no longer shows on the map and there is no history of the cell being shot.

Does this make sense?

3

It does, thanks Foamy.

Will a shield remain until charge is depleted? If so, how much charge will be lost during each round while a shield is active?

4

The shield will lose one charge after each round it is active.

5

Hi rfnel,

The readme for the rules have been updated on the github page.

6

Hi
if a seeker missile is fired to a point, and a ship is lying within the area of the seeker ( but not at the point the seeker was fired at), and is protected by a shield, will the seeker respond with a miss at the point?

7

Hi thinus,

The seeker missile will respond with a miss at the point passed through.

8

Hi Thinus,

  1. can one fire and switch-on a shield at the same time?
  2. and can one switch-off a shield?
  3. If so, how would the command.txt look?
    …
    Fire & switch-on shield
    command.txt: eg.
    1,0,0, 8,1,1
    => fire single-shot at x,y=0,0 & switch on shield at x,y=1,1 ?
    …
    Fire & switch-off shield
    command.txt: eg.
    1,3,3, 8
    => fire single shot at x,y=3,3 and switch shield off ?
9

Hi Andre

as I understand it, placing a shield is a separate command. For that round you cannot fire. I also do not believe that you can switch off a shield. The shield will clear after the charges have been dissipated.

10

this is also how I understand it. Going to update to the new engine now

11

Is there any way of moving a shield once it is placed on a later turn…eg. on turn A: 8,0,0 …to… turn B: 8,3,3 ?

12

Ok so with my testing I found the following:
-If the seeker missile is shot at a square, and it would hit a ship in a shielded area, The center point that the seeker was fired at is marked with an ‘@’ (not the square that was a “hit”)
-If the seeker missile is fired at a square and there is a ship under a shield that it would hit, and also a ship outside the shielded area (but further away) the seeker missile will hit the ship outside the shielded area (basically ignoring the ship under the shielded area as if there was nothing)
-if a seeker missile is fired at an empty shielded area, it will show up as a miss.
-If the center point of the seeker missile is shielded or not has makes no difference to the above.

I think I was pretty thorough with the tests I did. Is this how the missile was intended to work with the shield?
I haven’t tested other special shots yet.

13

Hi Guys,

Sorry about the delayed response,

@MajorPAIN is correct with what happens to the seeker missile and the shields.

@Andre There is no way to move a shield, once it is deployed it will stay at the given location till the shield expires, also as mentioned you can only send through one command at a time, so you are unable to shoot and place a shield.

Using any special shot on a shield will just show ‘@’ where it hit the shield