Instead of a shield being a bubble around a ship.....

[Deathshot]

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the shield outline the ship? I would think it would use less power because the shield doesn't have to extend as far.

[RepliHawk]

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the shield outline the ship? I would think it would use less power because the shield doesn't have to extend as far.

But how would they do that?

[Vala_M]

Basically, with very fine-tuning. The Aurora class ship shields are like that.

AGT58

[PSp2gamer]

Well, it would be stronger if its in more of an arch shape. That way the engergy can be dispersed along the two sides instead of just impacting a flat side and going through it.

[Zepro]

Better yet, make your ship the shape of the shield. I don't know what that would achieve... but it would look sort of funny. Like a flying egg.

[Konrad9]

I think the issue with the way shields are represented has been more CGI oriented.
Making a circle around the ship light up is a lot easier than making it form to the complex hull.

[An-Alteran]

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the shield outline the ship? I would think it would use less power because the shield doesn't have to extend as far.

The Aurora type ships have shields like this. This was shown on the Orion.

[PSp2gamer]

After giving it some more thought, heres my guess. The standard bubble is the strongest, and requires the most power. If you have less power, the shield collapses and surrounds the features of the ship more tightly. It was mentioned in "Rising" that the shield was minimum power and was only a thin shell between the water and the city. Also, it would appear that Aroura Class ships have these shields that only surround the features, but we havent seen a fully powered one, and they were likely low on power.

[Dr. Who]

A shield that covered a all the conturs of a ship would maybe be more area if the ship had alot of protusions and raised and lowered areas.

I think the shileds are round becasue there are created froma shiled generator. It is almost impossible to produce something completely square in nature, and the bubble is the most simple form of what energy woould take. Not sure if this makes sense, I may not have worded it correctly.

[Col. Shadow Quinn]

It probably doesn't cover every protrusion when it come to Aurora class battleships. It just covers the entire ship in it basic shape a few meters above the hull.

[Salas1]

The smaller the surface area of the shield, then the less energy it would use, logically.

[FreeStyLA]

Which would mean that the bubble would use the least amount of energy... like what Dr Who said earlier.

All you have to do is look at nature for the evidence:

Every liquid naturally forms into a sphere under surface tension because it is the least complex shape, and requires the least amount of work/force to hold together. Liquids only take the shape of the container that holds it due to the force of gravity.

If you go to space in a rocket/space shuttle... or stay in the space station (or for those who aren't astronauts... if you look at the video clips of life in space) then you'll notice how liquids inherently take a spherical form due to extremely low gravity.

Raindrops also take a spherical form; they only take a teardrop shape due to the action of air resistance on their body as they fall due to gravity.

It isn't only liquids... fire (flame) takes on a spherical form naturally too. If you were going to light a match in a zero gravity environment it would look like a sphere. It only looks the way it does on Earth due to... gravity.

Anyway... my point is is that for the shield generator to project a shield that takes up the contours of an object - a ship - would take a lot more energy than a simple sphere... and also a lot of computer programming to form the shapes... and maybe quite a number of individual shield generators around the body of the ship just so that it follows the outline of the ship. Although this is simply speculation on my part cause shields don't exist in real life.

The fact is though, that bubbles and spherical shapes do take the least amount of energy to form and maintain.

[immhotep]

Ive actually proposed this before, many times, a hull tight shield..i used it in several designs a couple of months back; its a good theory and used by myself so obviously i like it.
The advantages may not be feasability or efficenty but if you are for example a carrier with hundreds of fighters going in and out protecting your ship then havuing a bubble shield may get in the way of that job and prevent close in manuevures. Its just a question of how you want to use your shields.

[zpm!!]

maybe before making a new thread about shields how bout u guys take a look at my theory on shields!

http://forum.gateworld.net/showthread.php?t=36750

i also believe that the bigger the your shield the less physical damage to the ship b/c the shield impact is further away from the hull.

[Cap116]

Maybe they are bubbles because it is generic and the shield generators could be put in any ships without having to reprogram it to fit a certain ship.