What is the point of shields?

[Battera]

Why do we even use shields? Even with them we can lose weapons, life support, sublight, and hyperdrive. Some may argue that the reason we use them is to prevent our ships from getting destroyed entirely-if life support is down, I don't see how that matters...

[freyr's mother]

Why do we even use shields? Even with them we can lose weapons, life support, sublight, and hyperdrive. Some may argue that the reason we use them is to prevent our ships from getting destroyed entirely-if life support is down, I don't see how that matters...

Shields are used to keep our ships from being destroyed quicker than they would be if there were no shields.

IDK if that makes sense, I just got off work that I had to wake up at 5:30 am to go to, so I am not entirely with it at the moment.

[FallenAngelII]

Why do we even use shields? Even with them we can lose weapons, life support, sublight, and hyperdrive. Some may argue that the reason we use them is to prevent our ships from getting destroyed entirely-if life support is down, I don't see how that matters...

Without shields: Hey, the Ori Toilets just fired at us. 3-2-1. *Ship explodes*
With Asgard-based shields: Hey, the Ori Toilet just fired at us. 3-2-1. We just lost hyperdrive! They're shooting at us again! 3-2-1. We just lost sublight! They're shooting at us again! 3-2-1. *ship explodes*

Without shields: Hey, the Milky Way fleet is firing at us! And look, they're beaming nukes into our ships! Lots of them! 5-4-3-2-1. *Ori ships explode*
With shields: They're firing at us! 120 seconds, 90 seconds, 60 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 second. Hey, they're all dead (well except for those few ships that fled)!

[Seastallion]

Without shields: Hey, the Ori Toilets just fired at us. 3-2-1. *Ship explodes*
With Asgard-based shields: Hey, the Ori Toilet just fired at us. 3-2-1. We just lost hyperdrive! They're shooting at us again! 3-2-1. We just lost sublight! They're shooting at us again! 3-2-1. *ship explodes*

Without shields: Hey, the Milky Way fleet is firing at us! And look, they're beaming nukes into our ships! Lots of them! 5-4-3-2-1. *Ori ships explode*
With shields: They're firing at us! 120 seconds, 90 seconds, 60 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 second. Hey, they're all dead (well except for those few ships that fled)!

Nice!

Ask a __________ question, get a ___________ response...

[JadeTengu]

A low-energy form of shielding keeps ships from taking high doses of radiation whilst in space, also protecting against space-bourne matter from impacting a ships hull. This would all be done by some kind of catalyzed-energy matrix extended over a large portion of any vessel travering space. I am however not sure as to whether they use a passive system to do this that doesn't interfere with other ships operations or perhaps simply running the shields at a very low level, thus the phrase "Raise the Shield" perhaps infers taking shielding from passive % to defensive 100%. Since of course you don't need 100% to deal with micro-impacts from various debris encountered in space.

[immhotep]

I think your question should be made rhetoical, we use shields to keep ourselves protected. Shield = protection, protection is kinda self explainitory.

:\
tut.

[Andrew Joshua Talon]

STOP! MAKING! STUPID! POSTS!

You COULD have directed this question to a thread that was already establish, but nooooo... You had to show off your stupidity to the ENTIRE FORUM!

GOD!

[Battera]

That was uncalled for. I was just asking what the point of shields were. They drain alot of energy, and the ships still get badly damaged (which makes no sense whatsoever).

Stop making stupid posts? How many of my posts have you actually read? None of them are 'stupid'.

[freyr's mother]

That was uncalled for. I was just asking what the point of shields were. They drain alot of energy, and the ships still get badly damaged (which makes no sense whatsoever).

Well, during shield impacts the interior of the ship takes damage due to circuits overloading, crystals burning out, and panels exploding, but when the shield does go down, then you've got the damage to the outer hull.

AJT that was really unnecessary.

[immhotep]

i was just in an extreamely sarcastic mood that day, soz battera you dont usually make stupid posts, FM's explaination is correct, the ships themselves do not get damaged because the shields protective power but whatever systems the shield's rely on to remain active fail under the strain of enemy fire.

[Wraith_Hunter]

That was uncalled for. I was just asking what the point of shields were. They drain alot of energy, and the ships still get badly damaged (which makes no sense whatsoever).

Stop making stupid posts? How many of my posts have you actually read? None of them are 'stupid'.

Fact is that without shields going, any impact on the hull will cause some sort of damage. Think of flying full speed using sublight, then hitting space debris etc. It would tear the ship apart.

Then comes the fight parts. If you don't have shields then any weapon impacts are going directly into the hull. Which means that 1 shot with a remotely powerful weapon will breah it & cause catastrophic devestation.

However if you have shields, then they impact the shield & not the hull. So while it won't make you invincible, but it will at least offer you some form of protection.

Besides shields aren't to blame for being crap, it's the power systems that are at fault. If a 304 will use a ZPM to power itself, then it'd be almost indestrucible until it gets drained. I'd guess very few weapons would even cause it any sort of damage that would be considered serious. Either way, if a shield is up, then it at least gives you a little bit of time to think of a strategy or fire up the hyper drives.

Put it like this, your driving in a car & get shot by someone with someone with automatic weapons. Without any protection, the bullets will just pass right through the vehicle & everyone inside.

Now add armour plating to it, do the same test & you'll see that it gives you valuable protection. Not infinite, but that little bit extra to allow you to respond to thye threat, be that counter attack or to just fire up the engine & get the heck out of there.

Simply put, a shield is just like an uber advanced method of body armour!

[Brigadier General Pants]

Exactly! Much like wearing extra thick pants during mosquito season.

[Daryl Froggy]

The point of shields in the show is that the writers don't think it is possible to produce sufficiantly strong armor in sufficiant quantities to build an entire fleet of ships, also because the basic idea of shields is really cool in their flexibility, you can't extend armor plating over a nearby object after all.

If you want a better answer than that you should walk into the writer's offices and ask them why the heck shields seem to be next to useless, they should be able to tell you, other than that I trully have no idea.

[GreyFox]

shields do 2 things.

1. prevent us from being killled in one hit

2. protects ships from space debris.

[Inty]

shields do 2 things.

1. prevent us from being killled in one hit

2. protects ships from space debris.

3. they look cool