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Shield command

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The SHIELD command raises or lowers a ship's shield system. See Shields for charge, flux use, protection, and repair mechanics.

Syntax

SHIELD UP
SHIELD DOWN

The command may be abbreviated to SHI. It is not a toggle: UP or DOWN must be specified.

Raising and lowering

SHIELD UP raises the field immediately and prints “Shields energizing!” It does not wait for a full charge before providing protection. SHIELD DOWN lowers an undamaged field immediately without erasing its stored charge. Raising it again restores protection with whatever charge remains; a normally lowered, fully charged shield needs no recharge. Neither command is usable in hyperspace, and entering hyperspace automatically lowers raised shields without erasing their charge. Leaving hyperspace does not automatically raise a user's shields.

A ship class without shields cannot use the command. Classic additionally refuses it if no shield Mark is installed. A damaged shield cannot normally be raised until Damage Control repairs it. ge-next also refuses commands after the ship reaches fatal damage but before destruction.

Power checks

Classic 3.2e accepts SHIELD UP if the active flux pile contains more than 200 units, regardless of shield Mark. The command does not itself load a carried flux pod. This is only the initial command check; Shields explains the recurring cost and what happens if power later runs short.

ge-next checks the shield's actual per-update operating cost before raising it. If the pile is short and a pod is available, the command can load that pod immediately; otherwise it refuses to raise the shield. See Shields for the per-Mark costs.

Shields and a cloak can be active together in both classic and ge-next. Neither shield command disables the cloak, but the two systems draw from the same flux pile.

Damaged-state bypass in classic

Classic accepts SHIELD DOWN even while shield status is damaged. That changes the status to down without repairing the negative internal charge. A subsequent SHIELD UP can bypass the normal repair gate, although the raised field remains depleted and vulnerable. ge-next inherited this behavior through 0.3.2; since 0.3.3, both UP and DOWN are refused while the shield is damaged. See Classic bug: SHIELD DOWN bypasses shield repair.

See also

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