Thread Shields

[The Devil's Advocate]

How many people here have used Thread Shields? Or Thread constructs in general? They tend to be 'woven' constructs a 'fabric' like consistency to the construction. Very loose analogy. I've mostly dealt with specific shield applciations, which can go from a very tightly woven stone/ metal kind of density to silk or gossamer depending on what they do.

The first things I tend to focus on tend to be tactile and auditory sensations, so most of my analogies/visualizations start there. I can try to be more specific or more general. This is how I generally percieve constructs of this type.

~The Devil's Advocate, with her disclaimers as usual.

[Cullen]

*Waves hand* ohh! I've used thread shields... and thread constructs. They are so cool...whoever created them must be awsome....

*end of dry wit*

More seriosly, The application is pritty usefull (though can take a while to create if your not good at creating constructs with a concept/single thought) One nice varient I made a while back was a shield designed to defend from attacks. It had a basic shielding layer, woven into that was a weave that would move energy to point of attack. a few other threads for maintenence and other shielding types, then a set of small threads that actually extended out off the shiled at normal to the surface. There are about 5-10 per squar inch I think....maybee fewer. anyway when an incoming wave form hit them, they were programed to scan the form, and produce an oposite wave signiture, combined with the streingthened defences, it would counteract most tests quite effectivly. One important note: If you don't keep enough energy flow to the shield, you have to be carfull how you program it, or it will pull all the energy to a single point, and if the threads are exposed without a strong energy field around them, they can tend to deteriorate quite rapidly.

[wolfdancer]

Good to know. I haven't experimented as much with thread shields as I should. The few that I have made have been a bit too loose a weave. I am working on improving one that imitates the silk that DA mentioned, but haven't had anyone scan or test it in a few months (at least I /think/ it's been that long). I tend to say I want to do this, this, this, and this. Then different threads in the fabric are focused on different reactions and are designed to work together and not reisist one another. Does that make sense?

[The Devil's Advocate]

*chuckles* Honestly I haven't gotten that specific with mine, at least not in initial programing. As I said in the other thread. I program the whole, rather than each individual strand. I've never had a problem maintaining energy flow, then again my most intricate one is my emergancy shield so it's not 'up' unless I need it. Though it will probably be STAYING up more now that school is getting ready to start and the town is doubling in size. The joys of a college town.

~The Devil's Advocate

[wolfdancer]

Second the college town stuff. I'm dealing with the same thing as Freshman flood campus.

I didn't think mine was anymore specific. *puzzled* We should talk some time and compare notes. I know in this particular instance, I'm not doing it the same way Cullen describes in his article. Perhaps sometime the two (or possibly three) of us can get together and discuss thread shields some more. Though scheduling chats is a pain with everyones schedules shifting and class about to begin again. Maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas breaks we'll have time. lol.

[yokusa]

These thread shields sound interesting to toy around with and practice with, but as I posted in another thread, the could be less foolproof than the average shield constructed simply. For example, if you missed a part to weave or if you left it too loose, programs or pings could be let through. Just a thought.

[wolfdancer]

It is something one must consider when deciding to use any type of shield: what are potential weaknesses either of the shield type or of the concept/visualization used to create it? I realized after re-reading Cullen's article that what we are discussing now seems a bit different from what he discussed in his article. This could make terminology interesting. Cullen would you like to clarify any differences or verify if we are on the right track?

[The Devil's Advocate]

Any shield has the possibility of holes in it. An early mistake with many bubble shields is not putting a 'top' or 'bottom' on them. The METHOD of construction is sound, but it still must be properly made just like any other shield. Unlike alot of shields thread shields are defined by how they're made, rather than how they block. (Bubble, Mirror, and repulsion shields are all 'how the shield keeps things from getting ing.)

What I know about thread shields as called that come from speaking with Cullen. I came up with the over all concept independantly but conversations with him refined what I was doing. I have not actually read that article in depth, so I'm not sure what is different. I'm basing my usage of the term on individual conversation.

Cullen, care to set the record straight? ;D

~The Devil's Advocate

Modified to add comments on terminology.

[yokusa]

I see exactly what you're saying DA. It just seems to me that a thread shield would require quite a bit more practice than the average bubble shield. Not that thread shields are a bad thing because they require more practice. In fact, it may make them better to increase skills.

[Cullen]

Well, the good thing about thread shields is that you can have multiple sets of programing withing the shield, all overlaying the raw energy. Actually, your first thread shield can be very loosly woven, as long as the area of influence of the threads is set large enough to project the programing to all the raw energy. Remember, the only main difference between thread-con and regular constructs is that all the permanent programing is stored in small-very tightly packed constructs which project to the rest of the energy. If done right, someone from the outside would have to actually get ~through the shield in order to see if it is a thread-shield or a regular one. (most of my shield scaning is from the inside-out anyway when I scan someone, depending on how I do it.)

~Cullen

[yokusa]

Hey, that put an idea in my head, but I didn't want to make a new thread because it's right off of what Cullen just said:

How awesome would it be to figure out a way to program a shield with like all the tricks and traps you could think of. Of course, you'd have to think about programs that contradict each other or experiment with ones that wouldn't cooperate in one construct, but there might be some pretty crazy combinations.

[The Devil's Advocate]

I've done some reasonbaly complicated shield programing, Yokusa. it's not quite as far fetched as it might sound.

Cullen, then it actually sounds like we're talking about different things. The ones I'm talking about the whole is still waht is programed, and it isn't several constructs. it is the same construct, it just has many constituent parts that reinforce one another, so the whole remains whole whatever it's suposed to do. (This is the midnight description of what I'm talking about. i'll try and be more descriptive in the morning.)

~The Devil's Advocate

[wolfdancer]

*nods* Thanks Cullen, that actually cleared up a thing or two about Thread-con according to your article and my mind finally caught the whole idea. Sweet! ((took it long enough)) Anyway, I think we do have two different types of construction that are getting the name of threads stuck to them. Not sure what to do about the conflict of terminology at the moment but I'm sure we'll think of something eventually or it will become like a lot of other synonyms--used jointly for both and mutually understood by most of the population (at least psionically speaking)

[confuded92]

I dont want to create a new post about it, but WHAT are tread shields? And whats the adventege of them?

P.S. This thread is prety old and i doubt anyone would answer me...

[The Devil's Advocate]

Thread shields are constructs made from very tightly woven 'threads' of psi. The threads can hold individual programs in and of themselves, or they can be part of a more complicated programming set up. In my experience they are denser and more robust, as well as allowing for more complicated programing, than many other methods of shield construction.

~The Devil's Advocate