Shield Generators in FTB Skies 2: Aero

The Shield Generator wraps a ship in a shell that stops anything moving faster than 0.35 blocks a tick. Shells, arrows and shot bounce off, and fast things that are leaving get reflected too. People walking through it are fine, and so is your own slow cargo. The pack includes version 1.4.0 of the mod.^[1][2]

It burns Amethyst Shards, or takes FE instead at up to 2,000 FE a push, 20 FE per shard-tick. A redstone signal sets the shield heat from 0 to 100, and hotter is stronger. Big hits in one spot open a local breach for a moment, so think of it as a buffer, not a wall.^[2]

Shield shapes

• Convex Hull: hugs the ship.^[2]
• Metaball: rounds the ship off.^[2]
• Ground Dome: sits on the ground around a base, at up to 50 blocks radius.^[2]

The shell can stand up to 5 blocks off the hull, and bigger shields burn shards faster.^[2]

Where it sits in the quest book

In this pack's quest book, "Shield Generator" quest is in the "Aeronautics" chapter, which is chapter 5 of 31 in the group "Main Questline" and holds 58 quests. The chapter intro, "Taking to the Skies" quest, says its quest paths end with arming your ship.^[2]

The shield quest comes right after "Armament" quest, which introduces Create Big Cannons and Shield Generators together as the way to arm a flying base. "Casting a Cannon" quest and "Mounted Potato Cannon" quest also come after Armament, so they sit next to the shield quest. The quest text I have doesn't show anything unlocked after the shield quest. 38 of the chapter's 58 quests aren't covered here, so check the quest book for the rest.^[2]

The mod is not on the ATM Star quest path.^[2]

The Shield Generator lives in the Aeronautics chapter of the Main Questline. Its quest comes right after "Armament" quest, which sets up the idea: a flying base with guns is a fleet, and the Shield Generator puts something between you and the reply. The "Shield Generator" quest quest asks you to bring one, so that is your first goal.^[2]

First, get a ship in the air

The shield wraps a ship or a base, so build the ship first. The chapter intro, "Taking to the Skies" quest, says you have already met the Physics Assembler and the Hot Air Burner on your starter ship. If your hull is not flying yet, work through that quest path before you spend resources on a shield.^[2]

Next, craft the Shield Generator

This is the one item you need, and it is a shaped crafting recipe. Here is the exact in-pack version:^[3]

Shield GeneratorMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Amethyst Shard	Lightning Rod	Amethyst Shard
Electron Tube	Precision Mechanism	Electron Tube
Obsidian	Brass Casing	Obsidian

Recipe id: shield_generators:shield_generator

This is the pack's recipe for the Shield Generator.

Then, fuel it and set it up

• Fuel: the generator burns Amethyst Shards, or takes Forge Energy instead. The quest gives up to 2,000 FE a push and 20 FE per shard-tick, matching energyMaxReceive and energyPerBurnTick in this pack.^[2][4]
• Heat: a redstone signal sets the shield heat from 0 to 100, and hotter is stronger. energyShieldHeat caps the heat that Forge Energy can produce, and it is 100 in this pack.^[2][4]
• Shape: choose a Convex Hull that hugs the ship, a Metaball that rounds it off, or a Ground Dome that sits on the ground around a base. The dome goes up to 50 blocks radius, set by maxGroundShieldRadius.^[2][4][5]
• Distance: the shell can stand up to 5 blocks off the hull, set by maxShieldDistance. Bigger shields burn shards faster, so keep it snug if shards are scarce.^[2][4]

The generator's screen has matching controls labelled Shield Shape, Shield Distance, Shield Heat, Crystal Burn and Forge Energy Input.^[5]

What it blocks

The shell stops anything moving faster than 0.35 blocks a tick, which is the value of blockProjectileSpeed in this pack. Shells, arrows and shot bounce off, and fast objects leaving the shield are reflected too. People walking through and your own slow cargo pass freely.^[2][4]

Every mechanic below runs through the Shield Generator. Its screen has controls for shield shape, shield distance, ground radius, crystal burn, Forge Energy input and shield heat. Everything here comes from that screen text and from the pack's config file.^[4][5]

Shield GeneratorMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Amethyst Shard	Lightning Rod	Amethyst Shard
Electron Tube	Precision Mechanism	Electron Tube
Obsidian	Brass Casing	Obsidian

Recipe id: shield_generators:shield_generator

This is the in-pack recipe for the generator.

Power and fuel

The generator takes Forge Energy, and the screen shows it as Forge Energy Input. It does not work like a battery. energyCapacity is a virtual per-tick input capacity that the generator advertises to energy networks, and it is set to 50,000. Energy is not stored between ticks.^[4][5]

A single insertion accepts at most 2,000 FE, set by energyMaxReceive. Both values match the mod defaults in this pack.^[4]

The screen also has a Crystal Burn entry. energyPerBurnTick sets how much Forge Energy is consumed per equivalent crystal burn tick before crystal fuel is used, and the pack keeps it at 20.^[4][5]

Power also drives shield heat. energyShieldHeat is the maximum heat produced from Forge Energy at full redstone signal, and the pack sets it to 100. Setting it to 0 makes FE storage input-only.^[4][5]

How fast fuel burns

Crystal fuel burn is tied to the size of the shield. A generated shield surface of 64 square blocks burns crystal fuel at the normal 1x rate, set by shieldBurnReferenceSurfaceArea. The burn rate multiplier is kept within limits:^[4]

• minShieldBurnRate: the minimum burn multiplier for an active shield, 0.1 in this pack.^[4]
• maxShieldBurnRate: the maximum multiplier for very large shields, 32 in this pack.^[4]
• maxGroundShieldBurnRate: the maximum multiplier for very large ground dome shields, 8,192 in this pack.^[4]

Shield shape and size

The screen offers these shield shapes: Convex Hull, Ground Dome and Metaball. Convex Hull and Metaball each have their own distance readout, and the screen also shows the current and maximum distance.^[5]

The maximum adjustable distance from the protected object's bounds is 5 blocks, set by maxShieldDistance. New or legacy generators start at the distance from shieldPadding, which is 0.45 blocks.^[4]

The Ground Dome is a hemispherical shield with its own radius setting. maxGroundShieldRadius caps the radius you can select in game at 50 blocks.^[4][5]

How the generator scans what it protects

When the generator is placed outside a Sable object, it scans connected blocks to work out the shape. The scan is limited by staticScanRadius (64 blocks radius) and maxStaticScanBlocks (32,768 connected blocks).^[4]

While building a detailed shape, the generator inspects at most 262,144 block positions, set by maxStaticScanPositions. Larger objects fall back to a box shell.^[4]

The shield is a mesh of triangles. The target is 6 triangles per square block of surface (shieldTrianglesPerSurfaceBlock), with an absolute ceiling of 6,000 triangles (maxShieldTriangles). The ceiling is a safety limit, so a very large shield will not get unlimited detail.^[4]

What the shield blocks

Projectiles moving at or above 0.35 blocks per tick are blocked, and slower objects pass through (blockProjectileSpeed). The shell has a collision thickness of 0.75 blocks (shieldThickness).^[4]

reflectOutgoingObjects is true in this pack. Shield surfaces reflect fast objects crossing outward, so they do not pass through on the way out.^[4]

Breaches and heat

Repeated hits make the shield shudder locally, and enough shudder opens a breach. The config sets these values, and the pack keeps all of them at the mod defaults:^[4]

• shieldBreachThreshold (5.5): the local shudder strength where impacts begin to momentarily open a breach.^[4]
• shieldFullBreachThreshold (11): the strength where a breach lets all matching projectile and explosion effects through.^[4]
• shieldBreachRegionRadius (2.75 blocks): the render-space radius for grouping repeated hits into the same breach region.^[4]
• shieldBreachCarryoverTicks (18 ticks): how long local shudder carries over for repeated hits in the same region.^[4]

Shield heat also changes how explosions feel. maxHeatExplosionShudderResistance is the explosion shudder divisor at full shield heat, 2.5 in this pack. Lower heat blends back toward normal 1x explosion shudder.^[4]

Good news for your first shield: the pack gives Shield Generator a single route. The recipe dump lists one recipe that makes this mod's items, and the quest book gives the block one quest of its own. There are no tiers to climb.^[2][3]

Where it sits in the quest book

You find it in the Aeronautics chapter, which is chapter 5 of 31 in the book, in the Main Questline group. The chapter intro says its quest paths cover the hull, the lift, the engines, keeping the ship level, steering, getting somewhere useful, and finally arming it.^[2]

The armament branch starts with "Armament" quest. That quest pairs Create Big Cannons with Shield Generators: the cannons give you firepower and the shield is what stands between you and the reply.^[2]

Three quests unlock straight after Armament: "Mounted Potato Cannon" quest, "Casting a Cannon" quest and "Shield Generator" quest. The cannon quests carry on from Casting a Cannon, while the Shield Generator quest asks you to obtain the block itself.^[2]

Crafting it

Shield GeneratorMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Amethyst Shard	Lightning Rod	Amethyst Shard
Electron Tube	Precision Mechanism	Electron Tube
Obsidian	Brass Casing	Obsidian

Recipe id: shield_generators:shield_generator

This is the in-pack shaped crafting recipe for the Shield Generator.

What you get once it is built

The quest says the shield stops anything moving faster than 0.35 blocks a tick. Shells, arrows and shot bounce off, and fast things leaving get reflected too. People walking through are fine, and so is your own slow cargo.^[2]

• Power: it burns Amethyst Shards, or takes FE instead at up to 2,000 FE a push, 20 FE per shard-tick.^[2]
• Control: a redstone signal sets the shield heat from 0 to 100, and hotter is stronger.^[2]
• Shapes: a Convex Hull hugs the ship, a Metaball rounds it off, and a Ground Dome sits on the ground around a base at up to 50 blocks radius.^[2]
• Reach: the shell can stand up to 5 blocks off the hull, and bigger shields burn shards faster.^[2]

The Shield Generator is a small mod, so most of its connections to the rest of the pack show up in its recipe and in the Aeronautics quest chapter.^[2][3]

Crafting: built from Create parts

The pack's recipe for the Shield Generator is a shaped crafting recipe that uses Create components alongside a few vanilla items. So you need to be comfortable with Create's mid-game parts before you can make one.^[3]

Shield GeneratorMod recipe

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

Amethyst Shard	Lightning Rod	Amethyst Shard
Electron Tube	Precision Mechanism	Electron Tube
Obsidian	Brass Casing	Obsidian

Recipe id: shield_generators:shield_generator

Quest book: part of the Armament path

The "Shield Generator" quest quest sits in the Aeronautics chapter, in the Main Questline group (chapter 5 of 31 in the book). It comes right after "Armament" quest, and the quest asks you to craft the generator itself.^[2]

The Armament quest pairs the shield with Create Big Cannons. It says cannons put artillery on the deck, the Shield Generator puts something between you and the reply, and both run on the same Create rotation and redstone the rest of the ship already uses.^[2]

Two other quests also follow Armament: "Casting a Cannon" quest, which covers Create Big Cannons, and "Mounted Potato Cannon" quest, which covers the Aeronautics cannon.^[2]

Running it on a ship

• The generator burns Amethyst Shard, or it can take FE instead, at up to 2,000 FE a push and 20 FE per shard-tick.^[2]
• It works with the ship's redstone setup: a redstone signal sets the shield heat from 0 to 100, and hotter is stronger.^[2]
• The Aeronautics chapter says everything on a ship listens to redstone, so the shield can sit on the same controls as your burners and thrusters.^[2]

The quest book has more on this chapter, but 45 of its 58 quests aren't covered here. For any other connection, check the quest book itself.^[2]

The Shield Generator appears in one place in the quest book: the Aeronautics chapter. That's chapter 5 of 31 in the Main Questline group, and it holds 58 quests. The chapter is about building a ship that flies, and the shield sits in its arming branch.^[2]

The order to follow

1. "Taking to the Skies" quest opens the chapter. It only asks for a checkmark, and its text says the quest paths cover the hull, lift, engines, keeping the ship level, steering, getting somewhere useful, and arming it.^[2]
2. "Armament" quest starts the arming branch and also only asks for a checkmark. It says Create Big Cannons puts artillery on the deck and Shield Generators puts something between you and the reply, both running on the same Create rotation and redstone as the rest of the ship.^[2]
3. "Shield Generator" quest comes right after Armament and asks you to get a Shield Generator.^[2]
4. Two other quests also follow Armament. "Mounted Potato Cannon" quest asks for the Mounted Potato Cannon, and "Casting a Cannon" quest asks for a Basin Foundry Lid and Casting Sand.^[2]
5. The gun line continues from Casting a Cannon with "Big Cannon" quest and "Autocannon" quest. "Munitions" quest then follows Big Cannon.^[2]

What the Shield Generator quest tells you

The quest says the shield wraps a ship in a shell that stops anything moving faster than 0.35 blocks a tick. Shells, arrows and shot bounce off, and anything fast that's leaving gets reflected too. People walking through it are fine, and so is your own slow cargo.^[2]

For power, it burns Amethyst Shards, or takes FE instead at up to 2,000 FE a push, 20 FE per shard-tick. A redstone signal sets the shield heat from 0 to 100, and hotter is stronger. Bigger shields burn shards faster.^[2]

There are three shapes. A Convex Hull hugs the ship, a Metaball rounds it off, and a Ground Dome sits on the ground around a base at up to 50 blocks radius. The shell can stand up to 5 blocks off the hull.^[2]

Everything here is set in config/shield_generators-common.toml. Every option that lists a mod default is set to exactly that default in this pack, so the pack changes none of those values. What you see below is what you get out of the box.^[4]

Power

• energyCapacity is 50,000. It is a virtual per-tick Forge Energy input capacity advertised to energy networks, and energy is not stored between ticks.^[4]
• energyMaxReceive is 2,000 FE, the most the generator accepts per insertion.^[4]
• energyPerBurnTick is 20 FE per equivalent crystal burn tick, used before crystal fuel is consumed.^[4]
• energyShieldHeat is 100, the maximum shield heat produced from Forge Energy at full redstone signal. Set it to 0 and FE storage becomes input-only.^[4]

Size and distance

• maxShieldDistance is 5 blocks, the furthest you can adjust the shield from the protected object's bounds.^[4]
• shieldPadding is 0.45 blocks, the default distance outside the object's bounds for newly placed or legacy generators.^[4]
• maxGroundShieldRadius is 50 blocks, the largest radius you can select in-game for ground hemispherical shields.^[4]
• shieldThickness is 0.75 blocks, the collision thickness of the shield shell.^[4]

Crystal fuel burn rate

Bigger shields burn fuel faster. shieldBurnReferenceSurfaceArea is 64 square blocks of generated surface, which consumes crystal fuel at the normal 1x rate. An active shield burns at least 0.1x (minShieldBurnRate), and very large shields are capped at 32x (maxShieldBurnRate). For very large ground domes the cap is 8,192x (maxGroundShieldBurnRate).^[4]

Projectiles and breaches

• blockProjectileSpeed is 0.35 blocks/tick. Projectiles moving at or above that speed are blocked, and slower objects pass through.^[4]
• reflectOutgoingObjects is true in this pack, so shield surfaces reflect fast objects crossing outward. If it were false, objects leaving the shield would pass through.^[4]
• shieldBreachThreshold is 5.5, the local shudder strength where impacts begin to momentarily open a breach. At shieldFullBreachThreshold (11), a breach lets all matching projectile and explosion effects through.^[4]
• shieldBreachCarryoverTicks is 18 ticks of carried-over shudder for repeated hits in the same region, and shieldBreachRegionRadius is 2.75 blocks for grouping those hits.^[4]
• maxHeatExplosionShudderResistance is 2.5, the explosion shudder divisor at full shield heat. Lower heat blends down toward normal 1x explosion shudder.^[4]

Performance limits

If a huge build gives you trouble, these are the knobs. maxShieldTriangles is the safety ceiling for generated mesh triangles at 6,000, and shieldTrianglesPerSurfaceBlock targets 6 triangles per square block of surface. For a generator placed outside a Sable object, staticScanRadius is 64 and maxStaticScanBlocks is 32,768 connected blocks. maxStaticScanPositions is 262,144 positions, and larger objects fall back to a box shell.^[4]