Aug 14 2011
10 Uses for Forcefields
1. Two forcefields could be smashed together to smash something in-between. Alternately, you could use one force-field and any hard surface for a similar effect.
2. Maybe a forcefield could be used as a cushion for safe landings. Perhaps the character can alter the hardness/springiness of his forcefields so that he can make them into something like a trampoline. (The more it can stretch, the less the force of impact will be. Like a seat-belt, but one that can also be used to smash something to pieces).
3. A spherical forcefield could be used to trap in a limited air supply. That would help a character traveling underwater, through space or through a locker room.
3.1. A spherical forcefield could also be used to restrict air intake. For example, a hero might be able to knock someone unconscious by cutting off outside air. Alternately, if an enemy is using poisonous gas or fire-based attacks (which will readily exhaust available oxygen), the forcefield could lead to the enemy knocking himself unconscious and/or poisoning his air-supply so much that even he can’t handle it.
4. Forcefields could really wreck a super-fast character’s day. They could be used to limit space (to take away mobility). Also, if you’re moving at 500+ miles per hour and suddenly hit a wall that wasn’t there a moment ago, it would really hurt. Even a regular-speed character that was jumping at an enemy would have a lot of momentum. As in #1, you might also be able to use forcefields to pin a combatant so that he can’t move as effectively.
5. They could be used to trap fleeing enemies. For example, you could cut off escape paths.
5.1. They could also be used to ensure a successful escape. Putting obstacles between escaping characters and their pursuers would probably help.
6. “Roach bust”–forcefields can be tactically deployed to separate an enemy from his teammates. This allows your team to gang up on him while he’s unable to escape. (You wouldn’t like Huk when he’s angry? Not even I am geeky enough to use two Starcraft non sequiturs in an article on superpowers).
7. Forcefields could create a surface in space or water. This could be useful in a few situations. For example, it’s hard to orient yourself while drifting in space because there’s nothing to push against. However, you could push against your own forcefield. Second, if you were doing something in space with recoil, the recoil would probably send you flying back into space, unless your back was to a wall. In the water, having a hard surface to push against could be useful for a burst of speed. If you can hold onto your forcefields, it might allow you to maintain your position underwater without swimming. Swimming creates turbulence in the water that someone with extremely sharp senses might be able to perceive, so it might be useful as a stealth tactic.
8. If you can make an opaque forcefield, it could be used for concealment and/or subterfuge. Or one hell of a bachelor party.
9. You could make a surface to float/walk/slide on in the air. For example, if you needed to run from one building to the other, you could use a forcefield as a ramp or skywalk. If you needed to free people trapped in a building, perhaps you could make a slide?
10. You could contain fires, explosions, bullets, Vanilla Ice songs, killer plants, zombies, zombie-killing plants and other deleterious forces.
11. You could use forcefields as a (hopefully imprecise) form of telekinesis. I would recommend making this imprecise to help differentiate the character from most other telekinetics.
This article is sort of in response to the Google user that searched for creative uses for forcefields. Not all of these are creative, but they’re options.
Two articles from you in 24 hours? :O
This should be useful to me. Although I had used No 9 more than once, I hadn’t used it for my current project. I mostly used it for plain old blocking and 5.1.
Hmm…number 4 will help me a lot in the chase scene during the climax.
Did you receive my e-mail, or do I need to send it again?
I received the one on August 12.
Very useful for me, A few of them I’d already thought of, but there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there.
But exactly what is a zombie killing plant?
Plants vs. Zombies…
Can be used to simulate telekinesis.
Telekinesis is another mechanic that I need to smooth out. The narrator describes it like using a crane, but I still have to figure out its limits.
Big thanks B.Mac. Will be really useful.
11: Creating a small force-field inside someone’s head and expanding rapidly leads to messy-but-effective ways of stopping them for good. Apply this to pretty much anything; a heavily-armoured robot, for instance, doesn’t often have armour on the inside and I’m fairly sure that its internal circuitry all being smashed to pieces would probably reduce its operational capacity somewhat. In more powerful circumstances, you can also use this to ensure an escape via removing obstacles; just make them explode from within.
12: Anything telekinesis can do. The ability to create a solid field of force and move it is pretty much an effective telekinetic power, and if you can get it to work really precisely, you end up with telekinesis.
13: Anything. Full stop. Once you get to telekinesis, all you need to do is up the precision… and you can do anything as long as it involves the term ‘movement’. Let’s see… hyper-accelerate the vibration of something’s molecules via the creation of super-tiny forcefields, and you can heat it up significantly. Use tiny super-precise force fields to nudge the electrical synapses in someone’s brain? Mind control. Create a tiny forcefield shaped in just the right way and accelerate it really fast into someone? Works like a bullet.
#4 on The Incredibles was amusing :’) I also loved how Violet and Dash teamed up and used the force field as a high speed hamster ball of sorts to plow enemies over.
More about telekinesis here:
http://www.suite101.com/content/writing-tips-characters-with-telekinesis-a354840
Also a character, who could crate force fields, could make a half-sphere around the fist when punching someone to A: Add a bit of punch to well….. their punch (no pun intended), and B: Protect their fist from getting hurt.
Great article for me, my character being a force field guy and all. These will definitely give me some ideas in my story.