Walt So if I understand correctly, the trello version of the Ion Prism is basically just a "lens" with very simple refraction properties (a beam coming in from any of 3 sides gets redirected straight out the 4th).
Yeah, I suppose so. Though if you want to get really physics-y it's nearly impossible for a single lens to refract in that way
Walt I feel like I still don't fully understand how the actual gameplay mechanics of your proposed mirrors and lenses would work, or how you'd design ships to utilize that. Perhaps a diagram would help?
The rays of light here represent ion beams. So ion beams passing through a convex lens would be angled inwards and ion beams passing through a convex lens would be angled outward. Beams could pass through a lens from either direction, and would have their damage reduced slightly for each lens they pass through.
Again, the ray of light represents an ion beam. The beam will reflect off any mirror and continue onwards, though it would lose a small amount of damage for each mirror it reflects off. Changing the angle of the inbound beam or the mirror will change the angle of the reflected beam. So for example, you could do something like this with mirrors:
With a combination of mirrors and lenses (a concave lens in this case) you could do something like this:
Does that that help clarify?