Little bump.
As a corollary to this, if possible I would like for shields to be allowed to protect multiple arc segments simultaneously. For instance, if attempting to simulate, say, fighters in Wing Commander, you could have fore and aft fixed shields but the sides would remain exposed. For Honor Harrington-style ships, you could have sidewalls along the entire length of the ungainly long ship, but have an exposed throat and skirt.
Would it be possible to consider giving various shield segments higher flux-per-damage ratios than others, such that the aforementioned Wing Commander fighter could take many hits on its fore shield, some hits on its aft shield, and few hits on its port or starboard shields, but would otherwise be able to maintain a 360-degree bubble?
This does demonstrate that trying to shoehorn straight damage-absorbing shields into the Starfarerverse is a bit difficult to reconcile with other genre fiction...
[edit] Aaaaand...
ruh roh