There should be a toggle in game that sets omni shields to auto "aim" at incoming projectiles, so you get the same treatment as AI (So same weaknesses). Would be cool to even see it as a hull mod along with instead of a frontal shields converter but also a broadsides shields and a back shield option, I think this would also give moddersmore freedom in ship design since weapons don't have to point in a single direction to be good. Anyways I noticed the crux of this yesterday when playing ORA again, even though I can take a sub par design (like a battleship who main weapons are flak guns) and use it well, all the intricacies of flying a broadside medium range and low armor ship is super crazy (with my main battleship I can just go in shields down and let one side auto fire aegis flaks and man the other side, sometimes fighting 2 Battlecruisers at the same time (ice even been able to hold 2 BSs at bay using my shield carefully). My point being is this:
Broadside ships NEED a few things in order to be viable right now in the current version:
High armor (capable of taking fire from multiple angles without breaking)
Very High Flux Regen (to the point of absurd numbers allowing them to fight as effectively 2 BSs for the price of 1)
And a F key maneuvering jets (or they just simply cannot keep targets long enough)
If they don't have those things then they simply cannot fight a 1v1 on their tier (or even against a tier lower then themselves) because if I have 8 runs facing forward into you and you have 4 guns facing me, imma win. I think broadsides though can be used in 3 separate areas if done right:
Area denial ships (destroyer and higher): these ships can use multi facing weapons to plug holes in fleets that would normally take 2-3 ships, sure if they get focused they can't fight that great but the fact they can counter fighter and missile spam so effortlessly in such a large area is epic.
As a whole new tier of ship (dreadnaught): these behemoths are lumbering giants that take huge supplies and fuel to move, then to top it off can barely turn once in battle, the upside? A well placed dreadnaught can easily push back whole fleets with its huge amount of weapons, flux dissipation, and flux capacity. These ships generally gave 8+ large weapon mounts and 5k+ armor, they are a mainstay defense platform and will provide endless firepower and defense (for those wealthy enough to field them).
Single sided broadsides (or turret mounts) (frigate and higher): another option could be shunting their entire weapon set to a single side, this would give them a way to fight frontal ships while giving them more options (I wonder if it would be possible to create turret mounts that make a hourglass shape, they can shoot left or right by turning their mounts but go offline when trying to shoot forward or back). I think this option is a great one because it kind of gives it a naval feel (which tbh I love since my fav sci-fi (BSG) has fights that are basically sailing ships in space)
Also cherry picking each one is not a bad idea. In the end broadsides would be the most amazing thing I think to add, but they would need careful balance and need to be given better controls so the player isn't fighting his/her own ship while also fighting the enemy.
