Could we utilize the mouse scroll button instead?
Scroll down for omni shield togo clockwise, and scroll up for the omni arc togo counter-clockwise.*
This should let u keep the ''point weapons to mouse pointer'' intact, and is close the the lower raise-shield right mouse button.
While im at it.. the middle mouse button scroll, can also be pushed, assigning venting to that should make the whole package intuitive.
*smaller arcs on shield should have more precision to tank incoming specific things... like reapers. While larger shield arcs could be 30degree or even more per scroll tick.
Was about to suggest this, though it's a significant change to the control scheme.
A couple of drawbacks that seem immediately obvious;
- mouse wheel is typically a direct, proportional input; small wheel movement -> small change, big movement -> big change.
However, as shield rotation rate is capped, there will be a disconnect between the player's wheel movements, and the resultant shield rotation.
This could be remedied by instead having the mouse wheel directly control a target angle for the shield, and then have the shield auto-rotate towards that target angle.
(though this solution creates potentially unintuitive rotation behaviour when the target angle is ~180 degrees away from the current angle)
- typically when changing shield orientation, you disengage the shield, and reengage it at a new heading. Often involving precise aim & timing to block critical damage.
As a mouse wheel would only be able to deliver discrete increments, I doubt this would achieve satisfactory results.
- mouse wheel up / down doesn't map well onto clockwise / counter-clockwise motion. Try steering in a driving game using the mouse wheel; sure it's possible, but it isn't immediately intuitive.
It's worth trying in an experimental mod, but I doubt it'd be successful enough to ever find its way into vanilla.
On the topic of experimental input..... how about FaceTrackNoIR
That'd give the additional 2D axis needed.
Have your eyes control the gun target, and the mouse control the shield target. (or vice-versa)