Directional Shields, are they useful? Should you be using them on your tech? Or are they a situational thing? Today, I'm here to tell you all I know about these small, but powerful marvels.
(PPD is a slang I use for "power-per-damage," a value that determines how much power a shield uses per each damage blocked.)

As of today, there are a total of 14 directional shields across 3 of the 7 corporations. This number may change in future updates.
[a picture showing all 14 currently available directional shields.]

Directional shields are the most power-efficient mode of defence, yet a little less whole than their spherical cousins. They offer a wide variety of selection and ways to protect yourself from the elements.
Things to note about shields in general:
- Ballistics do 1.5x the damage to them, Plasma deals 0.25x, and any other weapon deals 0.5x. In summary, any ballistic weapon will deplete enemy power much faster than other weapon types.

Starting with Better Future. They offer you 4 directional shields, yet they seem simple at first, but they can be used in a plethora of ways.
Each of these shields use 0.2 PPD blocked, with the exception of the long shield that uses 0.4 due to it's elongated shape.
The passive drain for the small and long shields are 0.88 power/sec and 1.76 power/sec each respectively.

Next, Venture. Venture provides you with a single directional shield. This one's a little different from the others, more on that later. A different take on directional shields, and used in different scenarios, this little guy uses 0.15 PPD blocked, making it an even more efficient variant of the Better Future ones.
This shield's passive drain is 3 power/sec each.

Lastly, Reticule Research. RR provides their customers with 9 unique directional shields that come in all shapes and sizes. These are the most power-efficient shields on the market.
The shape of the shield is indicated by the orange symbols on the top.
The 5 shields small shields are the least costly, they only have 0.05 PPD.
Either of the medium shields use 0.07 PPD.
And the two large shields require 0.1 PPD.
The small, medium, and large shields' passive drain consume 0.93 power/sec, 1.36 power/sec, and 1.76 power/sec each respectively.

All of the directional shields allow you to get funky with the way your tech is built. They provide unwavering protection in all situations, but they do require some brainpower.

Also, DO NOT SPAM DIRECTIONAL SHIELDS!!! All this does it increase your Tech's cost and uplift it's passive drain. [an example of what NOT to do.]

Firstly, Better Future. These shields are probably the easiest to manage. Whence charged, they project a flat, square/rectangular field, or a rounded, curvy field. Each shield projects their barrier exactly 4 blocks from the core. The shields project a 5x5 or 10x5 area.
When building a full shield of these, it's best not to have them overlap.

Secondly, Venture. Venture's single flat-faced shield can be used in several ways, but it's more confusing to fathom properly. Whence charged, the shield projects a rounded, rectangular field 5 blocks away from it's core. The rectangle is 6 blocks long and 5 wide, covering a 30 block area.

The spicy part about these shields is that they will "look" at the centre of mass of the nearest enemy tech within a 90 degree angle.









Another thing to mention, the shield doesn't just block damage in the area the visual projection suggests. Instead, it actually projects a cone-like shape that can block damage even if the shot is fired from within the barrier. You can tell where it's collision is by the blue light made from the shield core.

Lastly, Recticule Research. RR's shields are probably the trickiest of the three variants... and the most useless...
RR shields project a small plate that has no distance between it and the projector itself. These shields are best used for any weapon OTHER than blast, blast attacks make these cry, and they'll get core damage on your tech.
Their coverage span from a 2x2 area to 4x4 and can be used in patterns to make intricate designs.
I do not recommend these other than for design purposes.

In the end, should you use directional shields? Yes! (other than RR :p)
Directional shields provide a neat aspect to the game, they help players put more thought into the design of their Tech to squeeze every last drop out of it.
Plus, shields have a low fragility, meaning that they'll fall off less often, so it's alright to put them on the first hull layer of your Tech.

Thank you for reading this. This guide is my first and isn't the best, lol
Cheers!