I am not sure if this is permanent. The patch notes say only shield hardening will be redeveloped. So assuming this is permanent: Are you f***ing serious? Shield face management is one of the core activities in fighter combat. And most combat will be happening in fighters. Restricting shield faces to larger ships is taking away a tactical element from the majority of combat pilots. Have you EVER played a space combat sim? Like X-Wing? Or even Starwars Squadrons? Shield management is an integral component in combat! This was one of the few areas where SC was ahead of ED. But then someone at CIG came along and thought: Hey we designed a ship with a turret on rails so it can shoot backwards for some run away gameplay, why not remove the ability to boost the rear section of the shield so it still dies quickly? Or someone said : we have copied the capacitor system from ED why not also copy the boring shield management from ED? Is that about right? Or did you just think: Hey CR can not manage all the shield faces with his X-Box controller so lets make it a single bubble shield? I do hope I am completely wrong here. But then, that is exactly the kind of ideas that sprout at CIG.... Please someone tell me I'm wrong.