Atm shield turrets are extremely hard to use and extremely useless in escaping.
My suggestion is instead of shooting hexagons it makes a single large hexagon you can control by aiming in that direction. Take off the concussion force, close the distance so it's closer to the ship and give it large hp (not sure what. But I think 4-5k would be nice with a cooldown when the shield is destroyed) and the only way to use it is actively being in the turret. In my opinion this would bring back the usefulness of shield turrets and make for interesting cat/mouse games.

+1
Sounds very interesting but they shouldn't be closer to the ship and instead further away because splash damage goes through shields turrets.

So more of a shield projector rather than a shield launcher? Yeah, that would be fun. But make it a new item instead of a replacement. Firing shields at people is just too funny of a concept to give up.

+1

Perhaps something as simple as doubleing the radius of the projected hexagon might make it more useful, and perhaps boosting its travel speed?

Those sound like more easily applied changes for the devs to implement, and might well be sufficient.

shield turrets are actually very effective - if you know how to use them.

most of the kills i get with them are from flares being splashed into the enemys ship hit-box.

but i suppose it could use a buff. +1

When I heard of a shield turret, your suggestion is kind of how I imagined them to be, not the fun shooty gun it actually is. So a big +1 from me too.