When a mesh is or is not shown depends on the center of the mesh. If that is in vision then it is shown. This is of course not ideal for shields There are two parts of a shield:
- The shield mesh, what you see and collide with
- The shield unit, that provides the shield
What we could do is:
- (1) Make the shield mesh always visible, regardless of intel
- (2) Make the shield mesh (temporarily) visible when they are damaged
- (3) Give temporary intel surrounding the unit that provides the shield as you damage the shield
(3) is also applied for beam weapons, last time I checked