3 minutes ago, Democratus said:

Or that it communicates with other things when the shield is down.

I get the impression that the shield is never down ... That seems to be counter-productive to having a whole-planet shield....

I mean, That's why you have a gate and an aperture!

But I could be wrong - its just the impression that I get from it... perhaps there's also other relay towers for when the Shield Gate is over the Horizon, as well...

1 hour ago, Drasnighta said:

I get the impression that the shield is never down ... That seems to be counter-productive to having a whole-planet shield....

I mean, That's why you have a gate and an aperture!

But I could be wrong - its just the impression that I get from it... perhaps there's also other relay towers for when the Shield Gate is over the Horizon, as well...

Yeah. Probably the real reason you had the adjustable array is because it was needed for the story and it looked kinda cool.