This is painfully derivative of Battletech/Mechwarrior, but how about different armor types? Reflective armor for increased defense against energy weapons, Reactive armor for ballistic/missile defense, and of course, a "blend" armor that functions medium-well against either.

Also, how about actual beam weapons in addition to blaster/bolt weapons? They'd run off of (I dunno) focusing crystals that would overload after a few seconds, and you'd have to hold it on a target to do any real damage, but you wouldn't have to lead your target like you do with plasma/graviton/whatever weapons. And, they'd use a constant value of power per second, plus an intial "charging" cost.

Any thoughts?

i like it, bouth of your ideas....it's realy a bit anoying that you sort of have at the moment a mix up shield. it will be interesting to have a shield for a spesific weapon type.
and the weapon? it's already been sujested, i dont remember what was said about it, but i want such a weapon in the game.
think of more info such as speed (if you want any to be for the weapon), damage, beam width etc'...

fistandantilus