Hi,
1) shields could slightly wobble under pressure. For example, if a small bullet hit them they would show barely any response, but if some large plasma ball hit them it would make some waves. It could be implemented with, for example, some numerical solution of 1-dimensional wave equation, but it would probably be a challange to implement. Or it could at least compress the shield texture a bit, make it a little eliptic under a hit.
1a) some ships could also have visible shield generator that would get more and more red as shields ate damage and then gradualy fade. Purely for visual purposes.
2) lasers should seem more alive as in Supreme Commander 2. They are slightly moving there all the time, as if wave of heat was passing through them. In the game it looked completely EPIC, easily the best lasers I've ever seen. It cannot be really described, and I cannot find any video on youtube. If devs were interested, I suppose I could make one.
3) one ship design with fixed weaponry: a small ship with two fixed, predetermined weapons. One weaker anti-shield beam and second some extremely high-damage(enough to one hit frigate) weapon with 1-5 charges tops. It's strategy would be first to get shield down with the beam or other means and then hit the bare hull with it's second kick-## weapon to kill it. The purpose of this ship would be to provide variety for more experienced players and some thrill with this high-risk/high-reward strategy. It also fits neatly with developers philosophy as described in blogs. Alternatively the powerful weapon could be ship system on small ship with otherwise very little weaponry.
4) weapons with powerful effects but switching off shields/paralyzing player for a moment. Also weapons dealing damage proportional to remaining energy(and eating all of it upon firing).
4a) beam weapon so badass, that it did hull damage to ship firing it. With nice visual effect, like sun-like turbulences occasionaly leashing out of the weapon! Whole ship could started glowing.
5) in each class there should be a very high-tech ships but for very steep price, meaning exponential price increase for linear increase in power. Maybe I just want to spend unreasonably huge amounts of money on small ship that can destroy much larger loafs.