I Used to play Starfire a lot before discovering other games.  It was simple & elegent.   You could not design ur own weapons, but could design ships.  It was like Battletech in that reguard.

In Starfire, Energy Beams ignored Armor completely!  But compared to Force Beams which hit shields and armor they had a shorter range & cost more.  There was a device that could be installed on Starmada Starships thad absorbed some of this damage.  These were called Overload Dampeners and each could absorb/delete one point of Energy Beam dammage per turn. An option, if you got zapped badly by energy beams, it could absorb 3 points and then was burned out, destroyed.

Lasers of all types ignored shields.  They were shorter ranged than Force Beams also.  A counter, when designing a ship, was to use reflective armor.  It cost more than regular armor, but halved laser beam damage, rounding down.

Then there were primary beams!  They only fired once every other turn and ignored shields & armor.  They were very expensive & shorter ranged than force beams. 

Ships I designed in that game always had shields, laser-reflective armor, and a few Overload Dampeners.  There were several types of missiles & Point Defence units that could attempt to shot them down.  My ships had a few of them also.
Wow, I am rambling on...(I will be 54 y.o. in Sept<LOL>)

This sounds like it will make the game more complicated.  Even in StarFleetBattles, which was Very Complicated, shields protected a ship from all types of attacks.  Starmada needs to keep shields like.  But to accomodate those who like the more complicated version of shields, the three types, perhaps these could be an optional rule...

Hello and congradulations to you and Mrs Cricket on becoming parents soon.

I definitely want to order three of the new rulebooks for myself & friends.  This game has given me many, many hours of fun.

I remember that in Starmada"X" there were Overthrusters that could be installed on ships.  These were used after movement and seemed to be a sharp left or right turn; "hard-a-port! or "hard-a-starboard".  I installed it on all my ships.  The ship changed direction by one hex-side (60 degrees) and remained that way at the end of the turn. 8-)
Could this be an option in Starmada Nova Edition?

With respect to Starmada: Nova Edition...
"Is it soup yet?" 

A g r e e d  ! ! !       Starmada groupie here.  Love the game; its given me many hours of fun and excitement. 8-)

Dan, it looks great.  This will be Starmada Nova Edition?  Kewl  8-)

:idea: Just put a dot on, or underline those weapons that fired during the anti-fighter phase.  I don't think that this would be difficult.  I place all my ship sheets in a clear plastic sheet protector and use an overhead projector marker to keep track of damage, etc.

In the game "StarFleetBattles" There were impulse charts for speeds of up to 8, 16, and 32.  I am sure that these could be used for Starmada.  It would make movement a bit more detailed, but time consuming, but if players wanted to use them, they could.  In SFBs, if a ship fired during the last quarter of the movement, it could not fire its weapons at the beginning of the next turn, but had to wait til a quarter of a turn passed.  For example, if using the 32 impulse chart, as long as your ship fired by movement-impulse 24, it could fire again the first impulse of the next turn.  But if it fired after impulse 24, it could Not fire until the number if impulses into the new turn have passed equal to the number of turns after impulse 24 of the turn b4.  IMHO, I don't think this would cause harm, but would add time to the game...

Sounds interesting.  I look forward to your finished plan.

Here is a revision, with "Ion Torpedoes"   8-)

(681)  USS Arizona

Hull: 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1               
Engines: 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1               
Shields: 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1               
Weapons: 1:X 2:X 3:X 4:Y 5:Y 6:Z

X: "Particle Cannon"  6/12/18, 1/3+/1/1
Starship-exclusive; Piercing +2
[ABCD][ABCD][ABCD][ABCD][CDEF][CDEF][CDEF][CDEF]

Y: "Laser Cannon"  6/12/18, 1/3+/1/1
[GHIJK][HIJK][HIJK][HIJKL]

Z: "Ion Torpedoes"  6/12/18, 1/3+/1/3
Starship-exclusive; Piercing +2; Continuing Damage
[CD][CD]

Special: [save=3+] Hyperdrive; Armor Plating; Fire Control; Anti-Fighter Batteries (2); Marine Squads (6); Teleporters (5); Transport (50); Cargo (36); Repair Units (4)

I guess with the new vwesion of Starmada coming just around the corner, this discussion could become irrelevant.