In the last weeks we spent a lot of time in model and special effect improvements. While we got a lot news posts about models and game play already we thought it would be time to show some of the special effects new in the final v3 release.
And whats the most popular special effect in all Star Trek shows? Right! The shields!

Since back to the Beta2 release we have been asked by fans to implement "race-colored" shields like they are in the show instead of Armadas "status-colored" shields. We never did this that time cause we thought that its important for the game play to see the status of your fleet with one brief look. We finally got a solution for that in v3:
Each race will have its unique set of shields, different in color and animation to come as close to the show as possible. If the shields of a vessel drop below 20 percent you will see heavy fluctuations in its shield system every time it gets a hit, just like the shields are still up but about to collapse. That way we can combine nice effects with game play information.
Some units will also have a unique shield animation due to special abilities, like the Dominion Phase-Shield for example. But enough words, here are the screen shots. Shields Up!