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Originally Posted by Gerbie2

My opinion on the races and ships

Terrans look a lot stronger. Possibly the best race.
The Harpy has been upgraded and has received a flak ship to help it against its worst enemy: the Thief.
The change of class for the Phoenix has removed its use as an untargetted defence ship, but the Harpy/Phoenix combination will be strong enouhg to keep out Co attackers, or at least make it very easy to defend.
The Chimera has changed only a small bit. The upgraded emp resistance is nice; might even make some Terrans build them and focus on De only for their attack.
The change to the Drake weakens the defence against Zik De, but most Terrans build enough Wyvern any way. The use as anti-Bs however is quite usefull against Etd that have capped some Wyvern (although that now will now occur less).
The changes to the Pegasus do not affect its offensive capabilities. And will help to keep Xan fighters away more than ever.
Wyvern and Dragon had their Emp resistance downgraded. The pods are unchanged.
Etd have lost the ranger: this is good news for Terran Bs fleets.

The only difference that I think may be happening with this race is E-res related, with maybe the Harpy, Phoenix and Drake being adjusted slightly.

Cathaar: nice offensively, but even weaker than ever defensively.
The Spider sucked and the improved emp resistance of the Pegasus will only make it worse. The ‘minor’ change to Pegasus emp resistance (1/7th) will offset the changes to its damage as far as the Spider is concerned.
Making three corvettes is a nice improvement, but alliances will not benefit: those Black Widows will be out roiding. The dwongrade of the Beetle is a serious loss. I don’t think Co fleets will be having more success now. Fighter defence is easy with the new Phoenix and Co defence is also possible with the Black Widow. Weird to see Cathaar have a fleet that could end up scaring it’s target for once. Attacking fighter heavy Xan is now better possible with those corvettes, but I don’t think we’ll see many of those Xan as their fighters have been made quite useless. The Nightmare on the other hand has become quite a nightmare.
The Scarab is unchanged. Cath Cr however had their Emp resistance improved, making them better against other Cathaar (bad for Cathaar if they start attacking themselves).

I disagree that Cath are weaker defensively to be honest. I mean for starters they CAN actually stop CO attackers themselves now, meaning that their defence sink ships are only spiders and scarabs (scorp are free kill dont count them), and the rest are attack ships.

Xan. Was moderately strong. Is now weak.
The Banshee is now 12% more expensive. And it sees the initiative of its (former) main opponent improved. Yes, it is somewhat offset by the weakening of the Emp of Voyagers and Beetles, but against Terran you will just die. Cathaar and Etd were not the first choice of target, but if you have xan fighters, you will now have no other choice. Well, the better choice is to defend against a Terran, collect the salvage and build a Fr fleet.
Bombers have been severely downgraded, but instead have had their initiative improved. This helps to make Xan able to defend against its own Fr, but Xan Fr now have 2 alliance defence fleets to worry about.
The Wraith has been improved (no way a Xan should be able to hit anyting). The Shadow had a minor improvement to its Emp resistance. Nightmares received a major armor and an Emp resistance improvement at the cost of a minor damage downgrade. The Ghost will be severely missed as it was a major asset for xan with Fr fleets that also helped flak the Spectre. This Spectre received a minor upgrade, but without flak it’s even more useless than before.
The improvements don’t make up for the downgrade of the fighter attack fleet. Not even close.

The most notable improvement for Xan will actually be the fact that Bombers fire before Nightmare, meaning they no longer need to buy huge amounts of Bombers and risk losing them everytime to put off Xan FR attackers. This should hopefully mean a greater investment in spectres, and also in FI/FR classes.

Zik was a powerfull race and with the weakening of Etd, Zik will be the first choice for many experienced players.
There are some minor upgrades. The improvements to the emp resistance of the Cutter, Marauder and Privateer, will make zik stronger than ever.
Build cutlass for alliance defence to get you some Black Widows (and any anti-Fr you steal will also come in handy as this is your main weakness). The Fr fleet has been severely weakened as an attack fleet by changing the Phoenix class. Attacking Cathaar is now quite feasible however as is hitting other Zikonians. The Cutter will now be your main Frigate as it is needed to kill all defending Corsairs and is cheaper (better flak) than the Thief.
Zik De have hardly changed. The problem with this fleet is that where in the past Terrans were quite eager to team up, they no longer need you. The improvement to the Broker will be an obstacle to make this fleet work there. Only Cathaar seem possible. The Rogue is still a zero-loss ingal defence ship and a great way to get some of those nice Terran De. The Marauder has been upgraded for its role against Cathaar.
My main attack fleet would be Zik Fr. For alliance defence I would build some Cutlass, Pirates and Marauders. Ingal you could use your Rogues. Building a good attack fleet will not be easy. I think with some luck you build up a Bs fleet.

The main challenge to Zik will simply be can they cap enough ships to plug their main weaknesses, most notably the big FR hole they have, which has been made hard to do so on purpose. Pirates EMP res may also be reduced slightly.

Etd suffers the loss of its best ship.
The weakening of the Voyager is compensated by the weakening of Xan fighters, so incomming Xan fighters will be quite possible to defend. Your corvette fleet is not made for attacking however. Zikonians are a possible target (untill they steal Black Widows), but Terrans appear much too strong.
The change to the Merchant is effectively an improvement as it makes attacks by corvettes less attractive because you now have flak. Note how the Merchant now has better armor and does more damage.
The Ranger will certainly be missed.
The Dealer had a major improvement in its Emp resistance. Combine that with the use of Merchants as flak and who needs to steal Dragons?
Investors are now a combination of the old Ranger and Investor. Note that the Investor steals before the Tycoon fires.
This new Tycoon is not very usefull. You can send it along to scare off tiny defenders, but that’s it. The Broker has been improved significantly.

ETD may well also see an improvement to their CO attack fleet slightly, to enable them to attack Terran's and Zik's more easily. The BS fleet may also benefit as the terran's and zik's anti BS may be recieveing a reduction in E-Res, to open up easier targets for BS.

Conclusion:

Race Attack Defence Total
Ter 8 8 8
Cath 8 2 5
Xan 7 6 6.5
Zik 5 8 6.5
Etd 7 7 7

I presume this would be your ranking of preference for the races? Id agrue that your rating of Terran, Zik and Xan is about right, but i disagree on ETD and Cath, id probably swap them in terms of total score.