Humanoids that look like perfect godlike/goddess humans except for their pale blueish skin.  Not full memebers of the Federation, they focus on Research and Engineering and are very open to other species as they feel that all sentient life is related.  So they are peaceful for the most part.

You may be thinking of Alpha-Centarians but trust me I'm looking at the Deians in my Prime Directive RPG book right now.

No more ship packs are being uploaded until the mod is done but that doesn't mean I can't tease you.  Here is an Orion Pirate Ship:

LOL darn unstable warp field!!!!  Oh well..still cant wait for this to get done.  Once this gets done AF, do you mind if I use your mod in a graphic novel type story?  Ive done them before and have that creative itch, but wanted to be sure you wouldnt mind.

I am sure that Ronin is planning on keeping most of the weapon tech.  Just moding it a bit to keep the flavor of the old SFB game and the flavor/mechanics of GC2.  All the races had phasers. Be it type 1, 2, 3, or Gattling.  Same with torpedos.  They would be Photon, Disruptor, Plasma, Fusion, or Hellbore.  There were several types of Drones as well.  They ranged from the big ship killing, anti fighter, anti drone and so forth.  That is more or less the weapons found in SFB.  There are some unusal things like the ESG fields for the Lyrans and the Cloaking devices for the Romulans, the Web for the Tholians.  That may or may not be workable in the game. 

I am sure that the trick is to decide how and what weapon systems and defense systems will work for what.  All races used shields in SFB for defense.  Some races having better or weaker systems.  The anti-missile systems will probably represent the ESG, Anti-drone, Gattling phasers, and what ever other specialized defense systems the races had.  Armor is armor.  Some races used it and others did not.  The Texas old light Cruiser class comes to mind for that.  Built long before shields.  It had some armor points in its comstruction.  The old Romulan Warbirds would be another.  I guess it will come down to what would be workable there.

I am thinking and Ronin can correct me if I am wrong.  But I believe he will be using most of the weapons and defense systems.  But many may be renamed for that specific race and the race tec trees will be made weapon and defense specific.  Take Hydrans for example.  It would be Phasers, Fussion/Hellbore topedeos, and fighters.  Only drone use was found on the fighters.  Very rarely were drones found on the ships.  The Defense systems were Shields, fighters, and gattling phasers.

Sure thing.

Well Klingons in the game never used torpedos.  Their heavy weapons were disruptors and drone.  The only race other than the Federation to use Photon Torpedoes were Orions Pirates and Tholians.  Orions have the unique advantage of having just about every weapon system.  What they couldn't buy they stole.  Oh and though the Orions are only a minor race there tech tree is available to use for custom races.  The Empires that had plasma torpedoes were:  Gorn, ISC, and Romulans.

Yes

[Fusion, or Hellbore]  Fusion Cannons will be equal to disruptors.  Hellbores will be different.  A Hydran Hellbore cannon fires a high energy fusion bomb that wraps around its target and implodes.  It damages the weakest shield first.  Hmm, well how do I simulate that.  Since it is suppose to overwelm the shields I'm going to bypass the shields completely.  The only way to research Hellbore is to research Fusion Cannons first.  Hellbore though an energy weapon will end up doing Gun damage.  Imagine the tactical advantage this will cause.  You have been using beam weapons so your enemies have been puting shields on there ships.  All of sudden during the war you come out with a energy weapon that punches right through their shields.  Hellbore wil be VERY powerful.  Now I know most games will have you guys researching Shields and ECM types for phasors/disruptors and drones/topedoes.  So the only reason why the Hydrans won't suddenly take over the galaxy at this point is the size and cost of Hellbore Cannons.  Some ships won't be able to carry them due to size requirements.

Armor will still be able to be researched as it was used in Fed and Emp.

ESG (Expanding Shield Generator) was simply and expansion of shield research that the Lyrans had perfected.  It will be an Atlas component that enhances their defense.(note: although its an atlas component it will work outside the Zone of Control)

Cloaking Device.  Original I was going to simulate this with Super Warrior giving them first strike capability I found I could pull of a similar trick by also using a Atlas Component.  This is good since I'd rather give them Super Spy then Super Warrior.  Also by creating a tech for it the Orions can use it too since they had cloaking devices as well.

Ah yes the Tholian Web.  I'm going to be quite proud of this since its my first attempt at animation.  There will be a Tholian Web.  I knew I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't include this.  There will be 2 types of Tholian Webs to research.  First is the Web Generator that throws up the web to block incoming beam fire.  The second is the Web Caster.  This projects the tholian web at a target in an attempt to surround and crush the target so it causes gun damage since it ignores shields and goes straight to crushing your hull.  Once again to keep the balance in a beam dominate galaxy Tholian Webs are expensive and use lots of space but will certainly have a tactical advantage.

The old defenses in Gal Civ2 will remain and are usuable since I want this to work against the other old races too in case you want to bring them into it.  There will be race specific techs that enhance defenses.

I can't tell you to mount what weapons on what hulls.  All I can do is give you the tech and hulls and you decide.  If you wnat a Constitution class Heavy Cruiser armed with only drones.  Fine go ahead, its your game. 

I've already been doing this for sometime.  I even wrote about it:

https://forums.galciv2.com/133868//page/6/#reply

Reply# 149

Why don't I make a tech that does the same thing.  Call it Carrier Support.  Give a better description so it mimics what we want it to.

Hummm, were you asking me to do a better description of the carrier/fighter operations and such.  For a tech item that will be put on a ship.  To simulate carrier operations?

looks good but evil at the same time

Yea I like that idea a lot.  Gives a chance then to build Fast Patrol Ship Tenders and such.  Very logical when you think of it.

How about this one then?

Figure that the Federation logo can go over the long point

Both ones you have put in are good.  Kinda of favor the yellow one.