So, a new game in the new version. First off, I'm going to have to say - developing your own weapon systems from scratch is hard (last game I was hit with the bug that gave you the wormhole alien weapon tech from the start of the game, and since it was my first time playing, I didn't realize this for quite some time.) But I'm having fun - ran into a lot more NPRs this time around, including a pre-tech one that I landed troops on and took over. Of course, less than 5 years after we took them over, a wormhole appeared in-system, and they were reduced to atoms.
On the plus side, an NPR who I'd accidentally pissed off (people get so touchy when you try to salvage wrecks orbiting their homeworld!) also ran into the wormhole aliens, and not only did I have the pleasure of watching their worlds blasted into dust, I also got to run my espionage shuttle (tiny 1,500 ton ship that goes 10,666 km/s) around their system, picking up all the life pods from their home fleet, interrogating several thousand crewmembers and getting some nifty info out of it.
Not sure if there's any real point to this story other than "the wormhole aliens scare me," and "I'm enjoying the new version."
edit: Ok, that wormhole fleet that ran over the NPR? Yeah, they followed the opened jump points, and 8 ships just jumped into the Sol system. Note to self: laser-based weapons sound good, but getting the targeting computer tech high enough that you can actually use them beyond knife-fight range takes forever. Next game, get missile tech ASAP.