Roles of Each Race?

Realistically, I don't notice any real difference in the races other than cap ship abilities and the research trees. I haven't been any more wealthy playing as the TEC than any other. Vasari don't see super powerful compared to the rest (but I do love tha cannon they got). and the Advent's "psi" powers play just like other races special abilities. This is just me though, I haven't played the game THAT much yet, so who knows if I'm missing something.

I wouldn't call the Advent hippies. They're more like a collective people on a divine mission, you know, the kind where it's wise to just get out of their way?

Anyways, to answer the query:

To show off the TEC's bourgeoise-ness: The TEC get trade ports at tier 2. For contrast the Vasari get trade ports at tier 4 or 5. They also get more resource-collection and trade upgrades (in fact, their tier-8 economic research basically takes a bite out of any purchase any player on the map makes and puts it in your bank account)

The Vasari have the ability to research propaganda that scares the crap out of pirates so they attack in less force, they have lots of researchable bonuses for volcanic planets as well (not sure why, didn't research that because there weren't any on my map...physiology maybe? =/), and have more research to deter culture from enroaching better than the other two factions

The Advent have the most research to make the best of desert planets (reminds them of their homeworld), they can research an ability to put 20% more bounty than they paid for on your head, and I'd explain more but I need to download the tech tree PDF from the bonus material site and I've only played Advent once.

The Advent's main thing is culture. They get Temples of Communion on tier two, I think, followed by a length culture tree including one tech that lets you see enemy culture spreading and another that lets you see anyway you have cultural dominance, plus the Deliverance Engine, which is basically a giant propaganda gun. Judging from the culture descriptions, they're sort of a cross between the medieval Catholic Church and the Borg.

They've also got a fairly heavy shields-to-hull ratio on their ships, and rely more on active abilities and antimatter than the other races do.

And as such end up really durable late game. 4100 shield points and 75% maximum mitigation on a battleship last a /long/ time.

IIrc it´s even more if you fire the culture cannon before you attack as it provides friendly culture at any point on the map, giving a bonus to mitigation.

So what do the Vasari have that isn't the long distance gateway, and propaganda?

iirc, like the novalith cannon. only this one disables enemy structures for a time. hardl works for the AI since in my games they barely set up defenses =P

I mean do they have any ship advantage, intel advantage, ect? I don't have the game and I want to have the most info before I get it.

I haven't had a chance to play the Vasari yet, but I hear they get a major edge in hull strength and a few other perks.

Vasari get early access to Kanrak Assailants(missile frigates), and their missiles can be upgraded to pierce shields and go straight for the hulls. I think just about everything uses these missiles - Kanrak Assailants, Junrak Sentinels(anti-fighter frigates), fighters and bombers.

They have some interesting end-game techs. One allows you to see every enemy ship traveling through phase space. Phase stabilizers allow your ships to travel directly between your planets, and the Returning Armada research allows free ships to be summoned at any phase stabilizers you have.

Aside from the missiles, I'm not sure exactly what sort of advantages they have early game.

Playing as the TEC I usually have more credits on hand than the other races, which is nice as I usually have to sell metal or crystal to get credits with the other two races. Their ships also feel a lot more durable, at least with the top tier armor researched (I'd hear the 'Your Capital Ship's shields are down!' and not care because I knew it still had a ton of health left :P).

Playing as the Advent I found that their shields and fighters were far better than the other races, that damage mitigation and the fact that they get an extra squadron per hanger defense (with research) meant that my focus was on building carriers and having them sit back, safe behind their top of the line shields, while the fighters pounded the enemy's fleets to dust. Their culture was also quite powerful, but I didn't find much use for it on my map (Doppleganger...not much use since it doesn't spread to other stars).

The Vasari seem to have the biggest dichotomy, with their planet's being highly defensible, that nano structure that slows attacks + phase shields + cheap planet bombardment resistance + 20% less pop casualties during bombing research meant I didn't need to defend my planets, they took care of themselves for the most part. Their military, on the other hand, seemed very offensively organized, killing enemy ships fast but taking decent casualties in the process. It felt a lot like I was commanding a race who took great care of their civilians, but didn't care about military casualties, exactly what I'd expect of a fairly evil empire who was on the run and needed to stay alive.

Vasari Ships are more durable (Hull) than the other two

Also, Vasari have the ability to have the largest fleet.

TEC will have the most logistics slots on a planet.

Advent have the most tac slots on a planet.

These three differences alone are game changing. Vasari can be even with another empire based on empire size (i.e. # of each planet type) research, planet upgrades, etc. but they will have more fleet points from the same number of fleet logistics because of a research option in their attack research tree. The bonus from the research item doesn't seem like a lot as i remember, but when applied globally to your entire fleet points, its a pretty big difference. Tec's advantage in logistics slots allows them to make more refineries/trade ports allowing them to be the economic powerhouses that they are while the advent's increased tactical slots allows them to more effectively guard their acquisitions allowing them to focus more of their fleet strength towards acquiring more. Let me put it this way, advent can defend a planet with a much smaller force of ships and win than the other two empires while the vasari can have more fleets crusading around the galaxy kicking ass, and the tec can just plain buy more things.

TEC definitely has most credits! By far its easiest to set up good trade network using them. Vasari have powerful ships yes, but also expensive, and with tier 4 tradeport its a pain to get a nice credit flow going. End game however Vasari dark fleet can devastate! I maxed out 2000 logistics using dark fleet without paying any credit on the ships. Yes there is a drawback of course, since you dont get any support vessels, but its all free ships and a decent mix.

Advent are very strange and if you can get some of their ability combos to work with you, you will devastate large swarms of ships.

What ARE the combos?

Also, Vasari sounds fun Do Vasari have the STRONGEST ships or does that belong to TEC or Advent? Does TEC's fleet fail in an even fight? (say, a battleship vs a battleship, or a frigate vs a frigate)

Advent Abilities:-

Radiance Battleship: Animosity - Makes all enemy ships attack the Radiance only and ignore all other friendly ships.

Rapture Battlecruiser: Vengeance - This ability can be applied on a single friendly ship. Whenever that ship takes damage, the enemy ship attacking it takes a multiple of that damage.

Progenitor Mothership - Recharges the shields of any friendly ship.

Iconus Guardian - Diverts 33% of the damage taken by all nearby friendly ships to the Guardian's own ultra-tough shields.

Disciple - Steals antimatter from enemy ships and transfers it to friendly ships.

As you can see, the Advent ships abilities complement each other in harmonious combos which can turn enemy ships into your puppets. Along with the best abilities, the Advent also have the best shields, the best strikecraft/hangars/carriers, and the best culture-powers. Their weakness is their complete dependence on antimatter and crystal, and their weak hulls(if your shields are depleted or if they are pierced by Phase Missiles, your ship is dead).

The Vasari have the toughest armor, best hulls, special shield-piercing Phase Missiles, self-built Phase Gates(for direct travel to anywhere in a single jump), and special defensive stuff. Their weakness is their weak economy, and their expensive ships. IMO, they also have the ugliest ships(The TEC has utilitarian industrial looking ships, which are fine, and the Advent has sleek shiny ships, which look nice, but the Vasari have... big bulbous space-whales).

The Trader Emergency Coalition(TEC) has by far the strongest economy and cheaper ships. They thus can have a larger military than the others, but their abilities are very plain. Their ships are jacks-of-all-trades but masters of none. They use conventional warfare, unlike the Phase-twisting Vasari and the culture-king Advent.

Don't forget the secret space pony faction.

What about the vasari cap ship?
Whats the pink space pony faction?

Why use Animosity when you can use that incredibly awesome level 6 main-beam cannon ability and blow away all the frigates between you and the capital ship you targeted?

I dont know, but I kind of hope if you find them, it's maybe unlock Pink space pony factions, I never find them yet! I think it's based pony but has pink everywhere and thier eye shoot a flower, when enemies hit by flower, they tune in to pink pony and join side to side, they even make ugly planet into full bloom flower of many color, rich river of water, full dark but light of grass and there is music of...I"m not sure about that since I'm hard of hearing, so I couldn't tell you sound very much!

Don't Vasari have shield-breakers on one of their cap-ships? Also, doesn't their scout colonize mining areas to slightly make up for their weak eco? And a third thing. With those combos, aren't the TEC SCREWED against Advent?

I don't know whether Vasari cap-ships have shield-breaker abilities, but it seems kind of obvious seeing their nature. Their best Phase Missiles, however, have a 30% chance of piercing shields with every shot, and one of their cruisers gets a 25% bonus to this ability.

Scouts-colonizing-asteroids does give you a bit of a counter in the beginning when the TEC get to spam their Trade Ports and the Advent get to spam their Temples of Communion, but the Vasari don't get to spam anything.
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No, the TEC is not totally screwed against the Advent. The Cobalt Light Frigate has the Sabotage Reactor ability to nuke the antimatter supplies which Advent ships rely on, and the Hoshiko Robotics Cruiser has an ability which can bypass shields and armor, and damage the hull of it's target directly.

Of course, the Advent have counter-countermeasures against those abilities - the all-owning Radiance Battleship can fire a burst from it's "Cleansing Brilliance" special weapon and kill all the Cobalts in the enemy fleet with a single shot, and the Disciple frigate can double up as an antimatter truck - transferring all it's antimatter to hungry capital ships, flying back to the nearest AM Recharge Station, reloading, flying back to the battle, unloading the AM, and so on to maintain a continuous supply-chain for as long as it's needed.

I believe Dunov Battlecruisers also have some sort of antimatter-destroying ability.