That said, back in the day you guys were the masters of pluging and advertising on a large scale.
That was all Carbon, I swear. 
TEC is a "USA gone galactic" faction much like sooo many others in SciFi.
Technically it's all post industrial revolution countries gone galactic.
Vasari are your standard "evil" strong strange aliens.
I prefer to see them as WW2 Nazis. To them, they're just doing what they've always done. They don't consider themselves evil, and while there may be some among them that view what they are doing as questionable or even objectionable, in large part, this is just the way they do things. Basically, if you study Europe between WW1 and WW2, and Hitler's rise to power, what's really going on and why he is able to do what he does is because Germany is just screwed six ways to Sunday, shitty economy, shitty morale, debt out their ass, maps being redrawn giving them less territory... All Hitler had to do was prove he could get their land back, improve their economy, get the country out of debt, and unite the people. No simple task, but he did pretty much just that. For a short time, he really was the best thing for his country. He just got greedy and then went crazy with power. The Vasari where the masters of their domain. That is until some bigger bad ass came along and kicked them out. For all we know it's a coalition force of the beaten down and abused with some help from an outside force, like the allies in WW2, that not only kick them out, but are hunting them down. To everyone else they're greedy, murderous, evil, whatever... It really just depends on your own personal morals on how you see them. Most would agree, slavery is bad, so that's a negative on them, but then again, most people could agree that if a military force attacks you and kicks you out of your home and is hunting you down, and you're just refugees looking for a place to hide out, then you can be pitied and deserve help. Depends on the person to decide which is the more influential aspect. The fact that they take slaves, or the fact that they're beaten and being hunted. Amongst other things of course, I just don't want to get into every little detail and break them down. I don't have that kind of time these days. 
Basically, how different would your view of the Vasari be if they entered the Trade Order territories asking for a place to stay or begging for help rather then entering with guns blazing taking worlds (and slaves) for themselves?
Note that despite existing planets with "rebel" factions on them are supposed to be human, the TEC still conquers them to bring them into their order!
That depends on your view of what happens. In the base game most planets do not have defenders on them. In DS they do. You say conquer, I say colonize. Regardless, there are several ways one can look at the situation:
One way is that these are individual planets that are just too inconsequential for the Trade Order to have worried about them so they never bothered to do anything with them. Likely they were cooperative, maybe even were good customers all things considered, such a small population, maybe not even a united planet yet, like Earth, meant there was never any need to even bother with them. Post invasion, every person and resource is a step closer to victory.
It could have been a relatively new colony pre invasion. There are two ways this one plays out. They're desperate for resources and are willing to be rejoined with some political or corporate entity, or they're bitter that they were forgotten and have figured out how to sustain themselves and want to be their own political or corporate entity. Your interpretation of the colonization of this planet and what exactly happens may not be similar to mine. My faction is a corporation, when I 'colonize' I deal less with the political, and more with the bringing them into the realm of interstellar trade. DS Lore-wise, I really do both. Pre lore where I go over my background, I do nothing with the planets other then run their economies. In the lore, I overthrew a governing body to get what I wanted out of the system and am in some quasi ruling, but not really, state.
They're a group of undesirables. The Advent were kicked out and exiled because of what they were doing before they were called the Advent. Australia is a good example of where in our society, we sent people that couldn't behave according to a set of standards to another place to get rid of them, only we did it so much that they built up their own nation. Now that's not entirely what happened, so if you're an Aussie, don't crawl up my ass. It's generally accepted that Australia was a prison colony for a long time, and that's what I'm working with. I've been told that's how Japan got it's start too. Chinese undesirables were shipped off and eventually there were so many that, maybe with some help, or maybe not, they created their own nation.
They're refugees from first attacked systems. Too weak to fight back, their people are scattered and they're just there waiting out the war. Enter the TEC and maybe some would rather be left alone, whereas others want some payback.
They're split offs from other nations or corporations. The USA was a part of the British Empire until it 'broke away'. Several dozen nations were a part of the USSR until they 'broke away'. I had a list of companies that were once divisions of much larger ones but now their on their own in my head, but by the time I got here, I forgot what I was going to put down... Point being early on, the US was easy pickings and made some good allies to ensure it's survival. These planets, post invasion, probably don't have that luxury.
Pretty much what I'm getting at is it all depends on what you believe is happening is how you describe it. The TEC could be invaders, or they could be colonizers. The other two factions are pretty much only invaders.
What happened to the nice policing of the trade order territories?
That's easy, the Vasari invaded.
Surely if they ran a peaceful economy with all shiny bells and whistles, there would be no pirates to start with...
The two aren't exclusive with each other. There are literally dozens of social and economic factors that would lead to piracy in an otherwise peaceful environment. Let's go back to the mid 1990's. The average cost of a CD was around $25. Most record labels based in California and New York pushed prices up that high for CDs that had on average 10 songs, where one, maybe two if them, the consumer actually wanted. The internet was tapped to pass around digital versions of these CDs, or more appropriately, the one or two 'good' songs from the CD, from one person to their friends so they didn't have to pay a bullshit price for an unsatisfactory product. Then they passed copies along to their friends, who passed them along to their friends, who passed them along to their friends, even some going as far as requesting on internet forums if anyone had a copy of a song they were looking for and wouldn't mind sending it to them. Now all reasonable people can agree, this is piracy. No money was given to the rights holders of this music each time a copy was made. The 90's weren't exactly full of turmoil, there weren't massive wars being fought on all fronts, and the economy was having it's usual ups and downs, but generally remained strong.
Economic instability, political collapse, social injustice, rampant neglect, war... These are things that definitely don't help to prevent piracy, but the underlying issue really has nothing to do with any of that. It's more so due to people believing a product is overpriced, or believing that they are owed because they were either screwed over/ripped off by some company, or just feel entitled to some free stuff. Piracy on the scale that Sins deals with in game (meaning post invasion) is more along the lines of piracy in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas for example. They're basically a group that doesn't play by the established rules. Some are state sponsored rebels, others are not. Pre invasion pirates were probably more like bandits raiding trading caravans. Whatever their reason to take what the caravan had is their own reason, but it might not have anything to do with the powers that be.
Makes for an every changing game with highly variable tactics in a few distinct phases. Certainly challenging! But quite a complex set of in-game events. Especially since Sins at present doesn't posses a mechanic for them that I'm aware of.
I would certainly like to see that myself. Would be a very entertaining map to play on, but like we all know, maybe for Sins 2. 
(I just hope it doesn't require Steam so I can enjoy it.)
Stant123 you are forgetting something very important, which in my opinion is THE very reason why the TEC was able to fight both the Vasari and the Advent into a standstill: Numberical and economical superiority.
I didn't forget it, that was the main advantage I gave to the TEC and focused on it. All things economical belong to them, they are the industrial juggernaut, it is the faction that can pump out cheap ships fast. These are things I did clearly state. Oh and they fight the Vasari to a standstill, the Advent are largely just a nuisance that is strong enough and opportunistic enough to need to be dealt with. Technically, it's the Advent that are fighting the TEC to a standstill when they retaliate.
They have more people and more material, which means they can have more soldiers and ships.
Yes and no. But I did say this too. The TO's reach and influence is everywhere. The other two factions are just invaders by comparison. While support to beat back and be victorious over invaders can draw lots of people to your military, the will to not fight can be just as strong. Not everyone can get behind a war, even if every reason says they should be supportive of it, aside from the whole killing thing, but that is usually enough to turn people off of it and even speak out against it and actively deny people or resources to those that are fighting the war.
And that disadvantage in my opinion is their inferiour technology and shipdesign.
At first yes, which is why planets fell with little to no resistance.
If TEC technology really was on par with the Vasari and superiour to the Advent as you suggest, there is just no way the two other factions could possibly hold out, unless they both form an allienace against the TEC, which they didn't do... they still fight each other just as much as they fight the TEC.
On par but less mobile and I did give the Vasari the advantage of having phase missiles which the TEC has been unable to copy or effectively defend against. Tech wise, they are on par on every way except these two things. These two should be enough that the Vasari can still win, but they can't. Why? Because the TEC is still waaaaay too massive. Also do remember that this is just an invasion force by the Vasari, it is NOT their main force. That still remains to be seen. What tech to they bring with them, how massive is this main force? We do not know yet.
As for the Advent, their tech by late game is inferior. By all accounts it is superior while they're planning and plotting their revenge in the lore, but the TEC catches up before the Advent even reappear thanks to the Vasari, and all things considered, if the only way you're getting your revenge is because you're hitting places already completely worn down and ground away by war from the other two, your tech isn't that good. Basically, had they come in and fought the Trade Order rather then the TEC, they win easy victories, lots of them, take over vast portions of the industrial might, and potentially steamroll the entire TO, brainwashing everyone along the way. Clearly, they win and they win HUGE. Complete and total victory. But timing is everything. They weren't ready to fight yet before the Vasari invaded, they've lost their technological advantage, and the only reason why they're here now is because they decided to take advantage of the weak worlds and that is the key point from the official lore. If they were still technologically superior or even on par, they wouldn't have to take advantage of the weak worlds, they could go after the more developed, better equipped worlds and flip them to their side and use the industry to their advantage. But they don't... Because they can't.
Their claim to fame is synergy bonuses and shielding tech. Vasari look at shields as something that they have an easy way around, and the TEC just throw more guns at it and grind it away. Their ships pop easily. They have no standout weapon, hell even their superweapon is pretty much worthless compared to the other two in my opinion. That doesn't mean it doesn't have it's uses though. Everything from the core game screams "I can't win in a heads up fight (unless I'm on defense)." Inferior economy, they lose their trade ports if they want to mine more... Their tech is just awful.
Well, to be fair, technically the TEC fight eachother as much as the others as well.
Absolutely!
And It's not necesarily that they have inferior technology. They just haven't needed to fight a war in who knows how long. The vasari are a dictatorship/slaver empire, and the Advent have spent the last 1000 years thinking of nothing but revenge, while the TEC are only what, like 25 years old? It's a matter of experience.
The TO's economical tech is by far superior and this does translate in the game. Their political/social tech is inconsequential. Their military tech is vastly inferior. But only in the beginning. Like I said, the TEC being only a quarter century, younger actually by the time they match the Vasari tech, did all of this in a very very short time. Given the rapid advancement in that time, double or triple it and once again, if the other two aren't prepared to keep up, the TEC becomes the dominate military force and wipes the other two out. Imagine the TEC swarm armed with phase weapons and jump anywhere without using phase lanes tech adapted from the Vasari, and shielding that nullifies all energy based weapons adapted from the Advent and hulls that absorbs all other types of weapons due to their own advancements... They're pretty scary.
Before the War, the TEC really only had Sovas as Capitol Ships, do deal with Pirates, and Cobalts as a main fleet. They had no need for anything else as far as a warship is concerned. Even he Kodiaks were re-purposed from asteroid clearers.
To my recollection they only had Dunovs and Marzas pre invasion. Dunovs being part of the massive trading fleet and Marzas being part of the mining fleet. These being the only ship designs still in service from that massive fleet, not that they were the only capital designs. The Kol was the first Warship from the TEC and it stands to reason the Sova was developed at the same time but fielded second.
