Agree with the planet shield and my own suggestions:

• Give the pirate base an innate phase inhibitor ability.
• Increase the range of pirate gauss defense platforms to equal that of titans and the Orkulus starbase.
• Give pirate gauss defense guns the equivalent of the Advent's synergy ability.
• Give pirate gauss defense platforms the Vasari ability to stop passive hull regeneration.

This would make entering a pirate base costly but would contain all the improvements to only the base itself--no "uber pirates" would be floating about. 

The range and regeneration effects would also help slightly counter titan attempts to suck up easy experience points and the phase inhibitor ability would multiply that making a quick escape without taking the base not as likely.

None of these things would be a major hindrance to eating a pirate base or it's resident fleet but it would give them a longer lifespan in the face of Rebellion's vamped up weapons capabilities.

The planet shield and phase inhibition would work well together too.

No to Phasejump Inhibitors. Would kill earlygame scouting, sending envoys and short-cutting through the Pirate-base trying to attack from an unexpected angle. I do somehow agree to increasing the range on the Gauss platforms, seeing how a Titan kinda got an very easy time picking them apart.

It'd be neat if the pirate fleet guarding the base was to increase as the severety of the raids increases, so they don't get overwhelmed so easily in alter stages of the game.

I don't agree in them outranging the orkulus, though. The Orkulus is the Vasari equivalent to a fleet of Adjudicators or Ogrovs, so it should outrange all defenses. Maybe have the defending fleet priorize those building killers over anything else. That's what a human player needs to do as well, kill the Ogrovs/adjudicators/that unboxing Orkulus or face the torment of losing your starbases (and all other buildings) to lolspam. And let's face it, once the defending fleet on a pirate base is down the rest is a matter of mopping up anyways, no point in buffing the defense buildings into heavens for it. A set of phasic traps in additon to flak bursts might be nice, though.

destroying a pirate world should trigger a massive onslaught.

As the entire planet migrates and destroys in it wake to leave this part of the galaxy.

That's it...give them a shield so they can continue to multiply exponentially so your 'f ing game will slow down to -10 game speed.

I was wondering when Hellboy would show up in this thread.

check link I just added to video showing it.

On a point above...I don't think you should be able to easily scout or send envoys through pirate home space.  They are pirates.

I was not takling baout easily sending them through, I was talking about sending them through at all. With an inhibitor there you'll either have to put up massive distractions at the other end of the gravwell or plain forget it. Same for sending a fleet. Currently possible as long as one or two frigates play bait on one side, with an inhibitor you'll suddenlly have to scrifice half your fleet in order to safely guide the other half through the well.

More easily? Where did you get that from? If there is no inhibition on the pirate base crossing it is just as hard as before if anything. Pirates still decimate lone ships trying to pass and even heavily damage or even kill lone capships if the player does not pay attention. If the weapons located on the pirate base and/or it's fleet are buffed as well passing gets harder even without the inhibition.

I'm also not entirely sure if it's a good idea to grant pirates the ability to expand to asteroid belts or give them a starbase.  The pirate faction is a tool to be used by the players, either by bribing or offering a mission. It should also be the players choice if he finds it safer to abandon the possibility of using pirates as an advantage and destroy them instead, in which case it shouldn't be a matter of hunting them down for half an hour until all pirate nests are exterminated.

Yes, you got it!

Seriously, though. There is a difference between making the pirates less easy to kill and making them a bigger nuisance than the human factions you are actually playing against.

Leaving a "loophole" in the pirate base so you can essentially bypass and ignore them in order to easily pursue certain strategies is a poor game mechanic.

You aren't prevented from scouting by a pirate base that's buffed--just forced to go around it.  That's actually a pretty true-to-life comparison.  To hold the sway pirates have, they'd need some sort of credible deterrent to simply coming into their base and wiping them out.

The bigger change is with the titans and many of the new abilities coming in with them, the pirate base is simply an experience sop for capital ships...one-stop shopping for that new titan.  It's the same problem that early pirate versions had in Sins.  It used to be wonderful when your opponent sent a pirate raid becasue you could park your capital next to a single turret and harvest pirates all the way to the top.

Pirates were buffed up as a result and experince gained is less for pirate ships now compared to their TEC counterparts--it used to be the same.

In a single player environment, having to work around the pirates adds some difficulty to the game which with titans hasn't gotten harder.

I'm not suggesting pirate raids be beefed (though adding corvettes is certainly welcome).

I am putting together a planet mod with three base types for pirates--the default, an improved base (more along the line of what's discussed here) and an outpost which is simply a spawn point for raids with trivial defenses.

But I have never understood why sending a scout to the left and a main battle fleet or valuable ship to the right with a free pass  is seen as part of any sort of real "strategy" addition to the game.

Hmmm ...