Pirates are in the game, but they do not show up very often any more. And when they do they are very weak and don't do much.

In the earliest version, the pirates were something terrible to deal with.
And once they showed up, you felt it. The first thing they would do in my games was take out starbases. And they would have some huge and powerful fleets that would require me to research several new techs in order to build ships that could deal with them.

Now, they are just a fond memory. With each new version it seems, they show up less and less, and get weaker and weaker.

No. no monsters.

I remember pirates- they only attacked me once.
Once.

Their ships were outdated and pathetic- they didn't make a big difference, but they made the universe more livley.

It'd be kinda neat if they made their fleets out of ships that were decommissioned or made obsolete within the last year or more. It'd mean they're rarely ever overly powerful, but more than a nuisence.