Is it just me or do the vasari have a bit of a ridiculous advantage where thier starbase is concerned? It can move, has insane damage reduction and repair abilities, can be built earlier, and has far more hull points and shield points than any of the others.
I am an experienced player, but I have not yet been able to successfully assault an enemy SB with a vasari SB. With equivalent hull points as the enemy SB, plus the anti-structure weapon upgrade, my SBs have dropped like flies. Note that I am not screaming that this means there is something wrong by any means. Perhaps the "something wrong" is me.
I haven't noticed the "far more hull and shield points" that you claim, nor any of your other bones of contention. Have you tried to use the vasari SB in assault against an unfair AI or decent human opponent, or are you merely going by stats and abilities of the SBs? One thing you are certainly dead wrong about is that the vasari SB "more than makes up for" the lack of a torp frigate. Torp frigs obviously own SBs, so this can't be true.
Regards.