Advent Information

I don't have screenshots here at work, but I can describe the changes a bit.

Transcendia:

Its unique upgrades are culture propagation, Meteor Storm, and Mass Disorient. Culture is straight forward. Meteor Storm upgrade grants you access to two abilities - one throws meteors at all ships around a given target (with the radius large enough to affect the majority of even a large fleet), and the other throws meteors at the planet body, if you built your starbase in the enemy's orbit. Mass Disorient shuts off all propulsion on a group of enemy ships, leaving them rotating around in space helpless. The rest of its upgrades are shared by all: more weapons, more hull/shield hp and regen rates, trade ports, things like that.

Defense upgrades:

Their beam turret research improves damage output by 10% for each nearby turret, up to a max of +50%. Their hangar research adds 750 shields and 4 shield regen/sec to nearby structures. It does not stack from multiple hangars, but it also gives their beam turrets shield mitigation. Hangars themselves and the other buildings don't get mitigation increases and hold at 15%. (Not sure if it's intended or an oversight, currently)

Starfish:

The Adjudicator is able to fire on up to 5 targets in range at once, it does low damage per shot but it's basically a continuous stream. A few of those can rather quickly level a cluster of structures and over-work the repair bays.

Mines:

Their carriers and hangars can build "homing mine squadrons". They are controlled like fighters at first. They build from the carrier, then you move the squad into position and deploy it into a minefield. This frees up the squad so the carrier can make another, and the mines themselves are homing - they do less damage than their TEC and Vasari counterparts, but they move to enemy ships in range and detonate, so they are much harder to avoid.

some additions to annatar11's post:

the advent starbase also get a unique upgrade that raises allegiance and thus income and resource generation at the target planet. 15% per level last time I looked.

furthermore (at least last time I looked, I wouldn't think it was changed), the synergy ability of advent point defense also gives a bonus to shields to nearby other turrents. 250 shield points per turrent if I'm not mistaken. not sure how much it stacks. also, I was under the impression the weapons boost was less than 10% per turret, I believe it's something 7 or 8%, but I might be wrong there.

actually, advent mines now do 1050 damage, as opposed to TEC/Vasari 700. but only single target it looks like

i believe the turrets can stack up to like 1500 shields(6)

Wow I was off on some numbers.. sorry Guess my memory isn't always that reliable.

Wow, thanks guys this is exactly what I wanted. Still one more question though, somebody on these forums mentioned the Transcendia's "Final Judgement". It sounds intimidating but what exactly does it do?

Final Judgement simple drops a meteor on enemy planet if you have a starbase in orbit over it. Last time I tested it it was not worth much (about 1500 damage to planet but with recharge time the planet would rebuild 1200 hitpts) and did not look very cool. Have not tested with offical release. Been waaaaaaaay to busy.

Yeah with the Final Judgement, last time I did it was Beta 2, maybe Beta 1 so it was kinda a failure, Not sure if it's any better now

Synergy makes a beam cannon give other nearby beam cannons 250 shield points and a 13% bonus to damage - but not itself.  These max out at 1000 shields and 50% dmg output when you have a group of 5+ cross buffing each other.  This only affects other beam cannons - would be insane if it ramped up starbase firepower 50%.

The hanger upgrade puts 750 shield points and a shield regen speed buff of 4 per second onto all nearby structures as well as itself.

So if you group beam cannons(5 or more), hanger bays, repair bays, PJIs, and a starbase you get beam cannons with 1750 shields total, a bonus extra 750 shields on the starbase, and 750 shields on everything else along with the nice shield regen bonus on everything as well.  Also every 2 beam cannons will dish out the damage of 3 pre-entrenchment cannons due to that dmg bonus.

Advent can put a seriously ugly killing field that is hard to take apart these days.

Yeah, I tried out playing Advent the other night for a change of pace and was shocked by the beam cannon research.  Not only do they look cooler afterwards, but they're far more powerful.  Shield bestowal makes them durable beyond belief.