Where does it state that any save games will be rendered useless? I sure don't see that stated anywhere.

http://impulsedriven.com/news/2507/Stardock_Entertainment_and_Ironclad_Games_Release_Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire_Trinity_v_12__Patch_Available_Now

Well CHRIST, they should add that information here on impulse as well!! And have it in red bold so people notice!

Insane that they expect people to go to the official forums to find that out!!

Why being so disrespectful? Baby?

They added the information that the save would be useless on the forums, so why did they neglect having that information on the impulse website?

If your statement held some truth, then why did they bother to add that information on the forums since it's so well known???

Check out the full changelog here:

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/406435

In short, it rebalances pirates to be quite playable(the AI will bid on each other too, based on who seems to be the most dangerous-- military ranking might be the mechanic behind it).  It also tweaks some of the different capital ships, generally making most of those affected stronger. 

After having pirates turned off for so long, people might leave them that way... But I had fun playing a 4-way match on Devil's Cauldron with them turned on.  For those that don't recognize the preset map, it has 3 pirate bases around the star, interspersed with ~6 volcanic planets.  From there desert homeworlds, asteroids, and ice planets extend out, with the latter connected via dead asteroids to other player's ice worlds.  The pirate bases funnel some of the action early on, and bidding on raids can make a nice difference.