Too bad there's not a mass scuttle button.  I'm not sure if you could salvage any resources from the surplus ships, but that'd at least free up some fleet supply.

Yeah both of the free ship Rebel abilities need some work. Both of these seem better suited to a sort of commander ability like in C&C Generals or Battle for Middle Earth, where the player can periodically use their effects at any location they want, and is independent of any particular units or structures. Of course Sins isn't set up to have that kind of thing, so at the least perhaps tie it into some sort of invulnerable ship or structure at your homeworld, that can then cast an ability on a friendly planet that summons the extra units.

I would suggest adding some sort of beacon tactical building that has to be built to call in pirate and rebel support. I wouldn't mind the randomeness so lang as I don't end up with tons of pillagers and barely anything else (Yes, that did happen). If I don't want a stream of ships coming in I deactivate autocast and am done. This also gives me chance to redirect those pesky ships to a gathering point.

possible solutions:

1. Create weaker versions of the existing pirate vessels and make them very low fleet supply -gotta adjust what determines how many pirate ships you get, but might keep your fleet supply from being clogged with pirate vessels to the point you can't field your own.
   
   
2. Could also give research item that boosts fleet supply, "Pirate Command Network", with 30% more fleet supply or incorporate it into whatever permits the pirates to join your fleet.

I could see a button under the Pirate tab for 'reinforcements' that's usable with every pirate attack cooldown. I would just like to direct hem, that's all.

Just to explain: any tec rebel can research that neutral factions don't attack them anymore (all "white" ships). However this is a different research from the "gain reinforcements through pirates/rebel forces" that gives you control over their ships.

The white ships will simply treat you as an ally and leave you alone, nothing more. This is very helpful if the enemy is a loyalist and sends you insurgents, as they just arrive at your gravity well but don't attack you. In addtion they will attack the Tec loyalist (and in later version of the game, Vasari and Advent that come visit your planet).

However if your enemy is a Rebel as well and has researched the same uprade he is treatened as friendly by those ships as well. This means if you both are Rebel players you just end up stacking each others' planets with neutral ships. It also means that as a Loyalist you should think twice about researching those insurgent attacks at tier 8.

As for that I've been thinking that it would be cool if Rebels could get a new research that unlocks a new ability for their Colony frigate:

Annexation - A neutral planet is bribed into joining the cause, providing their equipment to the player.

This ability would give you the planet, it's structures and surrounding fleet, as well as keep it's current level of structural research (logistic/tactical slots, planet HP etc...) for a price proportional to what you gain (meaning this ability would cost a small fortune in credits to use).

This ability would only work on "normal" neutral worlds (regular planets that are neutral and colonized for whatever reason) and pirate bases, but not on the Vasari Planet. This ability would make it fully possible to play future selfmade maps and campaigns with the Rebels as faction without the mapmaker having to worry about it getting unplayable by the player researching the wrong subject. I also think it's a quite elegant and fitting solution for the TEC.

As for the Vasari world, isn't it stated in the bug traking sticky that this is being worked on/solved internally?

I do find it pretty annoying as the pirate ships tend to take up a lot of my supplies for cap ships. I think it needs some sort of ability to summon them, similar to Vasari's Dark Fleet at a fixed location. It can be annoying to find every stray pirate ship if you have 40 planets.

For the insurgence ability, i think there should be a limit on how many insurgent to be spawned on a single planet. I saw someone's capital planet has more than 100 insurgent ships which can be a pain for any faction other than loyalist to fight them.

Maybe this has been overlooked ... but why not limit the rate of aggregation of non-upgradable 'pirate' ships you get ... and have them cost 0 fleet supply?

Cut their Health, Shields, & Damage by 50%, or down to 20% upgradable to 50% via research?