My two cents on pirates, copied from another post...
I'm running 1.2, so this might not be applicable to everyone.
I just wrapped up a long term game that had lots of pirates. I noticed two significant differences. First off, the pirates spawned by the "prison escape" event were small fleets (4-6 ships) with moderate weaponry & defenses. Nothing that I couldn't handle. This is a far cry from 1.1 where a "prison break" fleet would spawn in my core system and began ripping everything apart with insane gun weaponry and defenses that let them laugh at my ships despite multiple military bases and resources boosting their stats.
Second, are the pirate fleets spawned by "captains turned to life of crime" event. In 1.1 I didn't see a single ship from this event. In 1.2 they make themselves known, quickly. By the end of the game last night there were 4 separate fleets from this event. The SMALLEST fleet utilized 180 logistics. The biggest was between 210-230. This is not a result of their stacking, this is how they spawned. Their fleet defensive and offensive ratings were so high that all that displayed on the fleet stat window was "..." Now, just what the hell are you supposed to do about this? I (after saving) went after one fleet whose lowest defense was missle defense and strongest attack was beam. I had maxed my tech tree and spent about 30 minutes figuring the best offensive and defensive fleet mix (no frills, just weapons and defenses) and took out one, repeat, one fighter for my trouble. Tried it four more times with similar results.
So what's the deal, Stardock? I understand the desire to make pirates a credible threat but making them so powerful they can (and did) run rampant smashing anything a player can build is going a bit far.