I still prefer playing Genari, but I think their being behind in shield tech puts them at a significant disadvantage.
The Female Genari are the Matriarchs/Administrators, they don't 'dirty' themselves with actual combat. So only males go out to fight. (Well, that is a generic way of explaining the lore, but it is a lot more complicated than that. When the novel comes out, it will be a lot more self-explanatory).
^^ reading all the lore that comes with the ship descriptions. Wanted to commend whomever writes this stuff, its pretty well-written and if you start reading them all, they seem pretty inter-connected somehow. If you're curious, you just go to the shipyard, select a ship, then go to the ship details. You don't have to buy the ship to read the stuff. Even between the variants there's some interesting details/history. I haven't read through the Sol ships yet, but on my next character selection (whenever the test server is reset again) I'll read up on sol.
I'm very much enjoying the Genari. I've come to appreciate their raw design, and brute force attacks.
The Genari seem to rely a lot more on team work than Sol, in order to be effective. Since they can't sustain themselves in combat very well (no shields or bad shields) in comparison to Sol, they need a lot more "tag teaming". Just a friendly remind: Use the frakking in game chat. (I love the game so far, but the lack of in-game match chatter makes me want to pull my hair out).
It's interesting. It seems a lot of players gravitate towards the use of the shields. Quite frankly, even when I played my SOL I hardly used shields. @Xeen Dread might be a bit aggressive in the way he says it, but he's absolutely correct. Speed is Key. Granted it won't be every player's preferred playstyle, once I started utilizing more movement points instead of shielding, I managed to start taking less damage overall.
Boarding and "taking over" someones ship doesnt make sense if it isnt used. All the ship does is leave the battlefield and provide some XP when doing so. why doesnt the ship join your army and run around as an AI controlled ship. running up to an enemy ship and risking your ship just to drop of pods that might take you multiple other ally ships in order to take over a single ship just doesnt seem as worth while as just shooting the damn thing. not only do i feel like you're waisting the option for better weapons/defenses on your ship over this mostly useless feat but you're also inclined to put yourself into harms way in order to attempt to pull it off. the only way this would be useful in my opinion is if the ship you captured joins your army through the means of those Marines controlling it as an AI. think about it, you just got done getting desimated by this class IV beam frigate of the sol faction and you just happened to be blessed by the RNG gods to have your last marine pod wiped the remaining of the frigates crew and was captured in the process. how awesome would that Risk/Reward play style be.
While that would be super amazing, I think people just haven't mastered the pods yet. Genari are at their best with hit-and-run tactics, and it is VERY important for them to work as a team in this regard. If the team mate before you goes in, shoots down the shields, then you go in, shoot a bit, and drop off your pods into the unshielded area. The pods use only 1 energy each, and the potential damage to the enemy's ability to function can be quite potent. This is especially important against Sol, because their energy output seems to be generally better than Genari ships'. Just a reminder, pls don't abandon your team mates, especially if you're at or close to full health, even more so if you're a repair vessel. The less you help your team, the more likely you all are to die, the less xp you'll gain, and the less happy people will be. A couple times now, I've seen someone I know not to trust to stick around, and I left the match as fast as possible, no way was I risking my ship for someone that won't be a team player.