First off, I really like the Antorak's new ultimate. It's amazing.
But I do miss the old one.
Usually, I'm roaming the Galaxy with my hungry fleet, looking for things to consume. But I also have a few starting planets - these are important, they generate a lot of resources and have most of my research facilities. I understand VE can survive without any planets, however that seems strictly suboptimal to me. You lose all the Home planet bonuses and the incredibly powerful starting item.
In sins 1, whenever someone dared attack my base, if I had a level 6 Antorak, I could easily send some ships back to defend. The Orkulus and other defenses on the home planet would probably last to buy enough time.
In sins 2, that's become more difficult. I need a phase gate near my fleet. I can bring mobile phase gates - those take a while to build and can be destroyed. So realistically, i'll deploy phase gates on planets without enemies. Which means, I'll just colonize the planet and build a phase gate. That works reasonably well. When needing to retreat from an attack to defend, using the Vorastra's ultimate I can easily go back to some nearby planet with a phase gate and from there jump to my home base.
At that point it just feels like I'm playing VA? I have a bunch colonized planets all over the system to build phase gates (and starbases usually) and have an amazing phase network to be able to go anywhere quickly.
As VE that seems counter the idea that I'm roaming the galaxy and eating planets, leaving behind scorched earth.
I'm curious how you guys approach that scenario?