I have not played this in a while. Last time I played it, Morpheus was new, Weevil was named Scarab, and Karkinos had four large mounts. Just tried this for 0.8.1 (soon after finishing Nexerelin). Some comments:
Some of the portraits have improved, especially the original one that now resembles Agent Smith from the Matrix films. That one meshes with standard portraits better. It is probably my favorite one to use if I want a Blackrock affiliated character.
Weapons
Feel mostly the same as before. Ironweaver changed, but it does not look like anything I want to use if I have better, which remains the case for most Blackrock non-missile weapons. Many Blackrock weapons are good enough alternatives to use if you do not have the best standard weapons. There are few that compete with the best, such as the Shard Cannon.
A few toys caught my attention...
Comet Light Artillery has limited ammo, but that does not matter for ships whose peak performance will expire sooner than when ammo runs out. A bit of a flux hog for its cost and DPS, but useful for ships that need its 900 range because 800 range from Light Needler is not enough.
The upsized Bolide is too slow all-around. Much rather use HVD.
The medium Particle Rifle. 800 range energy. Lets high-tech ships hit for hard flux from further back, but the sustained DPS is low enough that it is not practical to rely on it. Aurora killed Eagle somewhat painlessly with these, but most perk performance ticked away by the time of the kill. Better to use something more efficient.
I remember the 8 OP Dart, but I do not remember if the Light Dart is new or not. Nice for 4 OP regenerator, especially since Salamanders are not as effective as they used to be.
I remember the Light SPL, but not the heavy version. It seems the light SPLs are easy to shoot down now, so I need the heavy one to do what Light used to do.
Fighters
Mosquito Dipteron, whatever the interceptor with the Shredder is called, is about as weak as Wasps, but at least they cost no OP to install. Still would use Talons over these any day.
Kraits are overpowered. They kill things about ten seconds faster than Warthogs can (at least with Convergence vs. Falcon, and Astral vs. Onslaught), and six from an Astral can kill a lone Onslaught with only Expended Deck Crew hullmod for support. No skills required. I wonder if I can solo the simulator with Astral with six Kraits, now that Remnant fighters lost their power? (Hint: Not grinding a new game to find out.)
Sekrets about about as powerful as Warthogs, but cost much more OP. Not bad per se, but bested by alternatives.
Ships
Most of them are straightforward to use. Load up on complimentary ballistics when possible, then kite-and-snipe.
Desdinova is still powerful. I cannot load it up with as many weapons as it used to take, but comets, maulers, and a needler can still wreck things, and this feels more mobile than Medusa.
Eurypterus resembles Sunder in design. I like to use it as a flying Mjolnir mount that stomps other destroyers.
Gonodactylus feels about as sluggish as an Enforcer now, and just like with Enforcer, fighting SIM Hammerhead is a bit of a pain. Other Blackrock destroyers are easier to use.
Morpheus is a pain to use against anything bigger than it (though it crushes small ships). It costs as much as a capital, but without the old skills, it is a shadow of its old self. The AI can probably pilot it better than I can.
Typheus, like Drover and Scintilla, forget about weapons, use two Kraits, run away, and watch things die fast.
Asura, how the mighty have fallen. Its phase cloak is a hog, making it hard to go far while cloaked, and it is hard to brawl with sub-1000 range weapons without taking damage, though it does a better job at brawling than Doom due to more shot range.
Knight, all I did was mount two HVDs and four Tactical Lasers and waited for Kraits to do the heavy lifting.
Nevermore remains effective and straightforward to use. Needlers up front, Maulers behind them.
Stenos, I do not remember playing this ship much before. After trying it, it is effective with Tachyon Lance, HVD, and Needlers. Its system works well with Tachyon Lance. Fire lance, and after it is done, use system and fire another beam.
Karkinos. This is the first time I played it since it got three large mounts. Still quite powerful. I just mount three tachyon lances and a bunch of dual flak, HVDs, and light needlers and watch things die. It can put so much hard flux on shields with kinetics, then Tachyon Lances will do bad things with or without shields up.
Kurmaraja is another powerful ship. It is an excellent sniper. All it needs to kill things on its own is two heavy maulers and a Gauss Cannon, and it can kite-and-snipe well enough even without the fighters. Fighters make it even better.
That is all for now.