Glad to see a fellow Russian here

As far as I remember, the Zoq-Fot-Pik give you a hint on  constellation.

Heck, I actually remember that despite not playing the game for quite a few years.

An exotic playtest: Lurg vs. Lurg. The AI Lurg stands no chance against an aggressive player Lurg.
Lurg vs. Mmrnmhrm. The Mmrnmhrm get all defensive and try to nuke the Lurg from distance. The stunner seems to be working on the missiles though. When the X-form does close in, it pounds the Prawn very heavily, but if one manages to get into a blind spot, the Lurg easily despatch the Mmrnmhrm.
Lurg vs. Androsynth - another fight that ends in the Lurg's favour. The Androsyn bubbles are too slow, and the Blazer form can't even approach the Lurg because of their stun bubbles.
So, overall, the Prawn in the hands of an average melee player like me is a mediocre ship, capable of defending itself from the weakest, holding its own against mediocres and suffering a heavy pounding from the strongest.

The current Prawn is, overall, for someone with more suicidal tendencies than even the Shofixti. It's very vulnerable, so the only hope against most ships is to get to the point-blank range and engage in a brutal shoot-out. At point-blank, even the Kohr-Ah and Utwig can be defeated with some luck. Though the trick won't work against the Ur-Quan or the Chenjesu, whose shots are even more brutal and whose crews are bigger.

It's possible to beat the Mycon with the Lurg, but here an ultra-defensive tactic is advised, with quick zap-ins using gravity whip and maybe forcing them to hurl the plasmoid into themselves by accident.
Against the Earthling, it's a stalemate once again. The stunner DOES stun the Eartling nukes, actually making them miss (of course, if they don't fly straight into you from behind), but it's very hard to get into an attacking position.
Funny how different weapons are coded as different types of objects - the Zapsats and nukes are affected by stun, while, say, plasmoids or DOGIs are not.

Tried to play for the Lurg. These guys DEFINITELY need an aggressive AI. The Prawn just trashes Thraddash and Shofixti and can hold its own very well even against Chenjesu. The Orz though still remain a menace.
And still, the stunner must either push the nuisances like fighters, marines and DOGI away or stun them too, as it does with the Chmmr Zapsats. The ship's too vulnerable for the Creepy Bad Guys Even Ur-Quan Fear To Mess With.

The Lurg are stronger than the Pkunk. The only chance the birdies have is reincarnation.
The engine indeed does limit the "combat particles" in some way. The Umgah cone kept blinking as the Lurg released their bubbles. By the way, the Umgah have no hope against Lurg, the bubbles stun them, leaving them completely exposed.
Maybe, the bubbles should be destructable by the cone. The Kohr-Ah thingy does destroy them anyway.
The Druuge: no chance for the Lurg unless they manage to get close.
The Melnorme: same as the Druuge.
The Ilwrath can put up a valiant fight, but the Prawn kicks their ass.
Against the Syreen, the Lurg aren't as defensive as the Shofixti, and they quickly dispatch the blue-skinned babes.
The Mmrnmhrm waste the Lurg in a few seconds with the laser.
As do the Chmmr. But the Lurg's stunner has quite an interesting effect: it can stun the individual Zap-Sats. They still orbit the Avatar, but not in a perfect order - so one side of the ship remains exposed. Though the Lurg do pitifully against the Zap-Sats even if the Avatar doesn't move at all.
The VUX spray the Lurg with limps for a distance, then close in for a relatively easy kill. Though one still needs to watch for the stunning bubbles.
And, by the way, the weapons seem not to just become invisible. The sound plays, the energy wastes, but the weapon DOES NOT FIRE AT ALL. When the Lurg got a lot of bubbles against the VUX and I shot them with my laser within the range, nothing happened. The beam didn't appear, and it didn't shoot.
The Androsynth. Bubbles vs. bubbles is hilarious. The Lurg can put up a decent fight.
Spathi - see Thraddash, a complete stalemate.

Observed the same effect with the Pkunk - their bullets became invisible for a short time. The Lurg themselves also occasionally shoot invisible bubbles - the sound, well, sounds, but no particles appear from the Lurg ship.
Been testing the Lurg on Awesome difficulty against various ships. They are PITIFULLY weak against the Mycon, just pound them with plasmoids from distance, and they're gone very quickly. Was it one of the reasons the Mycon got the axe?
The Kohr-Ah do extremely well too, for precisely the same reasons.
The Utwig also beat them relatively easily. On Cyborg vs. Cyborg match-ups, Utwig came out of the battle unscathed.
Against Arilou, it's interesting. The stunner affects them as all other ships - they move straight ahead at the speed they were stunned at. If teleporting when stunned, Arilou stand still until stun effect wears out. They can hold their own in the hands of a skilled player.
Against Shofixti, the Lurg tend to become overly defensive, putting out a lot of bubbles and almost completely refraining from using their primary weapon. I almost destroyed a Prawn with the Scout's puny cannon.
The Lurg can stand their own against Orz, their shooting of the Go!Go!s is very precise.
Lurg vs. Thraddash is virtually a stalemate, the Thraddash ship is defensive by nature, and the Lurg get defensive too, they don't pursue the Torch.
The Lurg are stronger than the Zoq-Fot-Pik, though the ZFP cannon is still a nuisance.
Chenjesu: look Mycon and Kohr-Ah, though the Lurg put up a better fight.
Ur-Quan. Just plain HOPELESS. A single fighter can shoot the Prawn to death if the Lurg don't shoot it down.
Earthling: also hopeless. Homing nukes from the distance, see Mycon and Kohr-Ah.
Yehat: a good match. The Terminator's and Prawn's attack have roughly the same range. The Terminator shoots quicker, but the Prawn deals more damage and has more crew.
Supox: almost the same as Yehat.

I'd suggest to buff the Prawn a bit. It's clearly WAY stronger than the Explorer, but most of the other ships can beat it with relative ease. Heck, if even ZoqFot and Shofixti can put up a fight with this, the Lurg don't seem terrifying enough.
The AI, in my opinion, should be made a tad more aggressive. A defensive tactic against the Shofixti Scout, of all ships...
The primary attack is good, but I think the stun isn't... well... stunning enough, besides, most of the ships can retaliate even when they can't move. Maybe, if the stunned ship uses its primary or secondary weapon, it not only loses energy, but also takes damage equal to the energy needed to shoot the weapon?
Also, I think, the bubbles should at least push away the pesky Orz Marines and Ur-Quan Fighters. The Prawn is virtually defenseless from the fighters, it can't outrun them and can't take them down quickly enough.

When I took on the Lurg with the Utwig, and they deployed a lot of their bubbles, the Utwig missiles became invisible, and when the bubbles dissolved, the missiles became visible again. Is it related to some limit of weapon graphics in the Melee?

Actually, I think Lurg predates the Borg and the Zerg. So they are copying Star Control!

The Borg are from late 80's, so they predate SC a bit. Though it doesn't matter

I picked the name from the original Star Control 1 copy protection. Professor Zorg's Guide to Alien Etiquette seemed to be the inspiration of the SC2 aliens, the Orz, Slylandro, Supox, Thraddash, Utwig, and Zoq-Fot-Pik.  So, taking a page out of tradition, I wanted to follow suit.  You'll notice it here in the online solver.

Not only that, but also Pkunk and quite a few Umgah names.

Just a random thought... the Lurg name sounds very similar to two other superfamous races - the Borg and the Zerg. Do those guys also have some kind of collective consciousness?

Been quite a while since I posted here... but I do want to take part in creating this. I'm particularly adept at crazy plot twists and writing in general, and also can help with music/voice acting.

They would play MELEE!
Something like, "during the Hierarchy War events, someone named Paul Reiche XVII developed a funny simulation game where the players could pick any ship from Alliance and Hierarchy and engage in a battle against their fellow players or computer"
A rather comical scene came in mind, where the Awesome AI from Melee accidentally takes control of the Vindicator for a while...

Still... what's Zelnick's first name is going to be? I'd vote for Jiri (Czech name - the last name sounds very Western-Slavic).