I think you shouldn't cut the "Variable Star" out. That piece of information is relatively hard to be acquired - especially compared to the importancy of it. Without the Portal Spawner the player spends insane amount of time on travelling.
(At least, that's happened to me when I played SC2 on my first time and I had to restart the game. But, others told me the same, like "who the @&#% thinks that watching the stars rubbish is that important?!" )

Here comes a new idea - however, it gives a third abilitiy to the Dreadnought.
(In the case if you wants to change the latest version again)

How about (Down+Fire) launches a drone? (The image can be similar to the one which 'greets' you as you approach Earth at the start of the game)

- As the drone reaches the opponent it loses ALL its speed instantly
- Also, it disrupts every move as if the player released every key (eg.  the Trader launches its energy ball instantly, the Marauder's guided spinning blade stops etc.)
- Drone speed is about Orz speed and it follows the enemy ship, but, in an unintelligent way (it won't dodge shots, won't avoid being in front of the opponents weapon etc.)
- It has about 6 HPs so with a few exception one single shot is not enough for destroying it
- Only 1 drone can be active at the same time and it gets destroyed after the first successful hit
- Energy usage shouldn't be too high
- As an extra, it could cause the end of a Guardian's blazer form as well but doesn't affect the Probe's speed
- If it's too weak it can also cause the opponent vessel a 1 second freeze after the successful hit


Pro:
- Unique ability, no other ship has it
- It can force out the opponent from a Gravity Whip
- Devastating against ships with terrible acceleration


Con:
- Third ability which is non-canonique
- It doesn't cause any direct damage

Nicely done...
However, the first thing which comes into my mind as I look at the picture is the Daktaklakpak Vivisector ^_^

Also, please resize the image or give a link instead of the full-scale form. It's simply too big.

Close indeed.
However, it's possible that it was recorded at a rate of 11,025 Hz and the filter was not that characteristique.
Also, isn't the effect a Reverb/Flanger (serial) one instead of a Reverb/Chorus? (An additional Phaser on the high freq compound is also possible.)

[Alternatively, use a RotarySpeaker FX on the whole part and crossfade it into the original speech. This can hide the sudden change of the texture.]

Or one of the Melnorme clues does the trick as well

Is this topique still active?
It's strange that noone has mentioned the Androsyn Guardian so far. Which is clearly the best vessel above all!

Let's see the plus side:
- a main weapon which has practically an unlimited range
- if used correctly, you can force out your enemy from the Gravity Whip or you can stop him/her standing still.
- you can even defend yourself with the bubbles (effective against many ships which has only a short range weaponary, eg. Fury, Skiff, etc.)
- (if someone is stupid enough for doing that ^_^) you can surprise your enemy with a load of bubble if he/she tries to flank you
- in the Blazer form you can outrun everyone (excluding the Fury, the Probe and the Mauler - but you can defeat them in another way)
- you can elude everything in Blazer form
- you can flank many ships in Blazer form as well
- many vessels can be destroyed if you hit it in the Blazer form "once" on a right place (eg. Avatar, Eluder, etc.)
- no definite counter exists against it (even the Marauder can be defeated - tried many times in PVP! The Terminator can give it hard time but that's for 23 pts and that ship has more counters)
- in short: long range attack + fast + manouvreable + quick destruction (Blazer) ... all for 15 pts.

The minus side:
- takes some practice to fly it well, including ramming the enemy and not to get destroyed
- if your Blazer form expires you're vulnerable for a short while, no energy to attack and no speed. (But please, who ends up the journey of the Blazer in point blank range or right in front of the enemy?)
- and yeah, it could have 42 crew, 42 energy which loads in 1 sec, and fast as a pkunk and for, say, 7 pts. Yeah, sure.

Androsynth Rulez. That's it. It should have a value of 23. I think.