Life's been life as it often is and I haven't had time for ES (or have been distracted by other games when I have).  Now that the new expansion is out I decided to dive back in, and given the last time I played was shortly after launch there's quite a bit to catch up on.

1. Any real changes to your early game options?  

In most Endless games it's "Research flat production building, reserach flat science building, and expand as fast as you can", and I found that to be just as true in ES 2 (with the obvious side of scout and rush your quests).  I'm guessing it's the same, but has there been any depth/options added to this stage?  I don't see any reason to go tall still, and while pirate conversations are a cool mechanic they don't seem good enough to shift the land grab stage of the game.

2. Fighters/Bombers/Boarding Pods

I'm guessing long range is still the way to go (beams seem...really really insanely good?), but I'm curious as to how fighters/bombers fit in the mix and if they're worth using.   As for boarding pods that at least seems self explanitory (mass crew damage, use pods to steal ships), but is there anything else to it?

3. Lumeris- Selling planets worth it?

Love the game but it always ticked me that "you can sell planets" is basically worthless given how terribly the AI values them (literally less than some resources in my past experience).   Even the worst of environments in the worst possible spot is almost always better in your empire than used as trade, or at least that used to be true.  Is it still?

4. Behemoths- how vital?

I know these are really knew so i'm not expecting super specific answers, but for those that need to research and build them, how vital are they?  I'm assuming it's sort of like trade/marketplace/t2 ship hulls in that it's a must get, but I'm curious if it's worth rushing them ASAP if you don't start with them.

5. Anything else I should know?

It's been awhile so i'm starting out with the sophons/cravers/lumeris to kinda relearn the game, but have there been any major touchups to the starting races/mechanics added that efffect one of them heavily?

The Unfallen get a starting shield on their home system to protect them from obliterators.  A clean obliterator shot on Koyasil basically kills the Unfallen because it unvines all their systems from Koyasil outward, so...that was important for them.

Behemoths are economic and scientific powerhouses; mining probes and science modules can get you resources otherwise out of reach just for hovering on the right special node and they're tough enough to not die to most early-mid game fleets in one batttle if they're caught.  If you manage to get a science behemoth gathering strategics from special nodes early, you can save yourself from having to colonize a lot of otherwise mediocre or bad systems.

GET CITADEL TECH.  No exceptions.  If you see a comet streaking towards your capital and you have no citadels or system shields available, you may as well delete the save and start over.