I gave it a ready, and posted a lololololong reply, too long for steam actually, did not know you linked it here too (which is a good idea to generate views I must admit, and shall do it aswell), anyway I posted it to my blog, so here's what's there:

Hi Ruzen, sorry to drag you to my blog but this reply is just way beyond the 1K characters comment scope and I would really hate to divide it into 11, although you do deserve 11 comments for your efforts. Which while admirable, did not completely impressed me. I have given you a thumbs down, but should you react and reflect upon the feedback, I will be more than happy to turn my frown upside down!

Brace for constructive criticism, and also bring some to my guides, if you can!

I'll be kinda mean, but I actually read it, so I can only request that you do the same, here goes nothing:

This guide is thorough, wordfull but not really hitting the point and not really passing on the key information.

I have to agree with the opening statement: "With it, you will conquer the galaxy and unlock its secrets much faster than ever before."

Let's be honest here, Vaulters are overpowered, have a crazy FIDSI start and boost on every new colony, called the "Golden age" from the trait "Involuntary nomads" neither of which words are even present in your guide (I actually put the effort in and put a fulltext search in a browser, giving you two visits!), which confuses me. As it is the carrying value of Vaulters, since they just get ridiculous starting FIDSI output which spells GG for any non-vaulter faction from turn 1. Portals are more or less just an extra laugh the devs have about the faction balacing.

Don't really get the whole Endless specialization (ships) chapter, as it is not really all that faction specific info and thus provides little value, instead propose actually bothering with getting all the ship stats and slots in there which is in fact faction specific, this is more of a "oh yeah, this is how you should generally do things" with which I would also somewhat disagree. But that's just an opinion.

I strongly disagree with the 4 movements mods on an explo ship, rather fit it with 4 probes and shoot them all over, refit and repeat. Yes it refills probes, it's probably a bug but since I have been using it for several patches now, it's probably a feature.

Endless specialization (systems) and FIDSI, I again disagree with your focus of first colonization completely missing any point of selecting things such as strategic resources, which count double as luxuries for vaulters and should be achieved on turn 1 with the argosy if possible. How about pointing out which curiosities hide strategics and should be go to first systems? (hint: it's subterranian)

Did you ever bother to calculate the output a system with a T2 upgrade outputs compared to T1 upgrade? Titanium/Hyperium is 80 FIDSI. The fact vaulters have drawbacks to food production and their not so production oriented racial bonus does not encourage populated systems as it later interferes with influence as you yourself state, since you also never need to send food to outpousts, you can just ignore the food altogether kinda like riftborn, sure having T1 food per planet upgrade "is something", but probably waste of turns. Who needs pop when you have just get supercharged every couple turns.

Laws and heroes .... and technology (ok so system spec and fidsi get separate chapters, but laws and heroes are somehow closely connected enough to be under one heading)

Laws - ever heard about the T1 scientic law? Probably beats all contenders for early game system development, wouldn't you agree? I probably would not waste a law slot over +8 science per turn, when I already get 100 science from start just cause I am a vaulter...

"Vaulters population, heroes and able to explore curiosities making you very efficient at technology department." No other race heroes can explore curiosities? Why is this a point? Waste of words, unnecessary clutter. Again, just my humble opinion.

Half a titanium and hyperium per point, I mean sure, take those if you don't have any strategics, cause you followed the guide and colonized some system without them... they have militaristic and pacifistic heroes huh? How about mentioning "they actually start with a scientific hero, since they have a scientific starting party..." you know you might never get those other vaulter heroes in a game, correct? Also there is an ecologic one, you have a picture of him, why leave him out?

Might want to mentioned faction specific techs perhaps, rather than government specific bonuses, would probably be more relevant to a faction guide, just saying...one probably is not all they have.

Offesive & Defensive tactics...

Vaulters are a melee faction huh? I do not believe there is such a thing as a melee faction. Basicaly everyone who can uses beam/lasers anyway. Boarding pods are a worthy mention, but are not melee and probably nothing to focus in the early game where vaulters shine cause they already have mid game FIDSI...

"Never forget that fire and armor power of your ships are not that good. You won’t be that much effective if you want to battle with the weapon power. Even though you can improve the weapons damage, firing multiple weapons at the same time is better. So having nukes would be less efficient(because of flaks) since you are shooting less, lasers would be much better."

Why is it not that good? Vaulter ships seem pretty much as good as any other ships, what is this paragraph about? Are there better ship designs out there? Which? Why? How?

Good mention on the portals, essentialy makes you undefeatable if you know how to play. Since you can not be invaded in one turn because of the pop and bonuses, and you can produce and send full fleets in the other turn. Totally not broken.

Political Situation and Diplomatic Relations

Why is not politics with laws and with diplomatic relations instead? That's kinda confusing and misplaced, don't you think?

It's *politically and *tough, you are welcome, english is not my first language either.

Heading is misleading as it completely focuses on the population, you assimilate minor pops in the endgame? Why? Is the early game OP influence output not good enough for you? Would it not be better to assimilate them early to compensate for vaulter's "really fast, but linear colonization pattern?"

Diplomatic relations turn out to be expansion advice? Let me break it to you, since you picked the OP race, everyone is probably gonna be out to get you before you somehow figure out your advantage and win. Again, if you were to assimilate in early game instead of endgame, perhaps then you would be able to use those pirate models as neutral raiders... but that's just a thought.

Also worthwhile mention: You can NOT contest on outposts, if there is an outpost, you can not get in on it. I mean I would stress that out as a faction specific in a faction guide. But nobody's forcing you. Also starting argosy is worth 178 xp. Which is nice. Otherwise good points, aggresive expansion with a vaulter sounds reasonable, again an expansion topic should cover this.

Have you ever stopped to consider and evaluate your options whether to wait for longer golden age or just colonize right away? Which can be better and when, why?

Weaknesses and Vaulters as Opponents

"... it’s really hard to fully commit to one side." Try thinking with portals, get why they are broken yet? Yes, it usually takes one turn to defend another system which because of your bonuses can not be rushed in one turn, and you already offloaded your manpower, so why not...- myth busted, not a weakness.

"They are also very predictable in space combat. Having mass flak guns and long-range tactics would help to stop those boarding tactics." Dafuq? Why? Is there a rule that vaulters can not fit anything but boarding pods? Boarding pods are not the meta, get over it. It's a T3 tech, who bothers with a specific T3 and T4 tech over a mod when you get one for unlocking the stage for free?

"They also depended on their precious colony ship losing this for long turns would hurt them immensely. It’s wise to attack Vaulters science ships on sight because you are going to fight them eventually you might as well slow them down; they are very depending on exploration."

You really don't say... I guess it can be helpful stating the obvious, but with which race you want to lose colony ships or leave enemy scouts alive? Argosy is a hard hit though, might want to specificy that you can repair it and it costs a fortune, maybe mention the faction specific technology for better repair rate at systems with portals... just saying, try providing some insight over stating obvious.

"Their population is only good at melee they need a long time to snowball. Making them focus on the military would stop their process."

There comes the melee statement again, like wtf dude? Try fitting long range beams, I think they work fine at T2 tech, at which you will be probably even before sophons... because you are snowballing since you colonize your first system. It's that easy.

Quick summary

Well, that's ok I guess. Let's go through debunking the weaknesses though:

Space battles - probably ahead of your opponent because of the golden age, should win every battle else you are doing something wrong. (like focusing on melee with kinetics... lol)

Diplomacy - ugh, you can ignore diplomacy completely with privateers, how is that a weakness? Highest early game influence production probably also bad for diplo right?

Low dust production - that's actually true, but it's because of the portals, they cost a lot and produce little. But thanks to inflation and high strategic production, you can ignore dust completely and just sell stuff such as luxuries you never need nor use on market... just maybe.

Depending on finding good spots - that can be true, but following your guide, one intentionally focuses on the bad spots, so I guess any spot inbetween works. But start can be tougher if you do not score titanium/hyperium on your capital, which you can actually choose (vodyani have to fly over, you don't get a penalty)

Barely passable starting populations - well it's not riftborn, but barely passable? Fairly competitive from what I can gather, well suited to the playstyle.

Epiloge and Credits

Where is prologue if there is an epilogue?

Thanks for reading your guide is nice.

You are welcome, it was a mixed feelings experience, I do not want to crush your spirits since you actually did something, it literally "is something" and you can improve on what you have done, and I encourage you to do so. So far I would judge it poorly.

Good work on the pictures though, nice.

And I like the comic link, should add that to my lumeris guide too.

Props on credits to devs, they made this game after all, even unbalanaced as it is, it can be fun to play.

Last question:

How many games and hours on vaulters have you on record, how many multiplayer wins or at least some endless AI wins should provide credibility to whatever your guide is saying?

Thank you for taking your time to respond. I don't like to delve into stats or step by step things when I'm writing a guide. This is more a preference -or a style- for me. I always want to write guides like a brainstorming or discussion. I believe with it, a novice or veteran player could find some thought-provoking things, allowing them to find their own strategies. Don't get me wrong, I love spreadsheets (I'm an accountant myself) but I just don't like as guides. 

As you disagree with exploration method, which you think exploring probes is better where I use a mixture of both. They all perfectly fine but the only wrong one is using exploits within the mechanics and refreshing the probes. I'm well aware of that among many things but I wouldn't ever talk about that since it would conflict with the way I write. About the laws section, to be honest, the management titles were in the same title but space wasn't enough for the title and It showed like "..." and I decided to separate those into 3. Since I won't make very specific (step by step) guide I don't explain thoroughly about every laws, heroes or technology.

I didn't mention the Golden age mechanic because I don't find it that important. However, I find that it's usefulness in ES2 different than you described which I intend to add when I update with 2 more topics to delve into. I too find "Vaulters population, heroes and able to explore curiosities making you very efficient at technology department." sentence was bad too and I have the exact feelings and it was a mistake for me not to bother enough with.

About saying Vaulters are a melee faction; I find them a faction on your face. They can get to be neighbors with anyone, even at early on. Boarding ships are very useful. Their ground battle is good. They could instantly mass teleport and be on your face every time. Because of these, I find them as a melee faction. Therefore I find these tactics would be more beneficial when playing as the Vaulters. 

I understand this type of guide is something you dislike. Personally, I don't like to read about someone who gave me constantly spoilers about strategies. I'm more interested in guiding without giving much of spoilers. Just like a good traveling guide or book should. I did win with vaulters and did a couple of serious playthroughs just to see how the game will evolve around late game. I'm more of a multiplayer type of guy but I rarely play as a co-op. Usually playing with 4-6 people with score victory off. 3/4 of my playtime is multiplayer I only play with AI just to try out openings&stats or to do a serious optimized game. Which takes weeks for it to finish.

Hmmm, good talk, shall agree to disagree on most points which is fine, no more walls of text from me. :-D