The mineral generation is random. Check Venus - it seems to always have minerals, sometimes huge amounts. Mercury is also a good candidate, as is Titan and Callisto.
Yep it is very random. I've had one game where there were no deposits above 200,000 on any of the planets/moons and one where all of the inner system bodies had no minerals.
This is where your geology teams come in useful, as they will usually find several hundred thousands of assorted minerals in the inner system alone, which can give you the boost you need to get out of the Sol system. You will want to use the highest skill team you can though, as according to the mechanics as far as I understand them, the lower the skill of a team, the less chance of finding a deposit on each check. In addition the lower the skill of the team, the higher the chance the body will be surveyed-out when the each check is made or after a deposit is found. For best results you want a team above 120-140.
Yea I agree with that. I would rather have the NPRs follow the same rules I do than handwave the fight away.
Another 4x game called Sword Of the Stars has that problem. Unless you are involved in it you can only see one AI vs AI fight per turn (when there could easily be 3 or 4.) The fights you watch play out sensibly. But the fights you aren't watching any crazy thing could happen.
One of my Liir (space dolphins) allies managed to somehow lose an entire colony to one tarka(Samurai space lizards) destroyer when the fight was handwaved away. When I know for a fact that the planetary ICBMs that even low level undefended colonies launch would have easily destroyed the tarka ship before it even got into firing range if I was actually watching the fight.
The other thing that crops up in SOtS and would likely crop up in aurora if combat between AI's was abstracted, is that optimal ship designs can be significantly different between abstracted and actual combat. In a game like aurora where small changes in design make a big difference this could be exacerbated.
I don't get it, if surface temperature increases then shouldn't base temperature as well?
Nope, base temperature is what you have with no atmosphere present. It is based on distance of the body from the star and the temperature of the star. Surface temperature is the temperature after the effects of the atmosphere/hydrosphere are figured in.