So, I have some questions. I would also like confirmation of some things since I can't find the source post (both here and the official forum).
1. Turret armor apparently gives a chance to avoid damage when the turret is hit. The armor does not act like external ship armor. Correct?
2. I read that military jump drives don't work for commercial ships and vice versa. I'm not sure if that was a reference to your military drives not working for commercial shipping (i.e. AI-controlled shipping lines) or if they don't function for any non-military ship. I'm trying to figure out if I'll need two jump tenders for each jump point or just one (or maybe one with both kinds of jump drive?).
3. Does anyone know the mineral cost, if any, to build a jump gate? I want to know before I waste minerals on a construction ship that's too expensive to actually use. Also, I assume any cargo ships carrying the required minerals will have to be in the construction ship's task group, but can I just leave them in their own TG at the jump point instead?
4. Reading up on combat, I'm curious about life pod recovery. Can any ship recover a pod or does it need a particular module (e.g. extra crew space, troop bay)?
5. Are Orbital Weapon Platforms worth building? I figure they'd mostly serve as beam point defense in extended orbit around a planet (assuming extended orbit circumvents the "only mesons inside an atmosphere" problem -- anyone know if it does?) or as a sort of mobile PDC for mining colonies and jump points.
6. Missile salvos. Does the individual missile damage stack for the purpose of armor penetration? Also, when a PD weapon hits a salvo, does it hurt the salvo as a stack (and possibly destroy multiple missiles) or only a single missile?
7. For offensive fire, I need a separate FCS for each target (assuming I attack several targets with a single ship). Do I also need one FCS per target for point defense? I want to know how many fire controls I should use to control 10+ anti-missile launchers (so I can be covered if I'm attacked by many small salvos instead of a few large salvos).
8. It looks like I can link my CIWS to fire control, but AFAIK I don't need to. The CIWS will work fine without a FCS, right?