1. there is a green "g", what is it?
2. you see a white dot marked as moving at 2870km/s and has a thermal rating of 1200 that is named Creeper 001, what is it?
1. A goblin. I'm not sure about the specifics since I tend to use graphic sets in DF, but you can't deduce much more from the icon. And in this particular game's case, you don't need to. You don't need to know the exact weapons, armour and clothes a specific goblin is wearing most of the time.
2. The colour of the dot is important as it determines whether the contact's one of your ships, civilian, NPR hostile, neutral, friendly or allied. I don't think white's an option. But anyway:
- I know it's a ship of the Creeper class.
- I know from its thermal signature that it either has lots of engines or poor heat reduction.
- If I combine that last piece of information with its speed, I may consider the possibility it's a fairly large vessel.
- Range to a specific point is also displayed on contacts, so I would know that as well.
As for
what the Creeper class is, it depends on who's the owner. You'll be familiar with it if you designed it, but if you didn't actually finding out its characteristics is fairly neat, given you have to observe how it works and behaves in combat. You can also get specific information about the class during prisoner interrogation or, I assume, if you manage to board a specimen.