Okay, so caveat here that it's been a while since I've played much and my memory is kinda' spotty. Still, I'll see what I can dredge up.
1:Is this an acceptable setup at this point in the game?
The general answer to that is... maybe. How much you can skimp on mech quality is highly dependent on how capable of a mech pilot you are (in terms of skills) and how effective the mechs you have are (i.e. what sort of fancy gubbins you've stuck on them). Generally, you'll get the message that you're sticking your head too far out when said head gets blown off repeatedly. Renown generally adjusts itself somewhat organically and you're expected to eat some losses to keep things balanced out. If you're worried, though, lose a few unimportant missions (just turn around and leave immediately) and drop your renown back down to something you feel comfortable with. The chapter related battles are renown independent, but (almost) everything scales with renown, so you can control general difficulty by controlling renown.
2: I am unaware what the cap limit on my teammates is. I have two individuals with me, and have met two mercenaries which I would sorely like to employ. How can I tell what the size cap of my team is.
I've... actually forgotten, myself. I
think the base cap is two, modified by some other stuff. I know there's a talent (or whatever those are) or two that can increase the cap, and I
think it may increase a bit if you pump the appropriate stat (charm? Izzat it?) up enough.
3: Cybernetics.. I likewise lack knowledge of how many pieces of cyberware I can install before they melt my brain. How can I tell on that?
Short of code diving, I can't remember. There's a formula of some sort (involving your ego stat, iirc.) but... s'been too long. I can't remember
4: What is concidered the optimal movement system for a battleroid style mech? I know hover jets get used alot, but would it be preferable to strip those for flight/space flight jets? And along that note, what are Arc Thrusters?
Arc Thrusters are kind of an omni-movement system, iirc. They boost hover and flight, but (and I maybe be very wrong here) I think they're better used in conjunction with other movement systems.
As for optimal movement system, it depends on the mech, your character, and the terrain. Generally by the end game most mechs will be flying (
really fast) or hovering, but there's several advantages to walking (faster turning, harder to knock down, can't get your flight jets blown up -- though you can lose your legs, of course) and there's a few talents (or whatever those things are, argh) that can specialize your character toward a particular movement system (and naturally, if you pick one of those, you want to focus on what it boosts).
However, it's notable that in GH2 in particular, you have a very strong leaning toward hover and flight (especially the latter), due to the extent of the fighting you do in space. So that's something to consider. Though mind that increasing hover makes you go faster in space, too, so... yeah.
5: The game makes mention of Spideroid style mechs.. 4 legged walkers with turret weaponry. While I know (or at least feel) that the game is still early, when can I expect to encounter one of those. I'd like one.
Arachnoids, yeah, they're around. They're quite rare in GH2, though, because they can't fly (only jump and hover) and are primarily ground mechs. So they don't get used much in space. I'm not sure which breakpoint in particular you can expect to maybe find one, but you'd see them more often in GH1 if you're really gunning to play 'em.
Can also mod a few in, if you're feeling frisky. It's
really easy to make a mech or fifty.
6: Are there any colonies or worlds where there is extentive combat in the cities, or even in a wilderness locale?
Ehn... GH1
You do get missions inside occasionally, and a couple of the asteroids have ground combat come up fairly often. There's no area specifically emphasizing that, that I can recall, though. E: Actually, I think one or two of the mech arenas has a wilderness setup. Might try trawling through the arena fights and seeing what shows up.
7: Are there any places one can go to do extensive out of mech combat?
There's a couple of arenas, I think, and some inside quest-dingi. Abandoned spaceships or whatever tend to have a dungeon crawl aspect.
Generally your best bet for some cash granting scale: 0 (personal scale. Scale: 1 isn't used much in GH2, and scale: 2 is mecha-sized) combat, though, is to watch the news and hunt down fungi infestations. They're probably the most prolific and easily found scale: 0 fight in GH2.
8: What is the general math behind weapon damage? I've noticed many guns have an alphanumeric code at the front (Heavy Gauss Rifle runs 14x10), and of all the number combos I haven't figured out, that's the one.
I... don't remember the specifics. I know the xXX aspect has to do with scale (so everything scale zero is x1, scale one x5, scale 2 x10) and, insofar as I'm aware, is just a multiplier. The first number is the base damage, so as far as I know a heavy gauss would have a base 140 DC (with DC being the primary "important number" used in damage calculations). More than that will have to wait until they fix the wiki and the old information comes back, which is... on its way. I think.
Anyway, that's about all I can recall. Hopefully the wiki/forum maintenance stuff will clear up fairly soon and it'll be easier to just point you at that.