somewhat newbie question flood.

[Slick]

I am trying to get into the nitty-gritty details of this game (gold, v1.78) and I have been doing as much reading as I can find on this board as well as other related links but I still have some unanswered questions. I see that lots of you appear to be gurus and I would appreciate your lending some info. Please restrict answers to unmodded v1.78 since I want to really explore the basic game before going into mods. Thanks in advance.

1) Are �auto� tactical combat and strategic combat identical? Also, how similar to �real� combat is the simulator. What are the differences?

2) Is there any way to detect mines other than with sweepers or running into them?

3) Would there be any good reason to use a non-colonizer hull to build a colonizer?

4) I am building a spreadsheet with lots of specs & info from the data .txt files which is much easier to sort/filter and is printer friendly. Has this already been done? If so, where can I download it? I am more than willing to upload the spreadsheet when it is complete.

5) Are sensor / shield / nebula effects modeled in combat?

6) It seems that the combat simulator can only model ship designs and other things found in your homeworld system. Can it simulate combat in storms, nebulae, etc? What about simulating crew experience, etc?

7) Not trying to be a troll, but is there a buglist posted somewhere? I have reported a couple of bugs to MM, but I would hate to be bothering them by reporting things already known.

8) How is mine damage applied to a fleet? Specifically how are ships (after sweepers, if any, are overwhelmed) chosen to be damaged?

9) Which are the good ministers to use? I seem to only have marginal success with the population transport minister. He seems to get stuck sometimes and he doesn�t do very well at putting the correct breathing races on the right planets.

10) Do cloaked minesweepers automatically uncloak and sweep mines if encountered? I have not been willing to risk a minesweeper to find out.

11) Does long range scanning happen automatically or do you have to click on enemy ships when they get in range to get their design?

12) It appears that repairs (not retrofits) require no resources. Is this true?

13) Is there any real difference between a gift & a tribute? I see that the reactions to happiness can be modded to be different but they appear to be the same in the unmodded game.

14) How does planet conditions affect happiness, reproduction, production, construction, etc.? The �manual� says it does, but I see no reference to it in the .txt files.

15) Do weapon platforms participate in ground combat?

16) Do �mounts� add anything to a tractor or repulsor? It seems not.

17) For single ships, if I create a 1-ship fleet with it, does it get crew experience AND fleet experience? Is this a bug?

Thanks!