2.) 100% means that everything in the cargo holds and fill rates in the mining facilities will be looted, if there is enough cargo space to hold it.

I understood the 100% part - what I didn't understand is what allows the attacker to loot? Does he have to win the battle first?  Even if the attack is successful, I don't think 100% loot should be given - that's extremely rewarding.  To do this, I would almost reverse what you said, where the defenders get a bigger bonus against looting than they do against destruction, because it's easier to destroy than it is to subdue.

It shouldn't be easy to just roam around and take things from mining facilities on the surfaces of planets; there should be some effort involved.

I'd be against prices based on something as arbitrary as distance from Sol.

I'd be much more interested in either player-established auctions or buy/sell markets and let the players determine their own prices for things.

If you don't do that, balancing is going to become a nightmare.

But be warned, Piracy aint all sitting around drinking Rum...It can be bloody hard work.

I'm a lazy SOB - unless that hard work gets me more loot than other activities that require similar effort, why bother?

[Loot & plunder]

Loot & plunder (selected by default)
Marines will fortify to 9 HP each, Trained civilians 3 HP

Mining / harvester facilities extracted fill rate amount will be looted.
Stations cargo holds will be looted with 100% chance.
Only military units fight and take casualties.
Some military personnel will survive and re-group after the attack.
Normal chance to capture personnel in boarding / ground combat.
Nothing will be destroyed.

question 1: does the fortification mean for the defender, attacker, or both?  Also, why the phrase "fortification"? Is this different than the normal HP for military and civilian?

question 2:  100% loot rate seems extremely high - shouldn't it be related to percentage success in battle?  Or does this mean it's 100% if the attack is successful?

Capture / Destroy
Marines will fortify to 15 HP each, Trained civilians 5 HP

Capture vs Destroy chance 50% / 50%
Wreckage from station and modules destroyed in minerals and gases.
Only 25% chance of looting each station cargo, due to being destroyed.
Double chance to capture personnel in boarding / ground combat.

What does "wreckage from station and modules destroyed in minerals and gases" mean?

US here, surrounded by 4 of the Great Lakes.

Finally enjoying nice fall weather!

So, I just waited for my 4 hour jump timer to finish to do the signal investigation mission in the tutorial (step 20).

Right before I clicked jump, the SOS signal still showed in the Navigation screen.

I jumped, and when I landed, there was no signal to investigate (I hit the Investigate button, but it said "there is no signal at your position!"), then hope that the same thing doesn't happen again the next time.

Since things take so long to calculate for a jump, is there some better way to ensure that the signals don't "disappear" in the time it takes to calculate the jump?

Or is this by design?

Does the 25% increase mean linear or exponential growth?  That is, does it add 0.25 each level, or does it multiply by 1.25 each level?

Specifically, is the sequence:  1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, ...

or is it: 1, 1.25, 1.56, 1.95, ...

The auction only being accessible on Earth is going to be problematic isn't it?

Also, the current mechanism of setting up "public" buy/sell offers on remote outposts that have prices set to the same things as the SOL/Earth station is a bit limiting - prices should really be controlled by supply and demand forces, which means station owners should be able to set their own prices.

What's the current thinking on these topics?

We can reduce travel time by using more WHG ( Whormhole Generator  ).
Research for better WHG help too.

  Myself I use 3@4 WHG, travel time = short , but, expensive fuel.

Hope this help you.

Ah - so I guess this feature already exists!

It would be nice if the tutorial mission gave us "special" speed-up, like the one where it reduces the 3 hour construction to 3 minutes.

The pace of travel is extraordinarily slow... especially interstellar travel.

Yes, I know that space is "big, really big!" but this is a game after all.  Interstellar travel taking 7+ hours (during the tutorial no less!) is a bit daunting, and makes it easy to lose interest.

The simplest solution to this is to reduce the overall times, but an even better choice would be to trade fuel usage for speed.