[Jon Brave]

Could somebody just give me some pointers on this (it's only my second game).

I have colonised my nearby systems. I am now separated from the rest of the galaxy by systems which have black holes and unstable, damaging (strong gravitic) warp points. I want to go out and conquer. I can now get the odd ship through the warp point, but I don't feel I can get an armada thru and/or get colony ships thru with enough support to colonise remote systems.

1. Exactly how much damage does the warp point do? Every time? Can I protect against it? I've ended up putting a repair module on a ship so if it gets thru it can restore, but I don't want too many of these in a fleet and/or on colony ships, do I?

2. The black holes slow down my ships tremendously. Should I be looking to destroy the black holes? What's the tech I need? Similarly, can I make the warp point non-damaging? Is that the same tech as creating new warp points? How far is the tech?

3. Or am I making too much of a fuss? Should these features not be worrying me?

4. While I'm at it, I've seen storms and I can create/destroy them now. But I've never seen them do anything. Exactly what's the point of me creating a storm?