[Psitticine]

1: There's no specific amount of population needed to operate facilities. (I wish they'd add that in the future actually!) All you need is 1 colonist and any number of buildings will operate just fine. Population will, however, boost production on a percentage basis if of suitable size. Check out the details tab on a planet status window to see if the population there is large enough to give a bonus.

2: The happier they are, the faster they breed, and the more people you have, the bigger the bonus they give to production.

3: I haven't tried the null space beam against phased shields so I don't know if it protects against them or not. Considering the damage dealt by the NS beam isn't too large, it's a pretty big weapon, and its ROF is fairly low, I think it isn't unbalanced even if phased shields don't work against them.

8: It boosts the reproduction speed, just as happiness does.

14: Armour can absorb more than one hit. Check out the damage resistance stats on the various types. Even one piece of armour can soak up more abuse than you might think.

15: If you launch them either with the Colonize button or by the Send Colony Ship command in the Planets window, they will be auto-loaded with colonists from the planet they are in orbit around (which would be the same one they were built at unless you've sent them off someplace already.) It makes it a two-click process.