[scJazz]

1) Generally speaking you/enemy can only put 100 mines in a single hex so don't bother over equipping your sweeper(s). A type I sweeper clears a single mine so 5 ships with 20 Mine Sweeper Is will cover the highest number of mines possible. 1 ship with 20 Mine Sweeper Vs will also do the trick. I like to assign enough Mine Sweeping ships to my "assault" fleets to cover the fleet from the mine threat.

2) What dogscoff said

3) Generally speaking there is a point of diminishing returns with Multiplex tracking and only 1 component per ship is effective.

4) Exactly

5) Missiles are awesome except they suck. If you/enemy have Point defense cannons then every single turn while the cannons are in range they get to fire on incoming missiles/fighters/drones/satellites. Point Defense Cannons have a bonus to hit their target and for the most part fire automatically. In defense 1 or 2 PDCs per ship is enough to eliminate the missile threat. However some of the AI Races love missiles and fighters (Terrans for one). Beef up PDCs on your ships against those races. Other races never use missiles at all like the Eee Consortium. Offensively same scenario some races never put PDCs on their ships so using missiles against them rocks. Others have so many PDCs that it is bloody suicidal to try the missile/fighter attack against them.

6) I never use it and I hear it can be effective but I don't beleive it. Use the tonnage for additional supply space or another gun or some other thing. Caveat OK once in a great while I use them on wickedly fast recon ships but even this is done RARELY. I never use it on my combatants or support vessels.