1) Generally, no. The AI doesn't respond to most of the diplomacy options. But some things will work. You can influence their attitude towards you with gifts/tribute and even general Messages, for example. But the effect is small. You'd have to send 5-10 gifts to make up for one destroyed ship or planet for example.
2) See above. The AI does not actually respond to most diplomacy options. It just sends a message
saying that it will.
3) You shouldn't be facing the Allegiance Converter in the early game unless you are playing high-tech. But anyway, use master computers or just stay out of range with seekers. Or deny ship combat completely with mines and other units.
4) Nope. In fact, it is counter-productive when used in ships that will be fighting a Psychic race. You cannot recapture your own ships if they have self-destruct devices! So I tend not to bother with it. It's usually more effective to just recapture your own ships, whether they are taken by Allegiance Subverter or standard boarders.
5) Apparently not. So, you usually need a larger ship with a mount to make 'damages only X' type weapons work effectively. Note that with shield mounts coming in the next patch it will become even harder to use the Shield Disruptor, at least against larger ships. I'm planning to add a special mount just to make engines more difficult to destroy with Ion weapons, too. "Hardened Engines" or something like that. No need for a special component anymore.
6) Depends. It might mean that the missiles didn't really hit the planet, if you were firing from max range. Missiles run out of fuel without making any obvious noises. Otherwise, it might just be a glitch and you'll see the damage if you left-click on the planet.
7) It seems to be population. Then the units in cargo are added. It would be nice if we could build 'bomb shelters' or some such facility to reinforce planets, wouldn't it?
8) Like most other aspects of the game, the AI doesn't use formations the way we use them. It will ignore the formation that ships have been given if it sees some reason to, like moving ships into attack range.
9) Nope. Each planet must be individually blockaded. If you have enough ships in the system, though, you may send all the planets into rioting which will also deny their production to the owning empire.
10) Without a description of the ship designs I can't say. Most likely you've got a short-ranged weapon on the ships which causes the AI to close in and try to use it.
Also, the default 'Maximum Weapons Range' strategy is apparently faulty. Change it to use Max Weapons Range for both primary and secondary options and this may go away.
11) As others have pointed out, not getting hit is best. ECM, stealth and/or scattering armor, ship and fleet training, all help prevent getting hit. Other than that, stay out of range.
Many mods do have a 'counter-measure' for the 'skips shields and armor' weapons in the form of 'internal armor'. This is fairly effective but uses up you ship space just as regular armor does.
[ July 20, 2002, 21:33: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]