[Phoenix-D]

"1. What is the difference between Drones and Fighters? I noticed that in combat, drones crash into a ship, and disappear...I take it fighters will return after the battle (haven't used fighters yet)."

It's more than that. Fighters stack into Groups, drones don't. Fighters use special small components, and are small, drones use regular ship components and are large. Drones can only be told to attack and cannot be ordered after that; fighters can move around and have their orders changed. More, drones cannot be recovered; fighters CAN.

"2. how many fighters can a fighter bay hold? or does the fighter bay not have anything to do with anything? I noticed that there can be 2 drones per 1 drone bay, wondering how many fighters a fighter bay can hold..."

Fighter Bays generally hold 2 tech level fighters, that is a Bay I will hold 2 small fighters, Bay II holds two medium, etc. But you'll fit much more fighters than drones in cargo space- since they can be stored in cargo bays and then launched, you don't have to go 100% bays.

"3. what is the purpose of transports?"

Move population, weapon platforms, troops, spare fighters/sats/drones

"4. can space stations move to another planet, or system?"

No,

"5. the game takes place in a "galaxy". A sun w/ it's planets and what-not are the "system", and the actual grid coordinates are a "sector", right???"

Close enough.