1) What precisely, defines a seeker? Is it a drone, or a missile, or both, or some combo of this and something else?
Anything that is fired from a distance, seeks out it's target and hits it.
2) What exactly to each of the types of scanners do? What are the differences between them? Can they all see cloaked ships (with a sufficiently high level, of course)? If there are no functional differences between them, what is the point of having so many different types (Active EM, Passive EM, gravitic, etc.)?
Yes. They can all see cloaked ships with levels that can overcome them. I really don't see any difference except the cost.
3) For that matter, what exactly do long-range scanners do?
They scan the components of anything that floats in space except planets. that is in your scanner area depending that they are not:
Out of range
Equipped with Scattering armor or Scanner Jammers
They also tell what is under construction and how long it will take to be completed if the ship/planet has a space yard facility/component.
4) Where is this "select mounts" window I keep reading about here, and have seen references to in the data files?
Don't know about the data files but when designing ships/bases/fighters/satellites/mines/drones/weapon platforms, look in the upper right corner and click weap mounts.
5) How exactly can I read the data files to determine what the precise values of techs will be? I was trying to figure out how to calculate the costs of each of the techs ahead of time, but the data in the datafiles seems to be incomplete to do these calculations. What effect(s) are the "game setup factors" (is it only the tech cost low/medium/high setting, and what exactly does low/medium/high do)? I just can't make heads or tails out of how much each tech is costing, even though I see some similarities between similar techs. I'm missing some piece of the puzzle, and it's frustrating me (and i'll be darned if I'm going to sit down and have to write down each and every tech cost for all three tech cost settings!).
Maybe you should download lemmy's tech tree viewer? (Don't know where the thread went, sorry.)
6) Is it just me, or are the minerals/organics/radioactives harvesting techs about the most useless in the game? I'm all about stellar manipulation and monolith facilities.... do the systemwide mineral scanner and the systemwide robotoid factory stack?
Monolith facilities may be good in the sense that they havest all three resources at the same time, but they take too much time and resources to build. Also, not all planets have 100%+ values in all resources so it's better to have specialized colonies pumping out only minerals, only organics, and only radioactives rather than all of them pumping out lots.
And no. They don't stack. It's better to build the Robotoid factory because of that.
7) What is the price of rice in China when it's raining on Tuesday?
I don't know about china but In Korea and Japan, it's pretty expensive.
