Questions on Scoring

[MrFantastic]

I love this game but there are two things I'd like to address, one is scoring and the other is content which I will address in another post later. I love to squeeze out my highest score possible and that's half of what keeps me playing over and over, the other half is finding new things. So here's my questions:

Are you mission goals actually important or do they just affect the way items are priced? i.e. If its a science mission and I have a gun worth 3 gold and a alien worth 3 gold is the alien worth more at the end of the game?

Are two 2 gold items always worth the same or can some items be secretly 2.1 and others 2.4 but get rounded. i.e. If weapon X and weapon Y are worth 2 gold to a pirate but X is 2 for military and Y is 3 for military, is weapon Y worth more points for a pirate?

Assuming I eventually come back to this aliens home and make peace, is it worth more points to destroy their fleet in combat and then make peace or just make peace right away? Is this answer different for a fleet away from their home world? If I use the mirror to forcefully conquer a home world is this the same points as a violent victory?

I assume you get points for visiting a star before it nova's and then more points for visiting the destroyed remains? or are the original points lost when the star is destroyed? Is finding a new black hole worth points or only if you directly visit it? Are any of these answers different if not on a science mission?

Are surplus gold at golry worth points? i.e. should I sell them extra stuff of value I dont have room in my hold for?

Are there any bonus points for returning early?

I finally figured out where all those tiny little -bonus points were coming from, are there any positive bonuses besides the 2 'special fights'?

Would the following plan get you maximum points for all missions (if you could pull it off in time):
Get all extra ships on the map
Have the most expensive ship components available installed in these ships
Destroy all ships in the entire galaxy besides the Trader guys (Klax'ons or whatever)
Make peace with all races that can be pacified
Have your cargo hold filled with the most expensive items in pure gold coin value
Have every ambassador (and that other person ) in your ship
Discover every black hole and have every location on you map the green visited color
Get all the bonus points you can (you don't have to reveal these of course)
return on any day before your deadline

If there is anything unnecessary in there or something necessary missing let me know.

Thanks in advance for all the info, sorry if this got wordy.