I have a number of questions:
1) As I understand things, starship and PDC components can be build ahead of time without actually building a starship or a PDC. I can see the advantage in doing this for a PDC. One can use a wealthy body to build the PDC components and later use them at a poor body to quickly stand up a PDC. However, does the same sort of theory apply for starships given the shorter build times of larger shipyards and their relative distribution across bodies?
You can build ship components using construction factories. When a new ship is laid down, any components that already available will automatically be used to reduce construction time and cost
2) In one of Steve's campaigns, he references purchasing starships from and selling starships to the commercial sector. Is this actually possible within the game without resorting to SM mode?
I removed that function a while ago and will probably add an updated version in the future. You can subsidise shipping lines though so they can afford to buy more ships.
3) Can starships, satellites, and buoys be placed into specific orbits around a body? If so, how is this done?
Any ship can be placed in an extended orbit using the appropriate fleet order. This isn't possible for buoys.
4) Can one target specific installations using ground forces? If so, how is this done?
You can use ground assaults against specific hostile PDCs by selecting them in the ground units tab of the Economics window.
5) Is there a method in which to stagger missile launches from a single starship so that it fires a larger broadside than would otherwise be possible? For example, some complicated combination of stages, etc.? On that note, how does one do this for multiple starships? Is that simply the synchronous fire option for a given task group?
The easiest way to get large salvos from single ships is to use box launchers. Using normal launchers, you could launch different speed missiles in successive salvos but you would need the target to be a particular range so all the missiles arrived at the same time. That would be possible against a planet for example as you could choose the range. If you order a fleet to open fire then all ships will fire at once. The exception is ships with delays due to inexperienced crews. In this case you can use the Synch fire option so that all ships in the same fleet will wait until all ships are ready before opening fire.
6) This is a confirmation question. In one of Steve's campaigns, he references changing the orders of missiles while in flight to a different target, a holding pattern, or even self-destruction. Reading the forums, I have seen references to this no longer being possible unless the primary target is lost. That said, could one fire missiles at a waypoint, delete the waypoint, and then re-target the missiles as desired? Alternatively, could one dumb fire the missiles and then active active sensors or enable a second state that is itself equipped with active sensors? I am fuzzy on the precedence and possibilities in this regard. An explanation would be wonderful, including how to actually designate new targets and orders for missiles when possible.
Firing at a waypoint is still possible. The rules changes is that you can no longer retarget missiles mid-flight using shipboard control, so firing at a waypoint to assemble missiles into a single wave before retargeting them is no longer possible. Missiles can have onboard sensors so if their initial target is lost or shipboard fire control is lost, they will search for a new target by themselves.
7) In one of Steve's campaigns, he references declaring an exclusion zone around a body and the relative chance that the commercial sector will ignore the exclusion zone. I assume this is a diplomatic option. How exactly is this done via diplomacy?
You can set a body as banned on the F9 System View. Commercial shipping will abide by that rule most of the time.
In one of Steve's campaigns, he references launching missiles without targets and then later designating targets as the missiles get closer. For example, dumb fire missiles with a second stage that contains an active sensor or simply activating active sensors after a dumb fire launch. Keeping my previous confusion in mind, is this similar to the "target a waypoint" strategy for missile targeting that I already outlined?
Yes. You can no longer manually retarget missiles. It used to be the case that if you changed the current target of a fire control then all missiles in flight would change target as well. Now you can fire different salvos at different targets using the same fire control and any missiles in flight will continue toward their existing targets.
9) Can one use a starship with active senors to provide targeting data to a second starship without active sensors when the second starship fires missiles? If so, how is this actually done?
All contacts are available to all friendly ships, regardless of which active sensor detected them. The firing ship still requires a fire control even if it did not detect the target with its own active sensor.
10) What is the logic behind requiring low resolution active sensors alongside low resolution fire control for AMM defenses? Does the fire control require the active sensor resolution to succeed in targeting?
An active sensor is used to search a large area of space to locate the general position of targets. A fire control is a far more focused system that provides precise targeting once the general location of a target is known but it has no search capability of its own. In this case, the low resolution active sensor is needed to detect the incoming missiles and the low resolution fire control is required to guide the missiles to their targets.
Steve