Several newbie questions

[North Pole (OP)]

1.  Is it possible to just tell task group to go to curtain system without clicking through each jp in orders menu ?
2.  What is best solution for watching jp's ? Keeping scout or starbase on every jp bloats tg list, i have already 15 of them and its growing fast.
3.  How many tech trees can i research without falling behind on important things ? Should i mostly concentrate on one weapon type ?

[orfeusz]

1.  Is it possible to just tell task group to go to curtain system without clicking through each jp in orders menu ?

No.

3.  How many tech trees can i research without falling behind on important things ? Should i mostly concentrate on one weapon type ?

Depends on many, many things. Your doctrine, industry, wealth... There isn't One Right way of playing. You just do what You can in the best way and win or not. Best way to evaluate Your results is by playing. For example our enemy can have superior tech but you can destroy him by numbers.

For most players main weapon is missile technology. If You feel that You have enough advantage over Your opponents in it, You may "go into" others weapon techs. (This is my way of playing, but Everyone have their own ways...)

Essentially, like in real live some of Your techs will be above and some below the level of the enemy. Strong economy let You use more research facilities, build more sophisticated weapons and specialize ships for special purposes.

2.  What is best solution for watching jp's ? Keeping scout or starbase on every jp bloats tg list, i have already 15 of them and its growing fast.

Personally I use stealth ships witch passive sensors. But only in most risky systems. To place TG on list lower just add XXX in its name or something like this.
Maybe You can use buoys but i never tried that.

Sorry for my simple-English.  

[wilddog5]

if you click the show all pops tickbox in the task groups screen it will do the path for the col you select as long as it is within 4 jumps, just deslect it after the order or things go

[Bremen]

2.  What is best solution for watching jp's ? Keeping scout or starbase on every jp bloats tg list, i have already 15 of them and its growing fast.
3.  How many tech trees can i research without falling behind on important things ? Should i mostly concentrate on one weapon type ?

2: I like to put deep space tracking stations on planets in uninhabited systems. They're relatively cheap, maintenance free, and don't need population to work them. The planet even gets renamed to "Listening Post" in your colony list. I usually use 10 or so, which will often give visibility of an entire system.

3. I like to go for one long range weapon (Missiles, mostly, but alternatively fighters) and one short range (Lasers, railguns, mesons, etc). Plus either armor or shields as a defense tech.

[orfeusz]

if you click the show all pops tickbox in the task groups screen it will do the path for the col you select as long as it is within 4 jumps, just deslect it after the order or things go

Thanks. One more thing i never found 

[Panopticon]

Thanks. One more thing i never found 

I had not known about this either, this significantly streamlines my orders now.

[Havear]

2.   What is best solution for watching jp's ? Keeping scout or starbase on every jp bloats tg list, i have already 15 of them and its growing fast. 

If you want to watch jps for only a short period or for whatever reason don't want or can't use tracking stations, a sensor buoy might be a good choice.  My survey ships usually have an auxiliary launch rail (size 20 box launcher) to fire off recon drones or dropping sensor buoys.  You can easily cram in 18 months time and a good enough sensor to watch a jump point even in a size-4 buoy.

[blue emu]

If you want to watch jps for only a short period or for whatever reason don't want or can't use tracking stations, a sensor buoy might be a good choice.

An even better choice is to design a "ship" that has no components (at all) except a 0.1 HS active sensor. The minimal-size sensor will require no crew, and since the ship has no other components, that means that the whole ship will require no crew... in effect, it will be an automated sensor station. It will mass about 0.3 HS in total (including the default one layer of hull armor), will take only one day to tool up and about three days to build. It can be carried in a hangar or boat bay, and dropped off at the jump point. It will last forever... and since it is a civilian design, it requires no maintenance.

At my current tech level, I get a sensor range of about 4 m-km.

Tripwire I class Sensor Outpost    50 tons     0 Crew     4.6 BP      TCS 1  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     Armour 1-1     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 0
MSP 0    AFR 10%    IFR 0.1%    Max Repair 8 MSP


Minimal Active Search Sensor MR3-R100 (1)     GPS 280     Range 3.9m km    Resolution 100

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

It does, of course, have the drawback of bloating your ship list... but you could rename them xxx_Sensor to drop them to the end of the list.