-What do government types do other than change research labs? I read somewhere that it affects diplomacy calcs; is there somewhere where I can see the differences?
While they are largely for role-playing purposes (including how the AI 'roleplays' NPRs), they do affect your starting allocations - for pretty much everything that has a tab on the F2 'Population & Production' window except Terraforming and the actual amount of minerals present.
You can see the differences on the Ctrl-F2 'Race Info' screen - or more accurately, the
effect the differences have by switching government types. There isn't really a player accessible list of the exact percentile modifiers to everything. The 'Diplomacy effects' refers to the Xenophobia score, which is an annual penalty to all diplomatic relations.
-I ran into a peacock race and my diplomatic team concluded communication is impossible. Is this normal? I thought I read somewhere that communication should never be impossible. Also, as they destroyed my ship that found them in one system from Sol, should I be worried about them invading?
Steve has flip-flopped on the idea of 'Communication Impossible' over the years, but certainly it is a far less common result than in Aurora 1.0.
And you shold always be worried about 'them' invading you - and extra worried if 'they' have a jump-gate route to your territory.
-All of my industry is on Earth. Earth is about out of Sorium. I built a fuel tanker with refineries on it. Do I just move the tanker to Saturn, where there is Sorium, and it will automatically mine it? Will it automatically convert it to fuel or leave it as Sorium? If it converts it to fuel, is there an option like "Unload all fuel" like a mining freighter would?
Yes, a ship with harvester modules at a GG with Sorium will automatically convert it to fuel - which is a problem when you need actual Sorium for ship components and such - and there are conditional orders such as 'Unload 90% fuel at nearest colony.'
-Can I only move geology teams onto habitable colonies? Can I move them to uninhabitable planets or moons that I do not have a colony on? I seem to be having trouble moving my geology teams around.
No, you can move them to any colony. No, you can
only move them to colonies.
Rocks don't have to be habitable to get colonies on them - in Aurora, 'Colony' means 'large flat space where I put stuff.' You can put a colony on any system body other than a Gas Giant, Super Jovian, or actual Star. It's best to get in the habit of using the 'Add Colony' button on the F9 'System Info' window to do it.
So slap down a colony where you want you geo team to go, then issue a ship orders to take them there.
-Can I scuttle and salvage ships? I have some ships I built when I was just starting and are useless. Can I disband and get raw materials out of them?
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. You can destroy your own ship on the F6 'Units' window. You need a special ship system, the Salvage Module, to recover wrecks. You can scrap a unit by moving it to
any shipyard and using the 'scrap' shipyard task. You'll recover any ship components (such as engines, turrets, etc.) and 1/4 of the rest of the ship's value in minerals and wealth. The components can likewise be scrapped for 1/4 of their cost in minerals & wealth.
