Quick and dumb questions I haven't gotten far enough to test myself
1) With orbital habitats can I colonise Gas Giants, having all the population on in Habitats?
2) Can I use STOs to fire Geo Survey Probes, I liked to RP pre ship exploration that way using PDCs and redesign Nukes for Pre-TN starts
3) What are static units with regards to ground forces? Can they still be deployed? What are they in RP terms
1) Probabaly yes, since
at the moment gas giants and super-jovians can have colonies added to them. This may be a bug; it may also stay in as an unintended feature.
These colonies have a zero max population, but that is eaxctly the situation Orbital Habitats are supposed to solve, so they should end up with a max pop of 0+250k, for example.
2) No. STO ground units are beam-weapon-only systems -- no missiles. You can build a Space Station with one or more missile launchers, and launch your probes that way and roleplay it as a ground based system. . . or even build it (or a fighter) that contains only a single missile launcher with no magazine (thus only one round) and after the geo-surv missiles runs out of endurance, scrap & salvage the SS or small craft.
3) Mechanics-wise, they have different armour & fortification levels compared to vehicles (more like infantry numbers) and can hold different (bigger) components than infantry.
Flavour-wise. . . technically whatever you choose to roleplay them as. If you're using a WWII aesthetic, they are towed weapons or fixed emplacements. If you're RPing Starship Troopers they are giant plasma-blasting bugs. With a medieval setting, they are trebuchets and catapults.