is the overseer's jump degradation worth it?

reading the forums i found mentions of "battleballs" which are apparently tightly grouped advent fleets but isnt this potentially disastrous against vasari because of volatile nanites?

does the halcyon energy aura stack?

and why is meteor storm so weak? i used a level 2 meteor storm on some vasari cruisers and frigates and it couldn't even take their shields down.

so, ruthlessness doesn't stack either right?

also, do phase missiles ignore shield mitigation as well as shields? this is becoming odd because on multiple occasions i had capitals left with less than 1000 hull but with 2000+ shields presumably because of phase missiles...i really hate the vasari ability that stops your hull from regenerating, it seems to last pretty long

additionally, is it ever viable to start with a kortul or radiance or kol

One shot won't destroy anything; three or four shots will, and this thing affects the entire enemy fleet at once.  Very powerful ability, no sane opponent will get in range of a starbase that has this.

Kortul, maybe.  Radiance is a pretty big stretch, but doable in some situations.  Kol, absolutely not.

A little more, yes. 

Known issue; we've been asking for a fix for some time now.

All the factions do this, and it is indeed a problem.

Refineries are good in some situations.  As a general rule of thumb, you should build them so they affect at least 12 extractors.  If you're low on credits, you probably want to go with trade ports instead.  However, if you're low on metal or crystal, these are great alternatives. 

You may have to pay as much as 5 credits to buy 1 metal or crystal from the black market, so even if they give a small benefit, it's going to take a lot of pressure of your credit income even if the numbers look very small.

Just remember that refineries only stack up to three times, so you can't build them all over the place.  Find one or two good locations and put your refineries there.

This depends on the situation.  For small fleets, you probably don't need to worry.  Hoshikos and Overseers in particular (or an Advent player with a Progenitor) can help you keep your capital ships healthy even while under fire.  For big fleets, if you're not prepared to take capital ship casualties, then yes, you will need to keep them on the sidelines.

I play both ways.  When my capital ships are kept on the side, I do not feel confident that I can protect them or that I can afford to lose them.  When I have them in the thick of battle, I'm either confident that I can protect them (early-game), or I'm prepared to replace them if they die (late-game).  It's a very difficult gambit, but it can be very effective.

Early-game, capital ships can survive with a combination of repairs and good maneuvering.  Once large forces of LRF or bombers emerge, however, this is no longer easy.  You will need to very carefully maneuver your ships to keep them alive.  For most of the game, this is how it plays out, and capital ships are on the run.  Late-game, this changes.  Losing a 3000 credit capital ship is no longer a potentially game-ending event.  With fleets of hundreds of frigates, it can become a normal operating cost, commonplace in those massive battles.  You can actually afford to use your capital ships aggressively, especially if you make the enemy pay for taking them down.  Because these late-game battles incur heavy casualties, it's also easier to raise new capital ships to higher levels to replace the dead ones.  If you keep momentum, your capital ships no longer need to worry.  It's not that they're harder to kill, it's that they're now easier to replace so it's no longer worth the enemy's time to go to such efforts to snipe them.

I usually don't put capital ships in any fleet or hotkey...I select them from the empire tree...I make fleets based on ship types...

When I need to select lots of ships at once (like to retreat) I will simply select all ships with a click and drag over my fleet or I'll zoom out and click on the planet to select all my ships...

It's the Marza.  At level 6 it gains the "missile barrage" ability that can attack every enemy unit in a large area of effect.  He can only use this once every few minutes, so you can simply run out of the area of effect.  Alternately, you can try to disrupt it.  The effect will end if the Marza is hit by a disruptive strike from a Kortul, or "phase out hull" from an Antorak.

Trade requires 4 civic labs as Vasari.  That's going to take up all your starting resources plus all your income for the first few minutes just to get your first trade port operational, and even then that's an investment that could take 20 minutes to pay off.

Yes, you're definitely jumping into trade too soon.  TEC is the only faction that jump into trade immediately, and even then only on fast or higher income speed.

Very good; if you're going Assailant/Sentinel, it's a must-have.

No clue on Vasari starbase weapons.  I've never noticed anything with them before.

I have looked at them up close, I just never bothered to take notice of a particle effect.  I don't know whether there is supposed to be one or not, and it's never caught my eye.