Observations and facts about basic game mechanics

[SlowerThanLight]

Here are some things I've learned from experimenting that others might find helpful

Rebel Fleet
-The rebels advance one "step" for every jump you make
-Jumps that terminate in nebulae cause the rebels to only advance half a step
-The "Warning" circle shows where the fleet will be after you make your jump
-Events that delay or distract the rebels cause the advance to freeze for 1-2 turns (depends on the specific event)
-If you have left over turns of delay after leaving a system, they are carried over to the next. This is very rare unless you are modding the data files.

Crew Mechanics
-Both Pilot and Engine skills increase by one whenever your ship dodges a projectile
-Asteroids count, but only if there is an enemy ship still present
-P&E skills count projectiles, not attack commands. If you dodge all three shots from a burst laser, you get 3 xp, not 1
-Gunnery skill increases whenever you fire a weapon. It does not matter if you hit anything.
-Gunnery skill counts attack commands, not projectiles. A 3-burst laser that lands all of its shots still only grants one xp
-Repair skill increases whenever a crew member completes the final 'tick' of repairs on a box. Only the person who got in the last tick gets the xp
-Xp is granted per repair action, not per system. Fixing a 3-box system grants 3 xp, not 1
-Systems that have 2 boxes per level (eg shields) still only grant 1 xp per action, even though they recover 2 boxes per repair
-Hull breaches DO NOT count as a repair action for xp purposes (EDIT: typo)
-Combat xp is granted to whomever lands the killing blow
-Fire fighting does not grant any xp to any of the categories

Races
-Except for humans, every race has a blue text event associated with them.
-The Zoltan power bonus is very useful in ion storms
-The Engi text is vague. They inflict half damage in combat, they do not receive half damage
-Slugs are mostly only useful in nebulae
-The Rockmen have just enough hit points to be transported into a depressurized room and still be alive during the next cycle (providing nothing happens to your transporter in the meantime). This is useful against robot ships, who lack internal defenses and have poor repair abilities.

Events
-System contents and random event resolutions are predetermined upon sector generation (confirmed through experiments with save scumming)
-If a certain choice in an event results in a given outcome, that outcome will always happen, regardless of how many times you save scum or what changes you make to your crew. The only way it could be different is if you enable a blue text option
-Some minor things are still perfectly random: Store contents, and specific numeric awards, and the bonuses you get for rescuing ships and capturing hostile ships
-Unless an attribute has blue text associated with a given event, it will have no impact on the resolution. You do not get more favorable odds in the spider infestation event for having lots of mantis warriors with high combat ratings, for example.

Captures
-Capturing a ship gives more scrap than merely destroying it. Because of the random nature of the awards, this is very hard to quantify, but I am certain that the effect is real.
-Captures also have a chance of triggering a random bonus event, either a large stash of a specific resource, a piece of equipment, or a new crew member. There will be a special line of text pointing this out when it happens.

[Maya]

Slugs are also usefull when your sensors get hit. So if you got the choice between a human and a Slug, the Slug would be the best choice if the human doesn't have a mastered Skill.

[SlowerThanLight]

I should have mentioned that too. Slugs are definitely better than humans (personally, I think everyone is better than human and I try to filter the filthy monkies out of my crew as quickly as possible). The deal with slugs is that there is no stacking benefit to having more than one.

[GoldenShadowGS]

When you are boarded and your sensors are out for some reason, you can look at the system and subsystem power icons on the bottom of the screen. The boarders will be in the room(s) with the red fist sysmbol meaning it is under attack.

It takes 15 evades to level up the pilot and engine operator
It takes 55 shield hits to level up your shield operator
It takes 65 weapon fires to level up your weapons operator
It takes 18 repairs to level up repairing
It takes 8 kills to level up combat.

If you are forced to fight the rebel fleet when they catch up to you, don't waste time trying to kill them. Just FTL jump as soon as you are charged up, because there is no reward for winning.

[Algarth]

If you are forced to fight the rebel fleet when they catch up to you, don't waste time trying to kill them. Just FTL jump as soon as you are charged up, because there is no reward for winning.

Not entirely true. You get one fuel, so if you can win without damage it's a wash.

[Algarth]

-Gunnery skill increases whenever an attack command results in a hit on the enemy ship (shield hits do count)

Firing a weapon at all gives 1XP. Miss, hit, shields, doesn't matter. 1XP.
Just checked with a Kestrel B. Four fast-charging basic lasers gave me a master weapons crew in short order.

[SlowerThanLight]

Thanks, I fixed this in the post to avoid giving out wrong information. I thought I tested that, but I guess I got confused.

[DarkTKnight]

-If you have left over turns of delay after leaving a system, they are carried over to the next. This is very rare unless you are modding the data files.
what does that mean? ^

-P&E skills count projectiles, not attack commands. If you dodge all three shots from a burst laser, you get 3 xp, not 1
what does that mean? ^

-Gunnery skill increases whenever you fire a weapon. It does not matter if you hit anything.
-Gunnery skill counts attack commands, not projectiles. A 3-burst laser that lands all of its shots still only grants one xp
So your saying if your (2x)Burst Laser II fires 3(6 shots total) shots your guy on the weapons skill goes up by 6? ^

[Maya]

-If you have left over turns of delay after leaving a system, they are carried over to the next. This is very rare unless you are modding the data files.
what does that mean? ^

-P&E skills count projectiles, not attack commands. If you dodge all three shots from a burst laser, you get 3 xp, not 1
what does that mean? ^

-Gunnery skill increases whenever you fire a weapon. It does not matter if you hit anything.
-Gunnery skill counts attack commands, not projectiles. A 3-burst laser that lands all of its shots still only grants one xp
So your saying if your (2x)Burst Laser II fires 3(6 shots total) shots your guy on the weapons skill goes up by 6? ^

- Most event's just delay the enemy fleed one round so if you don't get it a the exit-Point, then you normally can't carry it to the next level. The only way to get it is to find your savedata, in it the variables wich manage the fleets delay and then you can raise it.

- P&E are Piloting and Engine Skill.

- No, it's not important which weapon you use or how many times they fire. You get just one XP if it get's on Cooldown. So the Burst Laser II just gives you 1 XP even if it's shots 3 times

[Litestrider]

Does anyone know exactly how the Zoltan power boost works? From what I've seen, in some systems it will fill in for a missing power, giving you an extra bar to reallocate. In others it will still make one of the power bars golden, but it won't actually free up any power. I'm guessing it provides a stronger boost for those? And then in one case, I don't remember which system it was unfortunately, my Zoltan provided a free power bar, but then once I jumped to a new beacon that power bar disappeared and it acted like the second case.