I'm enjoying "Sins," but after a few single-player games I still have several rather basic questions.

1. Can one capture enemy installations, such as resource extractors?  How?

2. Can one place extractors in systems that are uncolonizable?  On my current map, one system is uncolonizable but it has an asteroid in it, and somehow I started mining that asteroid.  Maybe the scenario started that way? 

3. On the Empire Tree, is there anyway to change it so that each line is introduced by something other than my generic icon?  I have to squint a bit to tell which line is ships, which is installations, etc.

4. I seem to have trouble getting some frigates to auto-join a fleet.  I set them to autojoin, and the fleet seems appropriate for them, but sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.  I seem to be able to cure this by selecting both the fleet and the frigates and then toggling autojoin on/off.

5. When should I be bidding on the pirate auction?  I'll hear 'a pirate raid is forming', and the pirate timer says "zero" and is red; it seems like I have only a few seconds to bid then.  Is that the crucial time?  Or should I be bidding when the timer is counting down and is green?

6. Any way (or mod) to increase font size?  At 2560x1600, I'm doing lots of squinting.

7. Sometimes my carrier seems to wander off.  Is this behavior intentional -- to protect it once it's launched its strike craft?  I notice it seems to set a jump destination a system away after the fight starts.  Related question: is the carrier's main strength its fighter/bomber complement, or does it also use lasers etc?

8. How come I can't find any maps or mods with hundreds of stars and thousands of planets, lol?  I know that would take a while, but I'd still like to try.  I'm playing a mod map now (the one based on our actual galaxy), and it certainly is close to what I have in mind.  I suppose performance and game duration are the reasons, but so far the game is humming along nicely.