1. Not possible. (hard coded)

2. ten per weapon (I think, someone may need to varify this)

3. Both defined in the proper entity file. (would be more specific, but I am not on my own computer to dig up the exact details) They are Particle Effects, so every time you see a Particle effect when defining a weapon or ability. Which mesh and texture to use is defined in the Refernced Particle effect.

4. No

5. Maby.

6.Would be a little complicated. First, you wouldn't "Transfer" the power, you would simply have something that would disable the original ship, then give its target an incresed range and firepower. Then, allow the buffs to stack, so you can have multiple ships target one ship.

I have had fine luck with over 18 per weapon, so ymmv.

More than 10 points per weapon is possible. I have done it with little problems. This was before i knew about the stability problems with more than 10 points. The TEC starbase has way more than 10 laser points. It can be done, but if you can get away with less points it is better to do so. As what was said the more points the larger the drain on computer resources. If you want your mod to play on a wide range of systems then less would be more in this case.

You would need to basically turn the starbase into a capital ship for it to upgrade like one. This seems to be hardcoded, but you can play around with it to double check. Some trial, and error. You might lose the add on modules, but gain cap ship type ability's.

Anything phase lane, phase tunneling, and wormholes are hardcoded.

Each weapon has its own weapon file which is usually found in the particles folder. Some weapons use particles, but others use models like the missiles (particles are meshes with an animated texture). Again look through the files. Some are pretty self explanatory.

Most of what you are asking you can answer yourself just by experimenting with the entity's. Play around with them, and see what you can do. Just make sure you make backups of your originals.

Just to clarify... there are Weapon definitions in every ship/starbase entity file (sounds, muzzle effects, travel, travel speed, damage type, fwd/back/left/right direction, # of targets, weapon respawn/fire delay etc etc) that differ from ship to ship/base, and can selectively use different combinations of effects/sounds on a per weapon basis. On top of that, you have the Weapon points defined in the mesh (wireframe if you will) of the actual ships... they define where the Weapons you've defined in the entity files actually originate from.

The Weapon entity definitions also reference particle files in the Particle folder, the muzzle/hit sounds from the Sounds folder. It's all very customizable.

Given that there are only so many weapon damage/miss modifers (composite, heavy, medium, light, antiilight etc.) I'm not sure whether you'd really want to have more than 5 or so Weapons per entity/ship. Or you risk making "uber ships" that completely destroy the need to make different kinds of roles (why make an antistrike frigate if you can produce a fleet of all-singing all-dancing single cruiser type that shoots everything?).

As for Weapon mesh points, I've played around with around 15 hardpoints without any noticable effect... though those hardpoints only referenced a maximum of 3 entity weapon definitions.

That's not a very fair way of looking at it unless you are tinted with the familiar glasses of Sins-esque rock paper scissors gameplay rather than complex strategic gameplay that emphasizes individual ship roles over fleet composition. There is more to a ship's weapon loadout besides what damage it does, and ships can be given supplementary weapons without making them equal in all regards. With overly specialized units as in base Sins you end up with a shallow numbers game where the goal is not to direct your fleet but to make the correct proportion of X units to your opponent's Y units. This kind of attitude is why many saw Sins as lacking in depth as an RTS.