Planets have a base number for Production, Research, and Credits.  What determines/impacts that base number? 

(16 quality planet, 10 science buildings and my research capitol later I am pumping out 20 research... because the base number is between 1 and 2 - I've done something horribly wrong.. and I have no idea why that base number is next to nothing.)

What research do you get to upgrade/improve your ship options?

It doesn't seem possible to research everything, but there doesn't seem to be a way to understand from looking at the tech tree which research is valuable.   Is there a resource somewhere that explains what the various tech tree options do and what the advantages/drawbacks are from each of the major branches? 

How do you deal with pirates?  What combinations of weapons, defenses, and other tech will enable you to beat these "easy" foes without 20-40 turns of production from 4-5 starbases? 

The let's plays I have found so far are along the lines of "I have no idea what I am doing, but this looks fun", "Look at this shiny new feature that will only make sense if you have 300+ hours in game", or "I am doing this particular strategy with no explanation as to any of the tradeoffs".   Are there any out there where someone is playing a flexible strategy, specializing their planets in various ways to optimize, and critically, where they are explaining the choices they are making? 

Thanks for the help!