1)The system represents the thing of interest, e.g. heat engine, chemical reaction vessel. This is distinct from the surroundings, which may receive dissipated energy if necessary. 

2)Life support helps one to breath and not die, so that one can play more Fleet Operations

3)Improving shields and weapons is worth it. Screw the cost, your enemy will get the upgrades anyway, then will kick your ass.   

4)I tried credit only ships once. I never tried again... 

5)To my knowledge, no one has used multiple avalons in combat. Actually, I think Worf did it once, and he got his butt kicked.

I thank you for thanking me for my patience. In fact, I thank myself. Regularly. 

Kind Regards,

The Doctor

yah.  the Avalons have a big weak point.  The fighters just don't get to the targets fast enough.  the ships r also really dumb and waste their energy (i.e. fighters) on the first thing that hits their sights.

is there any chance of a redesign that turns the fighters into a non target special weapon that hits the closest enemies till it runs outta energy?

i always though system value meant that it took longer for u to lose systems such as sensors/engines

Yeah, something like that: it's a combination of how quickly it regenerates special energy, as well as all systems really; after being damaged etc... So support ships and really powerful ones generally have higher system values than the smaller ships with limited abilities. I think that's it... (can't remember the thread though)
-dn