Ship Quality Bonus increases the attack and defence rating of ships, while the Ship Hit Point Bonus increases the hit points.

SQB is a planetary bonus. I.e., it only appears on planets (either through colonisation events or a planetary improvement) and only works for ships built on that planet. Originally, the Arcean Stellar Forge was the only planetary improvement that granted it. However, the CU added the bonus to the Altarian Doomsday Generator and the Hyperion Shipyard too.

I cannot definitely know what did go on in your game, but the number of researched techs is irrelevant to your techscore - only actual output (number of flasks) do measure it. Now I've observed it multiple times that the AI doesn't pick a tech to research but still musteres research - this does happen especially on the turn when you trade a tech to him which he currently does research.

And on both topics the game works & collects the area under the curve - and weighs it against the turn time passed - if you want to know this you'll have to "swap seats" using cheats and then look at the Drengin curves directly.

You get a multiplier for being victorious, plus I think all other multipliers (for galaxy size, siff setting etc) are added only at game end.

Here's another one:  I trade for a Trade Good, then go to war with the owner of that Trade Good.  Do I still get the benefit? 

It would seem so in the case of Gravity Accelerators, but I'm not so sure WRT Micro Repair Robots.

Have you gotten the Intimidation invasion tactic to work?  I have the Xeno Intimidation tech but it never shows up.  Playing 2.20.

There is a typo in the Tech_Requirement for this tactic. It's set to "Xeno Intimidation" instead of "XenoIntimidation". I missed that the last time I checked the file. Though, to be honest, I was expecting this tactic to be working. It had been almost a year since MabusAltarn split Information Warfare into two tactics (for reasons still unclear to me). If Intimidation hadn't been working, somebody would have reported it during that time, right? Yeah, maybe I was stupid expecting that.

True on both counts. Feel free to fix it. My Dropbox-link should still be valid, and Stardock seems to be in no hurry to implement the files I've sent them in January.

True, that's how it should have been handled. However, the update was supposed to only fix typos and the remaining issues with the integration of the CU into the game. I don't even remember how we got into "bugfix and balance changes"-mode. Not that it matters anymore.

Mechanized Warriors and Terror Drones work, though they are still extremely unbalanced (i.e. very underpowered). The only issue is that the techs are not showing the new tactics as something they unlock.

When you have an option of winning a game by different means, is one method preferred for a higher score?  E.g. I can ally with the last unallied race for a Diplomatic Victory.  Or I can button up and hit the research for a Tech Vic.  Or I can go out and kill somebody, which will likely end in a very long Conquest win, or more likely a DiploVic again.  Or just build more SBs for a tidal wave of Culture.

So is there a score advantage to one type over another?  To how early the win date?

And has anyone won with an Ascension Vic?  There never seems to be enough crystals to accomplish one within 5 years.

Yah.  Diplo Vic, 48K.  Techno Vic, 41K.