Some newb questions

* Is there a convenient way to launch tac missles, or do I always need to go to the silo and click on one?

* Is it possible to pause nuke silos from building / draining resources? (I realize you can decrease their drain by putting more build power onto something else.)

* Is terraforming in Chiken games considered cheating or something that is otherwise typically not done?

* Are there Chiken maps good for 1 player defending? It seems most are geared towards at least two players.

* Are there hotkeys to make units in factories?

* Is there a way to see which mods (or whatever the stuff in the f11 menue is called) you enabled/disabled compared to the default, or otherwise reset them?

* Is there a tutorial on the various static defences somewhere? I know I can get some description and stuff such as range and DPS by spacebar-left-click, though it's not trivial to spot deviations from what you'd expect (such as higher cost = longer range but lower DPS/cost) when there are so many.

* Is there a list of profile badges one can achieve, and is it possible to see what the requirements are for one I already got?

* How do you upvote a forum post? Do you need to have a certain minimum number of posts or account age, or am I being blind and not seeing the button?

* How come I got no badge on my profile for doing this? http://www.twitch.tv/entropygames/v/25581993

Feel free to link relevant docs for specific questions and be all "RTFM" :)

-I think tehre isn't other way to launh tac missiles from silo. Its counted as unit and there is 4 missile types.
-You can pause if you just reclaim some metal form nuke silo. Otherwise you can build limited count nukes or set silo priority on low *there are options in right side in unit screen).
-Terraforming in chicken games int cheating because its allowed. Of course if you dig in some units and chickens cant kill them then it will be cheating. Terraform is cheating against CAI bot however still allowed in game.
-There is hotkey for each unit in factory. Still i didnt use them..
-I never see any tutorial about defense building. I think it's beacsue most players dislike use many defense buildins who is called 'porc'. One thing you however must to remeber - always lotos or defender to you factoy is needed. Then you 100% will get 1800 elo. :D
-You need at least level ten to vote in forum.As i remeber. It was neccesary because of smurf accounts (fake account).

http://zero-k.info/Static/UnitGuide#staticweapons

A comprehensive answer because the former ones are chaotic and lacking.

quote: * Is there a convenient way to launch tac missles, or do I always need to go to the silo and click on one?

Not really. It is possible to make custom hotkeys but it's fairly difficult and no default way to do that.

quote: * Is it possible to pause nuke silos from building / draining resources? (I realize you can decrease their drain by putting more build power onto something else.)

The order menu has a button with a three missiles icon and a 0/100 (or so) label. This is how many nukes are ordered, it works the same as unit queue in factories, ie. you can right-click to decrease it. Ctrl+Shift+RMB will decrease it by 100, same as factory - Shift is x5, Ctrl is x20 when dealing with fac orders.

In the future the Wait command (Ctrl+W) will most likely be able to pause stockpile as well.

quote: * Is terraforming in Chiken games considered cheating or something that is otherwise typically not done?

Feel free to use everything you consider fun. It's effective but not considered cheating (nothing is, really - Chickens is not a competitive mode, it's mostly for dicking around).

quote: * Are there Chiken maps good for 1 player defending? It seems most are geared towards at least two players.

You can use anything as a Chicken map. Pick a normal 1v1 map and perhaps reduce the Chicken difficulty (through game options and picking the Custom difficulty) to get the appropriate level of challenge.

quote: * Are there hotkeys to make units in factories?

F10 menu: Settings -> HUD Panels -> Command Panel.
Check "Hotkeys for Units tab" here.
You will need to hold Space. If you uncheck "Unit tab hotkeys require Meta" you will not need to do that, but beware that this makes it impossible to use hotkeys to give the factory an order queue for completed units.

quote: * Is there a way to see which mods (or whatever the stuff in the f11 menue is called) you enabled/disabled compared to the default, or otherwise reset them?

They're "widgets". To reset them go to your content folder (in the lobby: [Settings] -> [Open Game Data Folder]), from there go to LuaUI and delete the Config folder (the one that contains ZK_data and ZK_order files). Ideally you should instead use the F10 menu for settings though.

quote: * Is there a tutorial on the various static defences somewhere? I know I can get some description and stuff such as range and DPS by spacebar-left-click, though it's not trivial to spot deviations from what you'd expect (such as higher cost = longer range but lower DPS/cost) when there are so many.

Not an official one, apart from the Space+Click info. Here is an unofficial guide but beware that it is outdated and was never really fact-checked in the first place. It's probably best to experiment a bit ingame to see how they feel though.

quote: * Is there a list of profile badges one can achieve, and is it possible to see what the requirements are for one I already got?

Do you mean the awards you can get at the end of each game? The list is here.

quote: * How do you upvote a forum post? Do you need to have a certain minimum number of posts or account age, or am I being blind and not seeing the button?

You need to be account level 10. Then you can just click on the appropriate +X/-Y button.

quote: * How come I got no badge on my profile for doing this? http://www.twitch.tv/entropygames/v/25581993

Awards (ie. badges) are for comparative performance. Sorry, not good enough! ;P

Sprung seemed the most correct by far.

Community badges sound like a good idea. Streamer, caster, map maker, extensive wiki editing etc...

Watched the video. There was a suggestion to have the Starlight start as 'off'.

This is doable through the game menu (for all units and most of the unit states).
F10 -> Game -> Initial Unit States.

Having this by default has been suggested a few times but then you get newbies who don't know about the On/Off toggle and cannot use the building. In most cases the stuff teamkilled by a Starlight does not matter at all because the Starlight is so powerful you pretty much win the game the moment you turn it on.

Pff that's nothing..

Hotkeys for making units from factories can be set manually (look in the menu under game -> construction hotkeys or some such). Would be good if it had an interface more like the hotkeys for building construction such that the hotkeys could overlap with other things, though.

There also used to be this badge:

As far as I can recall, terraform does not break chicken games. This is good to know when you are deciding whether to use it or not. Terraform fortresses can fall to their Lobber artillery and spider chickens.