Questions:

1) a 1v1 on a small map can be completed in under an hour.

2) most common to build only 1 cap ship and then scuttle the factory. its possible to end a game like this with only 1 fleet supply upgrade, though its common to research 2 of them.

3)i don't know how people like to play Advent but i've played enough TEC and Vasari to have a couple of recommendations
- for TEC: very important to build up to 2 civic labs to get trade ports and 2 military labs to get LRMs. You don't really need to go higher up the tech tree than this until after the first hour of the game. Alot of TEC players like to rush to a network of trade ports to fund an extra large fleet of LRM frigates and use sheer numbers and economic advantage to win.
- for Vasari: its actually possible to field an effective early game force with only a single military lab (for Assailants). Vasari economy is notoriously slow in the early stages of the game. You really need at minimum 3 civic labs (for Matter Processor) to get anything going, and sometimes 4 labs (for Trade Ports). If you intend to rush as Vasari you probably won't build any civic labs at all and will devote all of your resources into ships and military research. This can work surprisingly well because Vasari ships start off significantly stronger then other ships and early tier military research is very beneficial for them (the phase missile and hull upgrades in particular). If the game goes longer though you'll eventually need to get at least 2 civilian labs so you can colonize Volcanic/Ice worlds.

4) Depends on the map. Sometimes I start immediately after securing the first asteroid. You can pull this off if you built a rush oriented cap ship like the Antorak Marauder (for Vasari) or Sova Carrier (for TEC) and picked up its planet harrassment ability. Most of the time I'll get a battleship as my first cap and try to colonize 2 or 3 planets before actively seeking out a confrontation. I value military research very highly so I like to try and get an Ice World for the crystal so I can research weapon upgrades.

5) Depends on what my fleet is doing. If I have a cap ship and some frigates idling in my own territory I'll just fight the pirates and get the experience for my cap ship. Most of the time I try to pay them off though, its a pretty easy way to distract your opponent. It will cause them to either commit military assets to defending (thus taking pressure off yourself) or they'll lose a border colony to the pirates.

6) This is too complicated to address in one post. I do leave auto-attack on though, most of the time the default attack stance works well. I try to manually cast most of my cap ship special abilities, though some I just leave on auto (like the Kol Battleship's Gauss Gun). Most support frigate abilities are really designed to just leave on auto, like your various repairs or buffs or debuffs. No need to manually cast most of that stuff.

7) Yes, on a 5v5 the strategy is vastly different. In a game that large scale I will always start with a colonizer cap ship. I'll then build 2 civic labs right away, so I can colonize Volcanic and Ice Worlds, then 2 military labs after that to get access to fleet essentials like LRMs, Flaks, and defense structures. Then I'll probably go up to 4 or even 5 civic labs before doing any more military research. Building a large empire with a strong economy is priority #1 on a map this big. Once your economy is established you can decide what your military strategy is.

You'll probably need a balanced fleet with lots of LRMs and/or Heavy Cruisers for your main firepower, a good bit of support cruisers, and multiple capital ships. For example, a good late game Vasari fleet might have a Destructor cap ship so you can wipe out big clusters of enemies with Volatile Nanites, an Evacuator cap ship so you can chew up enemy caps ships with Nano-Dissasembler (the armor reduction is a massive damage bonus) and keep them from running with Gravity Warhead, and a Desolator that can synergize Volatile Nanites with Phase Missile Swarm and cause massive chain reactions. The fleet should be mostly assailants, with plenty of sentinels, and a few subverters and overseers.

What's more, is that you'll probably need more than one fleet like this because the system is so big you'll need to be able to cover 2 or more sectors and that can only be accomplished with multiple fleets. This takes a huge economy to support and lots and lots research.

I

Suggested start for advent: first build a cap factory and a cap ship(progenitor, haly, or radiance, I prefer haly) get 3 harmony labs asap, research culture building, trade ports, and faster research tech first, unless you happen to need one of the planet col techs right away. then blast through to 9 hostility, getting defense frigates asap then illums. and of course expand as fast as you damn well can.

edit: forgot to mention that you *can* scuttle the cap ship factory right away... but I dont, b/c I usually mass caps w/ advent because their abilities are pretty awesome and the radiance will go gun for gun against an equal fleet supply of any of their lesser ships anyways, + can silence and has that really cool aggro rotation ability which makes it far superior imo