All of these questions and answers were posted on the Assistance Forum of this website and are archived here for easy reference. If you do not find an answer to your questions here, please post it in the Forum.

Q: What exactly are pilots’ suits?

Pilots' suits are basically spandex jumpsuits. There are a few variations, but the most common cover everything but the face, with a hole for the neural socket in the back of the neck. They are a type of armored clothes (AR 2), plus are partially fire resistant (i.e. they offer no protection, but are inflammable) resilient and padded (to reduce crash damage as described in Chapter 7). Human fashion often has less revealing versions made out of stuff other than spandex - they've always been so pointlessly modest. Synthetic leather is a popular alternative. Colors, of course, are anything the pilot wants, but draconians usually go for a shimmering black.

Q: How do you actually get into a mecha?

Characters sit in a mecha curled into a fetal-position ball, inside a special, spherical cockpit. All sensor and control data is fed entirely though the neural socket and a head-worn visor with ear plugs.
As far as getting into a mecha, the preferred way is to have it standing in a docking bay where it can be locked to the wall. Then the chest front folds down and the little ball where the pilot sits opens up to let him in/out. Draconians like to just leap out and glide to the ground, but humans actually need ladders. Sometimes docking bays are built with depressions in the ground for mecha to stand in so that the pilot comes out at ground level
In a situation where pilots might not have an actual docking station, they pretty much make do with what they have. The mecha could lie down or even kneel to help the pilot down or up - once the pilot is out, the unit can be set to freeze its muscles until further notice so unless the pilot leaves it in a very awkward position, that is quite flexible.

Q: Why would you optimize a neutron drive for anything other than 5G except when pulling loads?

In short, you wouldn't.
5 G is only the limit that merely organic people can survive for extended periods of time. Cyborgs can tolerate up to 20 Gs, so having that much acceleration is good. Even fighter pilots will want at least 10 Gs because they can do that for one round per battle.
However, the main point of optimization is only to help the drive pull loads. And there isn't really any point to some of the extremely powerful engines if you're not hauling anything around (for example, a 20 G mass driver engine could get 80 Gs if it didn't have a load attached).
By the way, you should keep in mind that (at least on small vessels) the PCs and their equipment are a sizeable chunk of cargo - enough to slow the ship down a little from its maximum unloaded acceleration. A typical group of 5 PCs plus equipment would cut the acceleration of a shuttle nearly in half because of the load.

Q: Are there more specific effects for the drugs listed Chapter 5 of the book?

Some general guidelines for specifics can be found throughout the book’s text, but for a variety of reasons, they were not specifically discussed in one area. Here is a good list of references, suggestions and guides.
Hallucinogens: works just like the hallucination insanity (page 108) while under the influence of the drug. Evil GMs (like myself) would consider the possibility of flashbacks...
Anesthetics (Pain-Killers): a character immune to pain has no incapacitation roll required when in combat (just like cyborgs). Of course, it would seem safe to treat side-effects of these drugs like a drink to two of alcohol (see page 107). Surgical anesthetics would double as a tranquilizer and have the effects of both drugs (but the cost of those is already accounted for in the consumable cost for surgical kits on page 154).
Mild Poison: If you don't like the live/die contrast provided by the rules on page 154, you could treat it like a poison gas (page 173 to 174) and treat the damage the gas causes to the chest as if it were applied throughout the body (you'd have to ignore the broken bone results, treating them as disabled instead). Most poisons kill either by stopping the heart of causing internal bleeding, so the two are comparable - I think I'd give the poison drug an S bonus (perhaps +2 or +3) if it were meant to kill its target (some poisons are intended to kill pests instead of people).
Strong Poison: the rules on page 154 say these work just like nerve gas (p 174) so are pretty easy to deal with.
Sedative/Tranquilizer: In my mind, a sedative is merely there to calm someone down - perhaps treat it like four or five drinks of alcohol (page 107). A tranquilizer is just knock-out gas in a liquid form. If you wanted the tranquilizer to be more effective treat a successful Poison test as having the same effect as a sedative instead.
Stimulant: Stims are mentioned in the combat chapter (page 169) and ar designed simply to wake a character up. A recreational stimulant like cocaine or amphetamines would probably have actual modifiers to attributes - perhaps the same as being drunk (a -15 to all attributes), except that they'd receive a bonus to initiative. Prolonged use of cocaine (a Seratonin-affecting drug) would result in depression (p 108) and prolonged use of amphetamines would result in paranoia (p 109)
Vaccines: these, of course, are discussed with diseases on page 110.
A deeper discussion of drugs, poisons and effects will be left to the wildlife supplement, since a big part of draconian-age interest in wildlife focuses on the things animals can do for (or against) people. And since plants or animals produce nearly every drug known to modern science, it seems reasonable to include them there with a discussion of the source life form.
However, if anyone wants to delve into drug manufacturing on an in-depth level, I'd love to put what they come up with in the Player Resources area.

Q: Are there truth serums in Pax Draconis? Can a character make one?

There are truth serums and a character could make one (pending GM approval). I'm not sure exactly what goes into something like a truth serum, though I infer that it must be difficult to make, otherwise we'd see the Mafia using it on the streets. On the other hand, there might be something similar in the future that would be easier to create. I haven't written up descriptions for truth serums for the military supplement yet, but I think they will work by temporarily lowering the target's WP.

Q: Would EMP grenades exist in the Pax Draconis universe? What would their area of effect be? Etc...

Some sort of EMP weapon would undoubtedly exist and will be detailed in the military and government supplement. We held off on including them in the base book for space reasons and also because they are not likely to be as small, simple or cheap as many players might expect.

Q: The description of neutron drive pricing on p 131 is confusing.

OK, let me rewrite that section of the book (from p 131) here as it seems to be causing some confusion:
Most craft come with some sort of a neutron drive by default. However, characters may want to modify what they receive, and they will definitely need to know the value of their drive should repairs be necessary.
Space-capable drives come in a range of power, rated by a maximum G force potential of 5 G, 10 G, 15 G or 20 G. The drives also have an optimization level which describes fine tuning done to manipulate the direction of thrust. The exact features of each optimization setting can be found in Chapter 7 - Vehicles.
To calculate the cost of a space-capable drive, first find the price multiplier from the chart, referencing the G rating with the optimization level. Multiply that result by the length of the vehicle (in meters) for a final price.
Hovercraft and atmospheric craft (noted by "Hov" or "Atm" in the price lists) have a simple 1.2 G neutron drive in standard optimization. Because the optimization cannot be changed, the price is a simple 200 CR per meter of the vehicle's length. Wheeled vehicles pay the same price for their engines, even though they do not use a neutron drive.
I apologize for any confusion on that section.

Q: Why does the chart on p.187 show some turrets w/ limited rotation, while the text on p.188 claims that all turrets have 360x90 firing arcs? Which one is right?

The chart on p 187 is correct. A Heavy turret has 360 degrees of fire, but is restricted to angles between 15 and 75 degrees. This is why it actually is advantageous for mecha to get in under the guns and use combat blades to attack a ship's hull.

Q: Should a Hovercar really have a required crew of 4, or should that be 1 w/ 3 passengers? (p. 125, and a similar question applies to most of the other hover/atmospheric vehicles.)

Technically speaking, none of the "required" crew are absolutely necessary. Software assistance, AIs, etc. can all assist a pilot and in most cases, what it is really referring to are the number of seats in the cockpit (and stations for crew).
It does cause some confusion though... I need to find a way to make it more clear yet try to fit into the current charts so that information is still good for reference.

Q:On p. 146, in the laser sword description, it mentions a picture that doesn't seem to exist.

Yes, it looks like that image was left out, even though it looks like there's room on the page for it.

Q: Why do all physical weapons have a ROF of 5s? I'd think at least some (particularly the axe and improvised) would be a bit slower.

As for making so many weapons 5 s, that is simply the most you could use the weapon anyway (two snap action jabs with each normal action, plus an interrupt action jab). Some of the heavier weapons would probably justify restrictions against using jabs, though I think even an axe could be swung in shorter, more controlled strokes.

Q: On p. 76 the social level in between upper middle class and wealthy is called "upper class", while on p.153 it is "affluent".

Actually, Affluent (p153) refers to Upper Middle Class (p76), Wealthy (p153) refers to Upper Class (p76) and Very Wealthy (p153) refers to Wealthy (p76) - so there are three sets of mismatched terms. I'm going to restrict the proofers' water and bread rations for the next week

Q: Where exactly are Hard Points located?

Hard Points aren't really located anywhere specifically in terms of the given vehicles. The main reason for this is that the concern with Hard Points is more over how much a vehicle can carry than with where. Another reason is that buying a shuttle is like buying a truck today - there are dozens of slightly different models to choose from. In general, players can place weapons anywhere that makes sense - a hard point on a powersuit's shin probably wouldn't be practical.

Q: Can someone see through walls with Infra-red? What about millimeter wave?

The short answer to this is no, you can't see through walls. The longer answer is that full optics consists of standard visual, enhanced low-lifght, infa-red and ultra-violet vision. Low-light works by amplifying ambient light, which means it works very well even in starlight. Ultra-violet light reflects somewhat differently than the standard visual spectrum, but not very much so - having it of minimal advantage. Infra-red works by picking up heat. Hot objects appear bright and cold ones dark (though the computer would then color-code them to give a better idea of what temperatures certain objects actually are).

When it comes to seeing through walls, many objects are translucent to infra-red. Wax paper is translucent to normal light so players who insist you can see through walls with infra-red should try walking around their house with wax paper taped over their eyes. However, this limited ability can sometimes be useful - it might show which rooms of a house are heated, if a car's engine is still warm and the like.

Millimeter wave is an alternate name for a doppler radar system, and there are versions being tested today that can detect movement through walls - but only movement, so it would be impossible to tell if movement were coming from terrorists or their hostages, for example. Actually, this is the system employed by motion sensors in the rule book and it can be very useful as long as the device is held perfectly still (since a moving doppler radar system will report that everything is moving).