New to the game, and need some help

[Marley's Shield]

I am new to the game, and although I had played the tutorial and tried several single-player games with mods, some features and things I still don't really understand.

1. Is it possible to play the whole game til the very end? (i.e. The scoring screen won't show up even the AI is still "surviving"? Since the AI cities still have population and their fleets are still cruising around, so I want to destroy them all then end the game)

2. In the Configure session(advanced new game settings), there are couple of questions I want to ask:
- What is Full Warhead Production Efficiency? Does it mean the speed of producing nukes?
- What does Containment Speed and its percentage mean? Is it about the pollution percentage shown on the top right corner during the game?
- What are Counter Trigger and its percentage? In default it sets at 50% but I still don't get it...

3. In-game part:
- In the strike plan panel, what are the "best config", "sync attack", and "timed destruction" really mean?

I may have missed something in the tutorial, and I would go back and try it again.
BTW, I really love this game!
Thank you!

[Ghetsis]

1. It's hard but it is possible.
*To make the game last longer (especially in an 8-10 player world,) lower your Contamination Speed to 25%, and raise the countdown trigger to 100%. To make things more interesting, increase the starting peacetime period to the max. (I recommend using the Longer Peace/No Nuke Timer Mod if you want an interesting game VS the AI.)

2.
*The Full Warhead Production Efficiency (FWPE) affects the speed you can produce nukes. When the game starts, Nukes take much longer to produce at the start, and the time you set for the FWPE is how long before you can produce nukes without extra delays.

*Contamination Speed is how fast nukes pollute the world. Setting it at 200% means the world will become a green ball of radiation rather quick, while lowering it to 25% means it will be much harder to destroy the world.

*The Countdown Trigger basically is how polluted the world must be before the game forces the final countdown to end it.

3. I kinda skimmed over those parts, I'll look at them again and get back to you.

*Sync Attack means all attacking units are to coordinate their actions.

*Timed Destruction Means they will time their attacks to land the warheads simultaneously.