Changing energy output on weapons.

muzzle_velocity = constant speed

thats all for guns.

If you have a missile/torpedo, means a motor, always calculate
acceleration * lifetime of motor + muzzle_velocity = endspeed

Of course everytime + ship speed while you are firing.

Every time I open one of the INIs, I get character salad. Lots of squares, symbols, and punctuation. The bottom of the file is written in plain enough English with discernable characters, but I cant read the stuff above it. Any idea what’s going on?

The release files are stored as binary, you need to convert them to text. Try Tini (command line program) for one-off conversions, or JFLP for all of them (plus lots more).