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I can only answer your first question:

To use a VLP-16, you currently have to build the velodyne driver from source. That is because the Indigo version was released before VLP-16 support was added. (A new release is planned, but not yet done.)

The launch file you need is included in the velodyne_pointcloud package:

$ roslaunch velodyne_pointclound VLP16_points.launch

Your other questions are not really specific to Velodyne, they would apply to 3D SLAM using any sensor that produces a point cloud.

I am sure others know more than I do about all that. I am interested in those answers, too.