On social structure building it is best to focus on factories, research centers, and markets. I personally do not build starbases of any kind. I am usually so aggressive during the colonization phase that I have no trouble being culturally dominant with only a single embassy per planet. I do not focus on building a military until I absolutly need one. I'm normally nuetral with a slight lean toward evil. I keep everything except my military rating high and try to keep close diplomatic ties to everyone. This keeps me from being attacked most of the time until I'm ready to exterminate everyone.

This is what i try to achieve:

100% Spending
80% Taxes i.e. the maximum

100% on which area needs it most eg military on colony rush.

Splitting production just means you get everything slower.

Lenius.

Yes splitting production means you get everything slower at first. However if you buy your first factories you can increase your rate of military and social production. Build starports as soon as possible on your first colonies and start pumping out colony ships. This will aid in the colony rush. The strong focus on technology from the very begining ensures you will not fall behind technologically. As you progress through technolgy it will increase all your abilities through instant bonuses and structure upgrades. You will find it won't be long before you are ahead of the AI in almost every way.

1. This should never happen unless you are a masochist.
2. Oh give me a break. It's fairly simple really. (Not a slight) Just pointing out ease of use.
3. Simple - research what you NEED or think you need next.
4. The galaxy is like a box of chocolates, never know what you're going to get. Since its different each time, its hard to say there's 1 right way all the time.

"This is an example of the settings I prefer to use (they must be adjusted from time to time as the game progresses).
60% tax rate
55% morale
100% manufacturing
15% military
20% social
65% research"

I have 55% tax rate to start, which gives a 75% morale. And I leave the manufacturing slider at default until I am in the green, then I adjust it up as I can while still maintaining a slight profit.

I always go for Research Cenrter, Research Acadamy, Xeno Ethics, NLC first, in that order. Once there are a few NLC's placed, hopefully on bonus tiles, the research will go so much faster that I will pull ahead in no time. I will normally have one entire weapon branch researched before I have to build my first ship.

I always try to snag a research resource and upgrade it, as well as a few econ starbases with its upgrades. No weapons or defenses on starbases until later, but all the manufacturing bonus upgrades. It really pushes up the research and manufacturing capabilities.

Supreme Shogun, you simplified my point. I'm just trying trying to point people with those issues in the right direction. I know you've seen alot of those comments too.

Moosetek13, you seem to understand what I'm saying as well. The details don't matter so much, I'm just trying to point out that the most successful gamers don't focus 100% of thier resources on what they need right now.

2. The tech trees are too complicated.

No. The tech tree itself is quite simple.

They aren't technology in the Civ sense of the term. They're just something that you research that provides you with abilities (buildings, ship parts, etc).

What the tech tree is is big. And long. It's not complex once you get the idea that every kind of building, ship part, ability, etc has its own branch of the tree devoted specifically to improving that. See below.

Spend some time with the Galactopedia application. That is the easiest way to get a real handle on how the tech tree works.

3. How do I decide what to research next?

What do you need? That answers the question of what you should research.

If your diplomacy is starting to fall behind, and you feel that you're going to need that in the future, research diplomacy techs. If you need research, go get some.

Determining what you want is far more difficult than figuring out what you need to get there.

Of course, since the game purposefully hides lots of information, it's difficult to know if what you think you need to perform task X is really what you need to do it. That unfortunately requires prior game experience and playthroughs.

4. What is the best research path for whatever?

? I don't even understand what that question means.

In general, I don't believe in using/providing exact numbers for taxes, production and so forth, because the game is not obviously deterministic. It's generally better to say, "set your sliders to where you can build stuff fast enough". Indeed, most of the time, except for the critical first few turns, I don't even change anything but the tax rate.

In general, I find a global moral of less than 90% to be unacceptable, so my taxes are set to where you get to 90%. I avoid over-population (2 Xeno farms on farm worlds). Because of the latter, my focus infrastructure wise is on getting industry tech (everything but the last. Usually, by the time I can quickly research the last industry tech, I've probably already won), banking tech, and research tech, in that order. Neutral is what I play, so the PQ bonus and NLCs always come into play. Without the high-end happiness buildings, you're not going to have mega-population worlds, so 17Billion is probably a good maximum. Plus, since I get banking tech to the end of the line, I get my money from banks, not farms.

If I don't have lots of worlds, then starbases become very important. Economy starbases for buffing your planet's output are extremely powerful, though less so with the 4-per-sector rule (unless your planet happens to be in the corner of a sector, which is always good ). Starbases, basically, exist to compensate for having fewer worlds. They allow you to take mid-grade planets and turn them into both production capitals and money makers (because their bonuses are only half-paid for), so you don't have to specialize nearly as much.

Economy is life. Economy comes from population, so population is life. However, more population means less morale, so the most important thing you can do is have a high morale. Morale buildings are OK, but a high morale bonus is good too. Custom races work well for this.

Dealing with other civs comes from a combination of good diplomacy (my modified Yor easily make up for the intrinsic Yor penalty) and keeping them busy. If someone is growing in power, start a war. Also, a faux defense is imperative; I have a special small fighter designed specifically for this; it's not fast or powerful; it's just there to keep early game murdering from happenning. After that, research/buy trade, and trade with people; that'll help them avoid dealing with you until you are ready to deal with them. Government techs are also good.

Yes splitting production means you get everything slower at first.

Uh no... splitting production like the AI does means you aren't doing as well as you could. If your slower at first your not going to catch someone who was faster at first, all things being equal...


Lenius.

Lenius, the AI splits it's production as evenly as possible. What I'm saying is to focus mainly on one thing while still using a smaller portion of resources on other things. If you focus 100% of your resources on military production during the colonization phase you will build ships much faster than the AI. However by doing this you are not researching any technology or building any improvements on your planets. You will find that by going 100% military at the begining put you way behind technologically, economically, and socially. I would rather be slightly behind the AI in the begining and way ahead in the middle, than way ahead in the begining and way behind in the middle. That's why it's called a strategy game you have to see the big picture, not just what is in front of you. There is no absolute way of doing anything you just have to make sure you don't ignore one thing because you are concerned about something else.