I’m a noob but have gotten a few tips here and there that have helped me out a lot.

1. As soon as you start the game build your cap shipyard, buy 100 or 200 crystal from the pirates, and buy the pop upgrade for your home planet. Getting this population upgrade is key since it is your main source of revenue for quite a while and getting it early gets you lots of $$.
2. Build 2 exploration frigates, explore the planets around you. When your cap shipyard gets done queue up a CAP immediately. Many suggest a CAP that has colonization ability. I’ve recently played with CAPs that have punch (MARZA!).
3. Guild the mines as soon as you have some cash
4. Build 2 civ research stations, and research Ice and/or Volcanic colonization, depending on what planets are nearby. Races have some early and useful cheap social techs (TEC Mod Architecture, for instance) that I get when I can.
5. Send your CAP to take out defenders at asteroids and nearby planets. They’ll take a beating, but you should take no losses. Importantly, you’ll get CAP experience. I generally don’t send in support frigates since they always die on me, so until I am more skilled they are a waste of money.
6. Be sure to send a colony ship (or equivalent) to nearby spaces with no planets but mining opportunities. These generally generate huge resources, can’t be destroyed (but they can be taken over), and will do wonders for your resource rate. And they cost you nothing!
7. As soon as a new colony is established do the first population upgrade. This is key since un-upgraded colonies are a HUGE drain on your economy, and the first upgrade will take them into the green for asteroids or just slightly red or green for the rest. This is a priority for me above the mines.
8. Build at least 1 military research station, queue up repair bay and maybe fighter bay (which are OK taking out pirate siege frigates).
9. Queue up trade stations. This may require more Civ research stations. Build trade stations in protected areas, looking to creating a long chain – trade routes are worth more when they are longer. I like to build them along the perimeter of my empire to keep them out of harm’s way.
10. Look for a defensive perimeter/choke point for the Bad Guys and pirates. For pirates this is generally nearest to their base (which hopefully you’ve found by now). For the Bad Guys it is a nexus of warp points. Fortify this location with repair and a few overlapping turrets. Upgrade the civilian defense of the planet to resist planetary bombing. Note that static defenses are panned in Multi Player, but work well against pirates and to a lesser extent against the AI.
11. I like to use this fortified planet against the Pirates as a Kill Zone and new Cap ship training ground. Just keep the Cap near the repair bays and turrets, take out the pirate siege ships, and you should be able to level up your CAP quickly. Note that having a pirate choke point means you don’t have to waste money in pirate bidding wars. That money has many more uses, to be sure.

After this initial setup the rest is determined by your map and if you have aggressive enemies. In general I try to get one of the AI’s to be my friend with reasonable resource payoffs and warring on their desired enemy – if it makes sense to me. Note that this ‘friend’ will turn on you immediately after the other AIs are eliminated, so be prepared!!

I’m sure you’ll find lots of tips burred in the threads! There is a boatload of expertise here…

HydroAC

Well, if you really just don't know how everything in the game works (like what all the abilities do, what research is good and what is a waste of time), I recomend doing the largest random map your computer can run easily and play it with no one but yourself. This is great as it allows you to get high tech with alot of planets and fleets at your own pace. If you want experience with defending, leave the pirates on.

If you know how everything works, but your just slower at doing everything with the CPU, both Astax's and Lord Dark Cloud's method works. At that point, it just takes practice until it half reflex for you.

Thats a pretty good starting place. I'm just a tincy bit more advanced than a noob. but that's mostly what I do to start.

note:

TEC is econimic based

Advent is Spiritual

and Vasari are military

So TEC gets the tradeposts first.

Advent gets those radio towers and vasari gets lots of mility toys first..

So Based upon weither I'm advent or tec I build Trading posts/Media Hubs accordingly.....

(I build both eventually)

But thats a good start.

One other thing

Try playing one v one at a hard level. and watch what the computer does. when you do what it does

you'll be much better than you are now.

David