How to Start
 
Protection

When you start the game you are under protection for the first 0 days. Nobody can attack you during that time, but you cannot attack either. Use this time to build your fleet and start researches.


Your first fleet

Build a fleet, that consists of ships of every class (1 to 4). You need at least one mothership in a fleet, to open a hyperjumpgate for that fleet.
you have about 5000 manpower (MP) and it is good to use them all for your fleets, so you have a strong fleet that is capable of defending your planet and can attack other planets.
always leave some ships in your base fleet to protect your shipyard and research center.
and important: always be aware of the attitude of your fleets (see the attitude section in Fleets)

Probes

In the beginning you should send your investigation-probe to seek out new lifeforms (e.g. Other players). Your planetary SETI-scan has a radius of 10 sectors, so you should send out your i-probe (investigation-probe) to a distance of 20 sectors.
(you can use the travel time calcuator (TTC) to check out the distance)
if your i-probe finds other planets, it establishes so called "communication-links" to them that you can see on your com-screen. Once an i-probe reaches its destination you can destroy it; the com-links will remain!


Communication

In your com-center you`ll see a list of other players. The com-links are automatically added whenever you find another player with an investigation probe or whenever you have contact in another way.
you can send messages to other players if you click on their names. You can even send a message to players not listed in your com-list through the player search on that page. The planets-screen shows the coords of uninhabited planets and the names of players that abandoned their planets (if you don't log in for 8 days, your planet is considered 'abandoned', that means you won't meet any fleets at the abandoned planets, because their fleets and buildings are dimensionally displaced sub-space if you don't log in for 31 days, your planet will vanish from the galaxy).
you can leave messages on the planets and sometimes they reveal ancient technologies.