1. Later on in the game when I zoom right out to view the local cluster of stars the zoom often doesn't go far enough out to view all the planets from a birdseye perspective which I find quite annoying.
Actually, if you rotate / play around a little, its always
exactly enough room to view everything, from
precisely the "right" angle. Which... isn't enough, agree.
3. I think that locking the zoom or camera to the ship or object that you have selected should be done by default. When I first played the game I found the camera control to be very strange i.e., zooming in on the crosshair.
Zoom-on-cursor is the default -- and the expected behaviour, for me. If you want to zoom on a specific unit, just mouse over it, or select it and mouse over its "portrait".
4. It might be a good idea to have tips to remind new players how to do useful things like scuttling ships.
Thats what loading screens -- which we don't have yet -- are for. All we have is a basic "this is a beta, warning, warning" screen.
5. When the voice says my fleet is being attacked it would be nice to have a location
There is a location given -- check the info cards in the lower left.
1. I can't get artefact research to work, assuming it has been switched off in the beta?
You don't "research" artifacts -- once you find an artifact via exploration, its yours. Untill you loose the planet, anyway.
3. Culture only seems to retreat if you destroy the broadcasting station which seems strange when you destroy planets of a culture and then can't colonise them because they still belong to that culture even on the fringe of their empire.
Say again? The Culture stations broadcast culture, whats wrong with that? You can't colonize until culture retreats because otherwise, the people on the planet so love the other culture they'd flip instantly.
Your Cap Ships are spreading culture as well, but not as much as the stations.
No... capitol ships only
reduce hostile culture spread in friendly systems. Which means they can help prevent your planets from flipping, and not much else.