When you open the research screen, you'll see an option on the left side for Fleet research. Within that screen there will be two tracks of research. The bottom one increases your fleet supply, allowing you to build more ships. The top one increases the number of capital ships you can have at once.

be nice, he had a valid question and came here for a answer, no need to be all snippy at him.

all he did was change font size, its not like he wrote in all caps...

I too am having the same problem.
But I will make some good sugetstions on how to fix your quick end.
Try the tutorials, they aren't the best but there are some good tipes
You need as some other posters have said, use the Tech tree.
Save and reply trying different things and see what happens, after my 4th game now I have access to the Capital ships and the different ones from the firgate yard.
Take over a nother planet or in my case and Asteroid belt.
Now this leaves me with my home planet and the coloeny/asteroid.
The key to be able to build new things now that I have a few games were I died quickly is to use the tech tree.
There is also a good tutorial on the this site, Camplay Example: SIns of a Solar Empire Complete with screen shots and sugestions, print it out and follow what it says.

You will find after following the other posts and my input that the Sins is less frutstarting.

Cheers!

Whoa, give this person a break. These are honest mistakes. You have no idea if this person has ever played a 4x or empire/nation-building game. Not everyone has played this kind of game before or paid attention through the tutorials. I really don't think everyone should be jumping to conclusions or throwing out negative descriptions of someone especially when they're brand new to this community. Not everyone picks up everything easily right away. In this game that's especially true because the lax hardware requirements bring a lot of people to the table who ordinarily would have difficulty getting a system capable of running new games.

I'm not saying you and other people are wrong. I'm not saying you and other people need to stop. I'm just saying we need to give people a break, especially those with new names like this. Right now this person is frustrated, but a few question answers will easily turn this game into a fun experience.

I read the manual and I went thru the tutorials 3 times. I also built miltary and civilian labs for each colonized planet. I did research and researched the trees for military and civiliann research.The artifacts and fleet ones are BLANK??? So they are no use to me. I built a frigate factory and a capital factory plus icapital ship and about ten cobalt frigates. BUT THE PROBLEM IS THE GAME WONT ALLOW ME TO BUILD ANYMORE CAPTITAL SHIPS?????????? AWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEE!!!!!! Whats wrong with this sim.How can I win a game with only one capital ship? Im always outnumbered by the enemy 2 to 1. I built up my metal and crystal resources, so its not like I don't have enough for each planet. I get to colonize about 3 planets and then I get invaded at a former planet I already colonized. Any more advice would help.thanks

Go to the research window and bring up the fleet tab. There are two rows of icons. The top one is for capital ships and the lower one is for fleet capacity. Let your mouse hover over them or build up 1400 credits, 400 metal, and 200 crystal and at least one of the icons should turn green to tell you research is available. Capital ships and fleet capacity is expensive. It is much more expensive to build a new capital ship after you have researched a new slot/crew for it, but you can build up resources.

On the civilian/empire/harmony research tab you can get the ability to colonize ice, volcanic, and desert planets. You can also sit colonizing frigates in a system with resources asteroids that are around something that cannot be colonized (such as a magnetic storm, dead asteroid, gas giant, and so on). That frigate will automatically colonize those resources for you to give you extra income.

Also, some maps do not have pirates. You should definitely lock yourself on a team with an AI friend or lock everyone into their own individual teams for a free-for-all so the AI doesn't gang up on you. This is being addressed in the next patch, but for right now this is the best way to improve the quality of your game.

Like I said, my main problem with sins, is the game only allows me to make ONE CAPITAL SHIP. Allow me to give you an idea of a typical scenario. I start off with two 2 Lev construction frigates.I have them constuct metal and crystal extractors.Next I develop the planet. Next I create a frigate factory. Next I create a capital factory.Then from those two factories I build one Akon capital ship, one scout frigate and 3 cobalt frigate. So I now have a fleet. Then I build a miltary lab and two orbital turret defense guns.So far so good.
Then I want to go to the next planet. I send out my scout frigate to check it out. I bring him back to my original home planet after I have an idea what the next planet is and is bout including how many enemies. Then I send in my Akon captital ship and 3 frigates to the new planet. I fight a few hostiles and colonize that planet.Most of the time its an asteroid. Now a problem has beed created. The homeworld I left has no protection from the enemy because I have no EXTRA cobalt frigates and ANOTHER CAPITAL SHIP to protect it? Do you see my problem. I go to each planet with just the fleet I have.The game will not permit me to build extral capital ships.Oh, I can crank out a few more cobalt frigates but thats all. Eventually the enemy builds up TWICE as many ships as mine. And then Im toast. If I could build more capital ships I would stand a chance. And I have milked the surrounding asteroids with metal and crystal extractors for all their worth. So why isn't the game allowing me to build more capital ships?

Very early game, one capital ship and a couple of figates (3 should be enough) should be able to take out a pirate attack.

so to hijack this thread...

got a simple question about orbital refineries.

Is it best to build 1 in each of your gravity wells or does that start to overlap their effects

I guess i'm a little unclear on how they work when they "go to neighboring territories to collect resources

ah..what is a forum troll or trolling a thread??? i heard of the term, but i never understood the meaning. Can someone explain please????? It is only until recently i found out what the term "flaming" means.