Competitively it can be, but against the AI I often just let my units auto attack and watch. You'll naturally want to keep them from running into minefields and key them next to repair bays, but its really nothing like Total War. Watch some youtube videos or try the very outdated Demo and you should get a sense of how combat is like.

Not a click fest no. It does play differently then GalCivII and doesn't quite have the 3D aspect that made Homeworld much beloved but as I to own/owned those games I would highly recommend this as well.

I too am a newb.  I bought the game ~6 weeks ago.  I picked up the basics fairly quick but the AI was kicking my arse.  I could not get far enough along to learn all the more advanced technologies.  Then I had an idea.

I started playing games with 4 or more players and teamed up with another and set difficulties so my partner was very strong and the enemy was standard.   He (my AI partner) did most of the hard work while I kept researching and building.  I only took 4 planets and a couple of asteroids but I was able to research all the way to the end.

that was with Tek.  I'm going to do the same the the other two systems. 

just one newb advice to another

enjoy

Sins of a Solar Empire combines a slowed down version of typical RTS combat (most similar in principle to Warcraft III) with a more streamlined empire building economy similar to a typical TBS game.  It comes across as a fine hybrid, adopting many of the strengths of both RTS and TBS styled games.  Depending on where you stand on those issues this could be a good or a bad thing.  The reflex aspect of micromanagement typified by games like Starcraft isn't present, but the multi-tasking aspect of micromanagement is quite prominent.

The "only 4 planets" issue is your primary problem.  A tiny empire like that basically doesn't have enough cash to do much of anything.  Generally speaking, technology is a terrible investment for small empires, which need to focus on military so they can grow.  With a small empire, you can eventually reach higher tech levels, but it will take you practically forever.  If you want to play a researcher, you need to focus on rapid colonization to build up a sufficiently large empire. 

Remember, economy and military comes first.  Your early-game tech focus should be unlocking new unit types, structures, and abilities.  You want to spend the bulk of your income growing your empire, building infrastructure like trade ports, and building military units to defend yourself.  Once you reach a mature empire with a solid economy and a large fleet, then you can start phasing in technologies, but if you do it too early you'll either cripple your fleet or your empire.  If your fleet is too weak, you'll get killed off in the short-run.  If your empire is too weak, you'll get killed off in the long-run.

Not without modding or using other mods. There are some great mods out there that turn the game into Star Trek, Star Wars, Star Gate and many many others.

Some techs have a pre-requisite, if you examine the research tree you should see some arrows showing you what you need to research first.

no questions ... just observations

An absolutely wonderful game this is. I've played many hours now against the AI and finally got to a point where I feel moderately competent at keeping my butt from being wiped from existence.  And what fun its been learning.  I have won the last few games in 4 or more player games with a (an AI) teammate to help (this help is how I bought time to learn). Then (so far) they turn on me leading to even more fun battling for control of our solar system against my one time friend.

What I think would be a very interesting change would be to have the planets orbit their respective Suns. This would add a dynamic to phase jumping; i.e. travel between planets would vary depending on orbital positions. Other than orbiting planets the only other addition would be to add warship development so you can design and build your own ship concepts.

The only game I played with the pirates active, I had a heck of a time building and controlling my realm because of all the pirate intervention. I guess that will be my next step.  (I have yet to learn how to issue bounties ... which i know I was the target of)

As I said, its a great game.  I'm starting a new 5 player scenario with me as Advent. The Advent are challenging because they use strange names and descriptions of the space craft; warships; etc.

thanks for a great game

Do yourself a favor, and stay out of Ironclad Online. The pros there are jerks, and most, if not all, of them do something called smurfing; creating an alias so that they can get into games with players they deem below their talent level, and then they stomp them. To add to it, a good chunk of people there are jerks. They'll make you regret you came on in a heartbeat.

Save yourself the trouble, and stay in singleplayer.

No. It seems you are confusing SoaSE ICO for a decent MP community. I can't tell you how many posts I've read of how noobs were blatantly used by pros to use as their farming ground. They spam their chat box with 'do this, do that' in an effort to achieve their own goals, and when their 'ally' falls under attack, they do nothing.

In my opinion, you need to come out from your little box and realize that your precious online community is made up of a bunch of thugs, (AKA smurfs and trolls) and cannon fodder. (AKA noobs who go on once or twice, and get turned away permanently by said smurfs and trolls)

I appreciate the offer, Wrath, but I'll stay in SP with Vicious AI for now.

I have played mostly Private MP and SP and was thinking about trying the general MP community and had a question. Does every ICO MP game generally involve tons of rushing or will people abide self imposed rush timers? I CAN rush but I think a game is much more fun when I get to mass a huge fleet of advanced warships rather than killing you early with 2 carrier caps and a sh!t load of LRF. I typically like my games in the 1.5-2 hr range so that's probably longer than most ICO MP games?

It depends on who you're playing, but generally most players will attempt to win using capitals and military tier 0-2ish units.

One reason is utility (1000 credits invested in early-game ships sometimes provides more of a benefit than 1000 credits invested in empire development), but another reason is time (we may not like nor have the time to play loooooong 2 hour games). Yet another reason is lag: the standard multiplayer game is 5v5, unfortunately. If everyone bided their time until they could mass 1000+ supply fleets, there would be MASSIVE lag, and the deciding factor of who would win would no longer be who is more skilled, but whose rig holds up better to the massive CPU demand of late-game. Significant lag (large fleets) makes the game unplayable and not fun.

A few people seem to have computers that can't even handle the fleets of early-game.

For these reasons and others, online players fleet very early.