1. as little as you can. the ship or 2 you want to get a bunch of, hostile colonization if needed. trade ports, culture center, once you hit agaisnt the 250 fleet supply limit you should research the low tier (1-2, maybe 3) hp/armor/damage upgrades of the ship you chose to spam.
2. usually people try to keep capital ship low. less caps = higher cap ship levels = more effective caps. 2 cap builds are very popular, though once you get a good footing, or they get to high levels you can expand that.
3. AS MANY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN IN THE SHORTEST PERIOD OF TIME. (if your enemy is close, you may have to skip the ice/volcs, as the 2 civic labs, and research, and upkeep, and pop upgrades on those can cause you to lose)
4. AS MANY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN IN THE... ya.
5. get enough pop upgrades to stop upkeep asap. Other than that, get away with as few upgrades as possible, they are money sinks. only upgrade logistic slots if you NEED the room for labs/tradeports. i almost never upgrade planet hp or tatical slots.
Learn how to snipe moons and roids with a lone colony ship: send in the colony frig, micro it around the planet while it gains AM, (if needed), colonize, build turret between planet and seige frig, buy pop upgrade, que up resource extractors.
congradulations. you just graduated from bronze league to gold minimum.
oh wait. sins doesnt have a ladder, elo, or any ranking system of any kind, nvm.
