I've played several other 4x games before, however still fairly clueless on this one.

Read another 1st time poster who mentioned he had read the manual - Where would I find this, as it's some of the real basics I'm not getting.

Started a demo, then ended up restarting. 2nd time a bit better but still not quite getting it.

watched some really good utubes "3 times now" posted elsewhere on this forum, which helps "somewhat". however the tech tree for example, choices are made for that particular game as it evolves, which is somewhat helpful, but would like a better understanding of all the choices/consequences. Tanks mentioned here on these utubes however they've only gone to turn 30 and that exact tech wasnt shown where it at... so far i have not been able to find it. 

unlike other games I've played the categories just seem odd. example, many of the tech for military as not in the military tree, and so far to me seem placed rather randomly, but assume there is some method to the "madness"

grouping ships "once you get it" is pretty obvious and straightforward. however attaching my hero's ship to anyother ship, after countless tried, managed to do it once, then split up and tried to do again, and no joy.

"most" of the time i can move ships around without any issues, however sometimes one particular ship seems stuck for many turns, but the rest of my ships move just fine.. no they wasnt in a hangar, and its not the shift-tab issue, as i wasnt even aware shift-tab was something used for steam "and i did try that". one colonizer was 1/2 enroute on a starlane between two places, and refused to move even though 4 or 5 other ships/groups of ships i was able to move easily. on same starlane but a different location, one partrol ship also had same issue. then for no apparent reason, as i was doing exactly the same thing, they both were moveable on the same turn. colonizer was going one way, and patrol was going oposite.

my 2nd level modernization, i didnt assign anything for it, can do that now, or just have to do without? wasn't clear to me I needed to assign some resource to it.

i am currently on turn 97 in the demo, "and somehow being clueless am in the lead" ; would like to go a bit further to see some of the higher level features, especially tanks for crushing the pirate homeworld.

thanks in advance.

This game is a bit different from most TBS 4X games I've played as well. I think most of the issues you have listed here are just based around getting acclimated to the game.

First off, the tech tree is, well, unique. There are some military techs in the empire tree, food techs in the research tree, approval techs in industry, the list goes on. I would honestly just recommend taking the time to get familiar with the layout. As far as consequences go, the only truly irreversable decisions you can make regard the tech tree is picking mutually-exclusive techs (there's a horizontal line drawn between two techs of the same era w/ a dash in the middle). Once you choose one, you're unable to research the other. Otherwise, each era for each quandrant of the tree is unlocked as you research more techs in that quandrant. More techs are required for subsequently higher eras and you unlock bonuses for each era unlocked. Those are listed in the tree in the center of each quandrant as little circles on the lines that separate each era.

You can attach your hero to fleets in 3 ways. 1 - By selecting your hero in the hero screen and selecting "attach to fleet" (or something very similar to this) and your selecting your fleet there. 2 - Going to the fleet/manpower screen, selecting your fleet, and then clicking on the hero icon (it's either a general facial profile or the Academy medallion) then selecting the hero. 3 - My personal preference, selecting your fleet and there is a portrait square to the left of your ships with an Academy medallion in it. Click on that and it will show you a list of your heroes from which you can select which hero you want to assign to the fleet. You can remove a hero from your fleet from any of these three methods as well. If you do so, they will become a 0 CP ship in the same system as the fleet they were originally attached to.

As for the strange movements, I would take it a little slow while waiting for your ships/fleets to travel. If you hit the "move all pending fleets" button, not all of your ships will move at once. The way turns are calculated in this game (it's a little strange), sometimes other factions' ships will take a moment to move once your turn begins. Rule of thumb, if your fleet is close to an opponent's fleet on the map, wait a second before choosing a destination for your fleet. Your enemy may eventually move and it just takes a second to calculate. This goes for your ships too. Sometimes the move is delayed and it's hard to keep track of if you have many fleets on the map simultaneously.

And your system modernizations are pretty critical features of the game, and THOSE are irreversable once selected. Choose your luxury resources carefully when assigning them to system developments as they are permanent. Make sure you have a steady flow of whatever you're going to use, or a plan to achieve that.

I hope that helps! The easier difficulties can be pretty forgiving, so don't be afraid to fool around a bit until you get the hang of it! Good luck!

there is a manule on the right hand side of your steam page for the game, there is a list of stuff including discussions and the like