It seems you are missing some basic knowledge, which of course is partially fault of tutorials themselves simply just learning you to utilize basic mechanics and not going in depth on topics.

Can I interest you in one out of 100 steam guides for beginners?
How about TUTORIALS section right on this forum?
Would you like to see it in action? Perhaps one in 1000 of ES2 related videos on youtube.
I see most of your questions have reliable keywords which can be googled if the search bar on top does not strike your fancy.
Still missing it? Perhaps a link to first google result will satisfy you.

"Search the interent, it's outt there somewhere". Well that's not very insightful or welcoming, but I guess that wasn't the intent. I thought this was an appropriate forum for newcomers to seek out wisdom from the seasoned, but looks like I could be mistaken.

Is there some way to report troll posts like the one above, or is this an unmoderated forum? 

I am sorry for linking a beginner guide to you, I can see how that is directly related to the crushing weight of my ego under all those forum badges.

2. Are you aware of wormholes? Those are hidden paths between constelations that are unlocked by researching a tech in tier 3 scientific quadrant. They consume all your movement points but can push you great distances, so your enemies might be using them. Also fleets "popping and disappearing" might be because of cloaking, which allows ships to toggle visibility. You need to research anti-cloacking technology in the military quadrant to spot those. Also there are several ways to increase warp (out of starlanes) movement. There are 2 technologies in scientific quadrant that do this, also there are hero skills that greatly increase your warp speed. I managed to cross the whole galaxy within 1 turn with some heroes.

3. Victory is decided by 2 factors mostly: your weapon composition and your ships' position in battle. It is important though, that those two are tied together because different weapons perform better at different ranges. I think you should know the basics of energy/kinetic weapons (first better against fleets with hull plating and no shields and last are opposite). So I guess your main concern would be picking battle cards right, so your ships' position would play well with their design. There are 3 lanes (flotillas) in combat, the central main lane, the top lane and the bottom lane. In battle ships will shoot enemy in their lane first and if they kill it, they can switch to shooting at adjacent lanes, however side lanes can't shoot each other. Then there is another factor which is range and it is decided by battle cards for all three lanes. It is important that ships only start shooting when they are at their range, so in battle it will take them time to reach their firing position first and only then they'll start shooting. To get a grasp of how to win combat I suggest not using close-range battlecards, because what actually happens when you use them is your ships try to reach the short range and get shredded by enemy ships from afar. There are some good uses for close range cards but those are a bit more advanced and require better flotilla knowledge, which I can't explain in the text form. Also try to avoid using rockets at first, because they only work well if enemies have no Slugs (which can target and shoot down rockets before they reach you) or if you pair them with Swarm Missles so that Slugs get overwhelmed and your rockets can go through (swarms are unlocked in military quadrant). The good way to start will be getting some energy weapons on your attackers and slugs on your defenders and mix them in 2/1 or 3/1 ratio. Get some coordinators (at least 3) and a good number of attackers. You can skip armor on your attackers because coordinators and protectors attract fire and get hit instead. So make your attackers glass canons, upgrade their hulls (tier 3 empire quadrant for attackers and tier 4 for hunters) and get energy intensifiers in support slots and more weapons - make them little canons of death. Equip your protectors/coordinators with best armor, favoring shields, beacuse your only bane at medium and long range are enemy rockets and your slugs can protect you from them. If you go full lasers, then take trophies is a good starting battle card because all three flotillas have medium range preset, so your ships will utilize their weapons 100% wherever you place them. You can split your fleet between flotillas to get morale bonuses but remember to put at least 1 protector each lane along with attackers.

4. I guess I already answered it above.

5. You actually named quite a lot of ways to generate influence, don't you think? xD There is no OP way to get a lot of it investing nothing. Sometimes you get a bit lucky and find unique planet early which usually generate a lot of influence. You can get a good amount from exploring curiosities as well, that helps early. And in the later stages Museums are the way to go. If you are unhappy by that point then you are doing something wrong. If you want to avoid influence problems you can try playing Unfallen, they always gain a bunch.

6. Agreements are not super strong in general and are not worth it as a catch-up tool, but sometimes you have +99999 influence and those are a good way to dump some. 

7. They likely die out because you don't have enough food. That can happen when you conquer a system and it gets mutinous state which is a -75% food penalty so guys start dying unless you vacate some of them via spaceport or put some bigass food hero as a governor.

  @koxsos  yeah I agree in general but I haven't seen a single worthy combat guide and had to figure things out here as well
this is fine, I guess, no need to be negative

Captain Cobbs, mamarider, thanks for the  responses

I think if you have a game forum, it think it should be expected and even welcomed that new people will come here to seek direct advice from experienced players. It's great that there is a wealth of are player-generated resources, but at the same time it's not reasonable to expect players to scour through masses of unofficial content of varying quality before seeking insght. It certainly doesn't help a forum's growth when they first post makes receives a snide response from some wiht a VIP badge. Creates the impression that the joint is a snake pit. Yourr positive response refute that, and I see Kossus has edited out of his initial barbs. I'm appreciative and will refer back to this thread as I play tonight. 

So, regarding combat and ships, it sounds like editing and designing one's own ships isn't really an optional move. The game isn't going to automatically provide a variety of builds around the threee weapon types. Seems like at level 3 on the military branch, a player has to make an either-or choice between hyperium or or titanium-based weapons. I pick hyperium, then I'm locking into beam weapons, and that's what my default ship builds all are now. And the military tech tree has an insane number of support modules so players are tossed into the deep end quickly. This may simply not be the game for a player who's not interested enough in the war aspect of 4X to spend time kitting their on ships. 

Is there any way to know what techs other civ's have and what designs they're going with, beyond meeting them in the field of battle? 

As for wormholes, I know about them but even after researching the tech, I don't see them on the map around my civ. 

mamarider wrote:

5. You actually named quite a lot of ways to generate influence, don't you think? xD 

Sure, but they're happenstance based, not the bread-and-butter soruces to which I was referring. You have pretty ways to improve other yields, just not influence, at least not until getting pretty deep into the eexpnansion wedge fo the tech pie  I was wondering if I was missing something, because my inluence spheres were expanding more slowly than the AI. Doesn't sound like I did miss anything though, which is good to know

I guess it must have been food causing pop loss, but it didn't seem like it was affecting the Kalmat, who I assimilated from lava and ash planets. I was paying Lumeris, so it was pretty easy to keep everyone Ecstatic. 

Couple more questions you guys might indulge:

7)  I was trying to corral minor races onto specific systemsl, and removing Lumeris from them entirely. I figured that would help them increase their factions and generate some political diversity so it's not two-thirds pacifists and single digits everybody else (not arguing that Lumeris shouldn't be pacifists, mind you). Is this strategy worth bothering with? At one point I wanted Industrialist laws, but even with me growing out systems with 100% Kalmats, I do notice during the election that these systems still may only generate 1 Industrialist vote. I  also went after Industrialist leaders, but still no dent. 

8)  I researched Cultural Flexibility to flip some Riftborn systems that I've swallowed up in my influecne sphere. Thing is, their alliance wound up going to war with mine, and they keep forcing a truce and while I can easily declare war again, that doesn't get me to peace or cold war. Is there a way back to that?  Is my solutiion to getting out of a war/truce dichotomy to quit the alliance? 

koxsos wrote:

You complain answers in steam discussions are too in depth, yet you refuse to read a 101 guide provided to you and consider it trolling.

You say something similar to civilization wiki does not exist, yet you ignore the very existence of both official (fair enough not all that useful) and fanmade wiki.

I didn't say the Steam discussions are too in-depth. I said they were quick blurts that assume the poster knows the terms they're tossing out. Nor did , I say anything critical about Civopedia. I said Endless Space doesn't  have an equivalent. 

CaptainCobbs wrote:

You will not see wormholes if you set your galaxy to unique (1 constellation). Perhaps you did that.

1. You'd have to do some heavy vote manipulation and gerrymandering with your pops (Kalgeros and Lumeris aren't good population to get industrial support with, usually the robotic races are easier) if you want industrialist. The best way to do this is to just play United Empire, as they get crazy industrialist support.

Upon reflection, I should've continued numbering my questions as 7 & 8. I should go back and do that I guess. Think I will go back and edit that in....

Cap'n, it was Kalmats, the bandwidth-boosting race, not Kalgens, the happy-making race. A guide i read (and rest assured, I have actually consulted guides before and after posting here) said they were the only good way to get more bandwidth, so without even understanding hacking I dove head first into growing them because they lhave and Industrialist orientation. Turns hacking is kind of limited in its results, but I was hoping to at least boost IndustriThe advice the game gives is to increase industrial through system developments and colonization, both of which I've done earnestly. @mamarider made remarks that seem to confirm what I'm eperiencing: pacifist and militarist overwhelm the other ideologies.

My expereince with truces so far is that eventually the truce just goes back to war, and then another truce winds up being forced shortly afterwards. Endless shuffle.

mamarider wrote:

steveg700 wrote:

The game isn't going to automatically provide a variety of builds around the threee weapon types.

That is not actually true. Every time you reach a new tier in the military tree, you unlock some white "basic" weapon modules and defensive modules. Knowing the drill has more impact than sheer firepower in ES2, so you can beat AI with superior weapons with a cheese strategy, such as going heavy on Bombers and using Prudent Positions tactic, or using Cloacked Ambush module and going full Railguns or Slugs, with evasive maneuvers tactic. It is worth mentioning that shooting sidelanes is less effective than shooting straight, so you can do this: make a long range torpedo+swarms/beam fleet but squeeze 2-4 close range  attackers with some slugs. Put your long ranges mid lane and split attackers between sidelanes. If enemy splits its fleet in 3 lanes as well you will lose those kamikaze ships but it will weaken his overall efficiency because after he kills them he'd be forced to shoot sidelanes with a big number of his ships which means less damage. If he keeps fleet packed in 1 lane your little kamikaze ships will help to put down his main section without being damaged. And having many flotillas also gives you morale bonuses or negates penalties depanding on your opponents composition. See a lot of small ships? Research Blast Effect Battery and put it on coordinator. Not only it is specialized in killing swarming fleets, but it also increases chance to be targeted which is perfect for your coordinators. Manipulating aggro is very important as well. I sometimes use protectors and equip them with flotilla shields + adamantium jammers so they are not preffered over my coordinators and give bonuses to the whole flotilla. Once you start understanding how things work they become really interesting, so better not skip this part and get good at it.

Also try checking this guide
It is an alright one and covers several important moments

I actually am attracted to the idea of combat not just being roshambo between  (in historical 4X, archers/infantry/cav, in space 4X, missles/beams/kinetic), so this apeals to me. 

The thing I was commenting on, to which you replied, was that the game only provides one auto-build option for each ship type. Indeed, I just now realized that the game is not even auto-updating the auto-build design. I have to edit each ship type and then click the Auto-Design button. I don't think I love that. 

 But here's a real source of hair-pulling. I chose Hyperium Magnetics over Advanced Fusion Power. That would tend to mean I do better with a beam weapon design. But when I edit my build and click Auto-Design, it only loads out projectiles (basic torpedoes in the medium ships, basic slugs in the small ships). What is happening there? Why is it not putting any beam weapons--basic or improved--on the ship?  

steveg700 wrote:
But when I edit my build and click Auto-Design, it only loads out projectiles (basic torpedoes in the medium ships, basic slugs in the small ships). What is happening there? Why is it not putting any beam weapons--basic or improved--on the ship?

Auto-Design improves the chosen types of equipment, only. Keep in mind it doesn't switch to better stuff (using strategic ressources). In case you have white equipment, it will improve to better (if available) white equipment, as long as you don't switch to strategic (i. e. titanium/hyperium equipment) equipment before.

A nice practical feature would be a toggle for auto-designing with startegic resources. Then again, if it only swaps out same-for-same, then it still wouldn't pick a beam when the default is kinetic. 

Autoupgrading designs will increase their production and buyout costs, which is undesirable at some scenarios. In any case, you would rarely want that at all, be it single button press or each time new module is available. Manual design always suits your needs better.

It will take you some time 'till you reach the point where you can just place the party you want to senate with dust or influence. And maturing your party is a thing, because of political experience. Parties that win elections several times unlock progressively better special laws, that they can pass.

Thanks. Since behemoths have been brought up, let me go ahead and ask....What was the point of introducing? Did the game have a balance problem (or problems) that behemoths were intended to address? Or is it just filing a traditional expectation of space 4x games that there is some class of super-ship? 

(btw, I did watch a video about behemoths before posting)