I'm very new to the game - just got it today (12/26/13) I'm just messing around with little practice games and I've read the tutorials ..but I still have questions.



I get the bit about making new ship designs....how do I actually ADD ships to my fleet (you know to make the fleet bigger and/or to diversify it with different types of ships)?



My 2nd thing is what do I do when I've explored my section of space but there's no more "pathways" open to explorer new sections?



I got stuck in a game today that turned to be VERY boring because it didn't seem like I could do anything else except maybe click through ending turns until research was developed.

Ship design is two-fold:



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You can unlock larger hulls through research. On your research screen (microscope button, upper left corner), check out the bottom research tree (exploration).

You can modify existing ships or create new ships by going into the ship design screen and changing loadouts on hulls.

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The exploration tree will look similar to the image below. It specific technologies will unlock hulls. Examine the exploration tree closely and you'll find the techs that unlock hulls (4, in addition to the two you start out with, for a total of 6).







To get to ship design, go to your fleets screen (ship button, just to the right of the research button). It will look similar to this:







If you want to modify an existing ship type, click on one of the available ship designs (upper right) and click "Modify" (lower right). If you want to make a new ship type with a hull you've unlocked, click "Add" (upper right).



You will then be brought to a screen where you can add or remove modules up to a tonnage cap. The tonnage cap is dependent on the hull type. Some hulls also have bonus weight reduction for certain types of modules, encouraging you to use them for a specific task. The modules available to you are limited by what you've researched. Most modules are unlocked in the upper research tree (military) and a few are unlocked in the right research tree (applied science). There are also technologies in both trees that will give passive buffs to all your ships.





Travel requires research as well:



By default, you can only send ships along cosmic strings (the straight, solid lines between stars). To travel via wormhole (the wavy lines), you have research Applied Casimir Effect, which is just three rows down on the left side of the exploration technology tree, pictured above.



You can also research technology later that allows you to travel (slowly) directly from star to star regardless of the lack of a link.









Essentially, if you want to build ships and explore, you need to research the right technologies. Personally, I don't like slow games and set research speed to max in the pre-game setup.



4X games are some of the most complicated out there and have a high learning curve but they're extremely rewarding (read: addictive) once you've got them figured out. I hope this post will help you find the (significant) enjoyment to be had with this game.

Im new too and had the same problem as you getting stuck in my own part of space. I found a ''research'' to unlock spacetravel through wormholes. Solved the problem for me

If you like 4X games, then definitely give this game a chance. I thought it was okay at first but nothing special. However, it has really grown on me. I have 250 hours into the game, and I like it more every time I play it!