Research

Well research costs money. Each Researchunit (the pink bottles) cost 1bc i think. So through the slider setting you decide how much goes into research, mil. production and social production. But each Hammer, shield and bottle cost 1bc and that then leads to your spending.

Hope that helps a little. In the Encyclopedia there are articles that explain the whole economy

Thanks for the relply!

Your welcome.

Yes. What Graviton said is true. It also depends on your starting research ability and if you have any research improvements and how much money you are spending.

How can you create a fleet of ships and if so how?

You put ships on top of each other. Then you look to the right lower middle portion of the screen. You will see ship icons with a button by it that has a ship with a arrow. Press it and you have a fleet.

What kind of extra bonus does a fleet get?

In GCI ships fight ships one at a time. The only purpose of fleets is to move many ships together with just one click.
Of course you can protect defenseless ships by placing them in a fleet with an escort.
Although i am not sure if ships defending a planet get a bonus from other ships in orbit.
But it should be explained in the manual.

If you have research a evil technology, can you still get to the good side or the other way around to?
[Message Edited]

Once you choose good or evil you can't change anymore.

No. Go colonize planets for morale choices and keep choosing good. Eventually you will be good.

I didn't know that. Well I probably mixed it up with GC2.