Bunch o' Newb Questions

1) Yes you have to click on one of those 3 choices to choose it, once you have researched one of the 3 you won't be able to choose the others. You can still later trade for the others though I have a feeling they might decide to patch it so you can't at some point.

2) No you leave that tile alone, it can give adjacency bonus if you put a building to do with the same type of resource next to it in addition to whatever bonus it gives. You can trade it to another civilization too.

3) Yes they do and you should build appropriate buildings on them to make the buildings more effective.

Hope some of this helps.

The green arrow you see grants adjacency bonus if you build a matching improvement on the tile. 

So, if you see +3 influence you want to build a consulate.

The 4 yellowish arrows arranged in a diamond grants adjacency bonus if you build adjacent to it. This is in addition to the bonus from the improvement itself. 

Basically, the effects on the tooltip are modified by the adjacency bonus. They are for the most part color coded. For a military tile you want to put a Hyperion Shrinker because you get the effect of the Improvement + .05% capacity for each level bonus. 

When do I get the opportunity to click one of the tree choices?

Also, couple more questions:

4) What is influence for?

5) Do ideology opportunities only happen when you colonize a planet?

Influence is one of your possible Victory conditions. It is the immediate colored area of your empire. It is used to push out the area you control during the game. Personally I always build influence buildings as this keeps other empires from encroaching on my territory when they finally 'bump into' me.

Ideology choices are primarily driven by colonization but you can also get ones as Galactic events. Some tricks to help get more of your chosen ideology is to pick the building that grants 1 point per turn first and start placing that building as you can on all of your planets. This will accrue till you have enough to get a chosen trait. 

Influence is akin to domination from Civ series right?

the term "domination" was used for the conquest victory in civ 5 and for a slightly different type of victory in civ 4 (where you were basically declared the winner once you had ~2/3 of the world's area and population). influence is somewhat comparable to that, but not entirey. it doesn't really matter how much population you have, just how many tiles you own. and the required % is higher. i think you need something like 85% of all tiles to win (mabe adjusted for number of players, galaxy size and/or other factors)

EDIT: and it's also a more peaceful sort of victory. in civ4 , you usually won by domination after conquering several other civs. in GC, you can do a bloodthirsty conqest based influence victory, too, but there's also influence buildings and star bases that spread your domain peacefully. that aspect works more like the "culture" in civ 4/5. you can even have whole rival planets within your influence without having to declare war on them if your influnence is stong enough (they may also flip to your faction after a while, much like the "culture flip" in civ 4)

It is entirely possible to Win in GCII (and easy btw) with Influence and NEVER having a single battle with the exception of Pirates. You can slowly take over the galaxy selling Cheeseburgers, levi jeans and Coke products while changing everyone's hearts and minds to be like YOUR empire than their own. Once this happens they become part of your empire..(flipping planets).

When do I get a choice? When I start researching? When it's complete?

When you select the tech to research. If you're on the tech advisor screen, then you select the tech and then click on one of the options in the box that comes up to the right of your first selection to make the choice. If you're in the tech tree, click on the tech and then click one of the suboptions.

Ah, gotcha. The specialization does nothing more than unlock the next higher tech, which is the actual specialization.

Came across another peculiarity:

4) I've built constructors to mine resources that I find. However, it looks like I only get a single actual unit of that resource. It doesn't accrue. So, if that's correct, then I get to build one ship that uses that resource, and that's it? One mining rig for every ship that uses duranthium? And on top of that, I'm supposed to building starbases for other purposes than mining, like economy and culture?

Yes - each constructors gets you one unit of resource.  However if your ZOC (Zone of Control) overlaps several resources 1 starbases will mine them all. You can improve the efficiency of your resource mine by researching new technology & send more constuctors to upgrade your resource mines.  Not sure what that really gets you since the counters on the interface still only show 1 per resource.

Absolutely build economic starbases.  You can surround a colony with up to 4 starbases if you lay them out right.  You don't want to put them right next to a planet - move out closer to the limit of ZOC.  I've never been able to place less than 3.  Sometimes if the stars are close enough you can get the effect to overlap planets from different colonies.

Economic starbases can actually improve economy, manufacturing, research, and colony approval.  You're only limited by research and the number of constructors you can produce.

I personally don't bother with culture, but if you have a colony next to another race you could possibly influence their planets to flip to your side.

Actually with the range upgrade youc an easily get 6 around a colony. 

Wow, you guys are great. Still wish there was a Civopedia.

Now, once I add the mining module to a starbase, is there any way to also add the modules, like for economy?

At the top of your screen it will show how many of those resources you have. Use them, but use them wisely. They are best used offensively if you can. Durantium drivers, Antimatter missiles and Elerium beams are all FAR better than the counterparts you see early game. Putting a proto type antimatter missile with some defenses on it can WRECK pirates and almost solo a base if it had enough hit points.

Put that solo equipped boat in a fleet and that fleet can be unstoppable nearly until the begging of Age of Ascension. 

No - Mining or Economy, not both.  Now Relics are a different story you can add either a Mining or an Economic module to a Relic starbase, but again not both.

Just remember that you will probably only need 1 Mining starbase per colony.  All the rest all will be economic.  Also you can't double mine the same resource.  Once you've built a mine adding another Mining starbase does nothing. 

Also, note that the later mining technologies multiply the yield for a starbase.  So, if you research one of those (say, you get the 2nd-tier High Efficiency Mining tech), you can send a constructor to a mining starbase, and add that facility. Each resource on the map will now count as 2 (or 3 or whatever the tech indicates) as far as the little resource availability counter is concern.  Thus, with upgrades, you can build multiple units/structures for each resource on the map you own.

Also, for a beginner, I *highly* suggest you look at the Tech Tree view, rather than the Advisor view. It's clearer.

This was all great advice. I hope it helps other newbs.

Is anyone willing to tell me what the six mouse-over stats mean for a ship? One's beam weapons, another is missiles, and the other I guess is kinetic weapons? I guess there's a stat for shields and armor too in there?

Yes.  Shields, point defense, and armor.

The weapons and armor are color codes for each weapon and armor pair. 

Beams = Shields

Kinetic = Armor

Missiles = Point Defense

easily 6 but with a little planning 12 is possible