Guidance

YOu can go into Tutorial, campaigns or "new" game.

I jumped right into new games, myself as having played previous versions, but I learned (from boards) a lot which might have been in turorial or campaign (others will have to answer that).

I would start with that, then as you get comfortable you can download either additional races/ships from Steam or more advance stuff from Nexusmods.com. Nexus has things like Guantlets Race mod (races/ships/etc), I also like PlanetDiversity.

Otherwise feel free to ask questions as they arrise (I know I do :))

Well, you have to know yourself in that regard, nothing we can help you with. I for example think figuring out a new game (learning new mechanics and how to use them most efficiently) is one the most fun parts of games (I wouldn't be asking such a question). Campaign is not a bad idea though in my opinion.

Maybe be warned, some people have a hard time switching from gc2 to gc3, since a few things have to be optimized differently. Try it for yourself and if you are having trouble, take a look at this thread for example:

https://forums.galciv3.com/479073/page/1/#3646868

(my post #5 in particular; shameless self-plug x) )

The basic ship blueprints aren't great, but you can win with them. I wouldn't say you have to figure out designing your ships from the start. Unless you enjoy it, in which case: Go for it!

Sweet.  I will check out that thread.  I have always enjoyed grabbing a new Civ game or Gal and running into the campaign kind of blind and trying to figure it out on the fly so I will try that.  Just wanted to kind of double check and make sure I shouldn't be running around sandboxing it and saving the campaigns for later.  I appreciate the link.  I do like surfing the boards and getting a general idea of what is going on.

Start with campaigns and as you learn the new system you can do new games with certain goals in mind.

Campaigns are meant to teach you the game. Start with the tutorial first. First read the user guide. The wheel replaced sliders. You might want to go into options to set the mouse to scroll to move off screen. 

Use constructors to build shipyards.

Adjancencies it helps and matters what type of buildings you build together. The tooltips tell you what you need to know.

Now when it comes to planetary resource bonuses. Theres two the first one tells you the bonus you get for building on it. The second is for being adjancent to the space not the building which could have a different kind of bonus.

The colors are different.

Player achievements have replaced galactic achievements super projects and trade goods. 

Their are now resources in space that helps you build things on planet and ship stuff.

Normal is now where noone gets unfair bonuses.

what gave me the most trouble moving from galciv2 to galciv3 is comprehending that manufacturing does not have that huge desire to destroy your economy like it does in galciv2.

So i started playing galciv3 focusing on population and money and avoiding manufacturing, just like in galciv2.... population is good, but money is pretty useless because it is so inefficient (rush buying, upgrading). The AI will come at you hard before you can get organized and fleets will turn up that you have no answer for.

I learnt that i need to hit the manufacturing boosting hard right from the start, that is what makes all the difference! And money wont hamstring you as punishment for manufacturing like in galciv2