Start

[JobiWanKenobi]

So, I have just started the game, and I'm stuck orbiting the sun. What should I do?

[AMXerSurf]

Did you check out the ingame tutorial? It should help you get started. There are also a few guides in the Guides section of Steam here but some of them are not quite update to date anymore. To get started you basically have to select your starting spaceship and choose a starting planet to settle on. You should pick one of the grassy planets so that you have access to all the resources you need to get started. You can select your spaceship either using or mouse my drawing a selection box or through the spaceship menu in the bottom left. You can send the spaceship to your chosen planet by right clicking on the planet. To colonize it you have to zoom onto the planet (double click or scroll wheel). Then select your spaceship in the orbit of the planet and hit the small house button in the spaceship UI. Then you can place your first spaceport which will claim the planet for you after which you can start building stuff via the regular building menu.

[krtinarun31]

In the starting, your first concern is not the selection of the spaceship, rather it's deciding which planet you'll colonise firsthand, and that's going to be one of the 8 grassy/green planets that are going to be clearly visible as they're the most abundant of the 4 types ( The 5 types being The Desert/Barren Planets (4) , The Grassy/Green Planets (8) , The Icy/Snow Planets (4) and The Gas Planets (2)). You've to now analyse and scout for their resources, for example go in-game, and click on one of the Grass Planets, and a little resource tab will pop-up on your upper-right corner of your screen, and will display Clay (light-red/light brown), Coal (Jet Black), Iron (A shade of Gold) and Limestone (Pure White), and Oil (A raindrop which is coloured Jet Black), and it's very crucial to remember that not all of the above resources may be available on each and every planet, be it a Grassy Planet, Barren Planet etc. Now, remember the types of resources and their respective quantity, and that to very clearly....and then start viewing the resources of the other GPs, and then bring out a comparison over the resources of each GP.

[krtinarun31]

Now, the comparison should be based around the quantities of :-
A) Clay, B) Iron, C) Coal and last but not least, D) Limestone. Oil is not going to be a major problem as you're going to be colonising the Barren Planets which are in themselves quite rich in the said resource, and also, if you can overlook the comparison for Oil.
The planet having the most Iron and Coal should be your 'go to planet', as Clay is going to be secondary once to colonise to more than 2 planets and lemme tell ya' the colonisation of two planets is going to be pretty quick, and is going to be done with an hour of your initial playtime.
Iron and its substitutes are going to be used in the construction and upgrades of every building after you're going to upgrade your residences to 2nd tier and is going to be the raw material for 20-25% of processes. Exuding all of this, steel and ammunition are going to be made from iron ore, and is going to be of utmost importance when you're in multiplayer or in singleplayer VS AI.
Coal is going to be used for energy generation and in the making of ammunition and steel, and will constitute for nearly 30-40% of your power generation other than Off-Shore Wind parks (unlocked on Level-3) and Wind Turbines (Level - 1 Residency). The developers have realised that power generation through coal is so much economical and a better alternative to other methods, that they've added literal 'coal farms' in the research tree, as you'll be seeing later onward. I'll prefer that if you're having a large coal and iron deposit, then, pick the planet, as it'll save you up most of the income that you'll be spending on OSWP (Off-Shore Wind Parks) and WT (Wind Turbines) as a single instalment can cost upwards of 25II and generate only 20 power, and also consume land.
Then, if your planet is having more mountains and lakes, don't worry if that particular planet has rich resource deposits as well.

[krtinarun31]

Once you've picked the planet, make a rectangular selection box n the entirety of the map, and then you'll see in the corner of the screen that you've a ship selected under your username (like for me, it'll show krtinarun31's ship). Then, locate the planet you've chosen and then zoom in on the planet with the scroll wheel, and right-click anywhere on its surface.
After sometime, you'll see the ship has arrived on your desired location. Then left-click on the ship and a tab will come on the lower-right side of your screen, and on the tab's lower right-hand side, there'll be a home icon...click on it and then remove your cursor from that icon without clicking any button and then hover the green surface of the planet, and a green hexagonal box will appear when you move it on the planet's surface. Click somewhere on the surface and a station will be posted on that particular location. The building you've just established is like your "planet's headquarters, a space elevator and trading post" hybrid. You'll see that before making the building there were some materials that you'd in your spaceship, and after making the building, they've been removed, this is because after making the building, some of the items are consumed for its construction and the remaining goods are automatically stored in the building.

Now, go and play.... and I'll advice to make military residents instead of science residents.

[john]

I just installed the game & it will not run. my comp is up to date & my drivers are fine.

[AMXerSurf]

Originally posted by john:

I just installed the game & it will not run. my comp is up to date & my drivers are fine.

Thats pretty off topic in this thread. But its either that your are using Intels integrated graphics which wont work or you are using outdated drivers for your Nvidia or AMD GPU.

[Chopper Popper]

What do I do with gas giants?

[lolmanjo]

Originally posted by Chopper Popper:

What do I do with gas giants?

You can look into the "Guides" section of this forum. There are a few guides explaining their use.