the hints are in the game itself,
the honor system is to prevent early cap rushs but goes up whenever you do anything (research, building, battle, etc)

for hiigaran units, the crew station needs you to meet a resource requirement (you need lke 2000, 3000,4000,.. of stocked resources before you can unlock a rank) vagyr don't need to worry about that, they just rank up when they met the honor requirement.

research for hiigarans, they need to research a lot to unlock the next teir of research in the research station, vagyr don't they just need a ship with a research division but tech is locked by ranks for them.
research is also gated by what subsystem you have active in fleet (you need to build drive subsystem to unlock speed and drive techs, you need to build fire control subsystem to unlock damage and accuracy techs, you need a hyperspace subsystem to unlock hyperspace tech, so on and so forth)

Power is to stop you rocking tons of cap units, acts as pesudo resource for abilities, manufacturing, movement, sensors and such.
power above 1000 units is good, below that number you get penalties to unit performance and manufacturing
vagyr research extra power production, hiigarans need a power station to build extra power production.

Crew and officers is to limit the number of total ships and total number of capitals (destroyer and up)
vagyr need to research extra crew and officer capacity, hiigarans need a crew station to build extra capacity also crew is not instant for hiigarans they need a number of crew cells to increase crew recruitment.

trade requires teams and a trade pod.

mining requires a capture frigate to capture the asteroids with docking ports.

as for ships, set up a game with highest starting fleet, press pause/break, and look through the buildable ships via the ship yard. as rule, the vaygr require combined arms while the higarans can just replace everything with shiry fighters, mech guns corvettes, talwar frigates, advanced destroyers, a-type cruisers and battleships.

Thanks, that's the begining of something who look like a real explanation.

Originally posted by Aquilar:

the hints are in the game itself,

I've seen it, but each hints lead me to another hints, and so on... endless.
This mod realy need a manual page, for all the things you've explain here

There is a manual. It's just hard to find. On the complex forums, in the Downloads, Media, Resources section, there's a sticky: "Complex Manual."

That thread has four links. The first one is for a google docs download page, the second is for a suggestions thread, the third and fourth are for a defunct web-based manual.

On the google docs download page, the first one listed is a lite document that explains the over-arching mechanics that make up the mod's premise. The second is a very in-depth resource that discusses the wide array of ships that are in the mod. The download link is on the far right of the page.

Here is that page:

https://sites.google.com/site/complexmanual/Home

Your gameplay strategy will vary depending on the map, your chosen race, and the parameters of your game, but in general it's a good idea to watch the AI's early game to see how it goes about building up. Watch what it builds, when, and how it sets up resourcing.

Try this: set up a 3v3 using the following game perameters-

Open Cosmos map, normal deathmatch

Primary Objective- Destroy Mothership
Secondary- None
Locked Teams- Yes
Start Location- Fixed (so you can put yourself in the middle, good for not getting attacked while you learn)
Starting Rank -20 (Ensign) (so you can learn how to advance the early game)
Starting ships- Few (MS and 3 resourcers, but it allows you to watch what how the AI develops its fleet)
Resource Multipler-Max
Starting Resources-Max
Unit Capacity- Few (keeps things simple and small scale, so you don't get overwhelmed trying to micromanage tons of ships. you can raise it later as you figure out what's what)
AI Attack Multiplier- Normal (this determines how often and how big the enemy attack waves are. Few means bigger waves, but less often; go the other way and you will get many smaller raids)

Set all the other options to Normal except the Alliance Fee Multipler, set it so None so you dont go bankrupt for sucking on your first few tries. Look down at the list of players/NPC's. Set your teammates to Standard, put them in spots 1 and 3, and yourself in spot 2. Put the enemiers in 4, 5, and 6 and set them to easy difficulty. This will keep them from focusing on you too much while you figure out what you're doing.

Set the intro to off, because the intro is tedious.

Now, for the start-

Move your mothership over to the nearby resource field, build 3 more resourcers and send them and the 3 you already have to start harvesting.

Pause the game and open the build menu, and look through the build options for each class of ship. Take a few minutes to read through the descriptions of each ship to get an idea of what they are effective against and weak to. If you are playing Hiigaraan, take special notice of the Research ship, the Power Station, and the Crew ship. These are Hiigaraan only, they haven't been implemented yet for the Vaygr. These ships are essential to your advancement through the various ladders.

Honor is gained by resource harvesting, building, researching, and being effective in combat (having a high kill/loss ratio). Early game, at the center position, you can turtle up and learn the game without much pressure from the enemy. I recommend taking every opportunity to watch your AI teammates and see what they build, how effective the ships are, and such. Keep in mind that the AI can micromanage far better than any player. What works for the AI may not work for you, and vice versa.

Research; try to always be researching something. You'll figure out what's useful to you and what's not. Research ships, try them out; if they suck, don't research them on your next play through. One thing that's always effective, is to research the general class improvements. Speed, Defense, Accuracy, and Damage improvements will help a lot.

Crew; as you progress up the rank ladders, you will have to build more crew/officer barracks. Don't neglect your crew cells as Hiigaraan. If you don't have any, you won't get more crew even if you have the barracks. I'm not the biggest fan of this mechanic, especially as it's not implemented for the Vaygr.

Power; this is somewhat of a vague mechanic. You will want to manage this pretty carefully, as it can make or break your ability to build your fleet. Build power modules as you can afford them, always trying to keep your power positive. If it goes negative, your build rate, as well as your ships' speed and firepower goes down. If it's positive, your build rate, firepower, and ship speed goes up. It's somewhat a drag on resources, but it's something you have to learn to manage.

Complex has a wide range of suitable playstyles, and most of the mid and late game learning curve is figuring out what playstyle suits you. You'll likely have to play through several games at least partially in order to get a grasp of how to set up efficient resourcing, your research priorities, what ships work for you, and so on. Once you figure that out, go back and ratchet up the difficulty by turning the opponent AI up to standard or hard, or turning the friendly AI down to easy. Or move yourself to the outside, in order to approach the game from a different angle.

The manual is a great help, but also rather old. There are ships/mechanics added to the game not mentioned in the manual. What are fleet production ships and how to you effectively use them? Battleships must gain experience somehow to build their subsystems? Population stations? What are the requirements to build the new ships/stations/production stations? Etc, etc.