Potential to be a good game but needs some help.

Long time Gal Civ 2 and 3 player. Didn't bother with Gal Civ 4, but when I saw Supernova I bought it and have played the last week or so. Here are the things I see after several days of playing.

I admit I did not do the Tutorials.


1) Lack of Documentation.
I understand no manual, few games have one these day, but no tooltips to help? This has caused me to have a couple of questions.

-How do ships heal hit points? I know there is a tech later that allows ships to repair is that it? Until I research that tech nothing?
- If a tile has a special, say +3 Population, how do I activate it? If I build a manufacture on it does it go away?


2) Universe setup....is not fun!
It is far to difficult to setup a universe to play. Galaxy size is just a guess. Small, Medium, Large...but what are the differences? What is Large? One man's large is another man's small.

Also, Civilization distance and sectors is just a pain.

I guess the only real way to do it is get your settings. Create the universe, cheat and remove fog of war and then see if you like it.

That is not fun.

3) Lack of Diplomacy
I have played pretty deep into the game and a lack of ability to do Non-Agression Treaties, Allies, etc I do not like. If it is way later in the tech tree it shouldn't be.

4) Your Tax Rate determines money from treaties. Why?
I sell a tech for 100 a month. I have my tax rate at 25%. I only get 25. Why? Where does the other 75 go?

5) Events with Ideology points don't matter.
Example: I chose an Event that gives me +2 Progressive for my Individualism Civ. Doesn't matter. Because the Culture points required to buy a perk goes up so high I will only ever be able to do the Individualism track. Unless the points are boosted a lot they are useless.

6) AI sends single ships to attack fleets.
What a waste.

7) All War is total war, no war exhaustion.
So I go to war. I destroy enemy fleet after enemy fleet. Take a couple systems from them...will the surrender? Nope. Yes, I know eventually after they are completely beaten they will but.....why does every war have to be a total war?

8)No way to blockade planets.
You can completely control a system and it doesn't matter. You cannot bomb a planet into submission. You cannot blockade it from sending or receiving goods. If you cannot invade the fleet is useless. This makes war against the AI actually really easy. Protect your shipyards. Only attack fleets with invasion ships.