It seems to me that humans are a wholly un-abservent race. I can't tell you how many times I have written "You are all stupid" or something simaler on the white board in front of the classroom, and NO ONE notices it!!!!  

I think any aliens that land on earth will be just fine, becouse no one will notice, and any one who does will assume they are druged up hippies.

Anyway, latly, when I play online. I notice that the noob I am generaly teamed with has no idea where, what and how, the rank system works. So this is for all you un-observent noobs.

It appears when you have nothing selected. So, in the game, with nothing selected. Look at the picture that is at the bottom center of the screen. It should show the picture of a guy, girl, or thing. To the left of the picture (oppisite side from the ping button) you will see three slits, that show very important info depending on what you have selected. Most of the time though this info is displayed elseware, and is not needed. However, when NOTHING is selected, your rank compared to other players in the game appears here.

The top one is empire, middle one is military, and bottom one is Econimy.

If it has a one in the box, then you are the best in that area, if it has a two, you are second best. If it has a ten, your screwed. Also: do NOT post and ask why you have a 12, I don't know why  you have a twelve, probably means that the pirates colonized more planets than your sorry empire. Also, if their is just a line, it means you are all tied.

Now, if you put your mouse over one of the three boxes, an info card pops up. This info card gives a break down of the three broad catagories, into three more specific catagories.

Here

Empire: colonization, reaserch, and Culture.

Military: Fleet, Defence, and capitol ships.

Econimy: Credits, Metal, and Crystal. 

Now I will tell you all what this means, this ranking system is very usefull, and tells you what part of your empire you need to keep up.

Empire:  esentully this is how much you own. Collonize tells you how big of an empire you have, and essentully your ability to get higher in the econimy. (meaning, if you are first in colonization, but last in econimy, it wouldn't be hard to become first in econimy.) Reaserch by etself doesn't mean much, it depends on what you specilized in reaserching. Culture doesn't mean much eathier, but your ability to defened, and replulse enimy culture.

Militart: This one is much more specific than Empire. It means your ability to take and to protecy your empire. If your first in military, but last in empire, it isn't hard to get a bigger empire. Fleet is how big your fleet is, the quintessence (sp?) of military. Defence is  your ability to keep the empire you have however it doesn't mean a whole lot. Capitol ships is just wierd, it is not based on number, becouse I have had one, my enimy two, and I'd be first in this. My guess is experience, but I am not sure.

Econimy: This is your ability to "bounce back" to get a bigger military and more. If you are first in this then you have it made. Becouse someone can try to kill you, but you can bounce right back, and counter attack. Credits is exactly what it says on the tin, though least important of the three econimy sub-catagories. Metal is important, espeicaly given it is much cheaper to sell than to buy. Crystal I would say is most important due to its relitive rarity, though it is not much more important than metal.

So in essence, ability to get a military is shown by econimy. Ability to get an econimy is shown by empire. Ability to get an empire is shown by military.

Hope this was clear, and free to too many spelling errors.