Being new to GalCiv makes joining in on a beta probably not the best idea, but I've done it nonetheless. I'm quite happy about what I see (this is what I expected from the game), but I am getting lost on several things. I also have found some issues, which I'll put first.

1. In the Shield, Point Defence, Armour optimization tech, the techs which reduce the cost, actually increase it. At least, that's what it says in the "unlocks" section of the description. The text above it claims a reduction in cost, which is what I assume it will be. I'm not sure what the actual effect is because I haven't researched them.

2. Occasionally, when I have a unit join a fleet, the fleet disappears from the map. The units are gone. Shortly after that, the game freezes (Do you need logs? I'll look them up if it happens to me again. It happened some time ago and I didn't think of it at that moment).

3. In the tech tree, I can't see which tech will unlock what kind of ship. I don't know the icons of course, but I also think these icons I now see below the tech item, are a bit too small. The orange icon looks like a spaceship, but when I hover over it with the cursor, the additional information isn't really helping me. When I do the same with a tech that unlocks an improved structure, I can read it easily: The tech of the solar plant is followed by a hydrogen plant (I believe?), that made sense rather quickly, but it's not the case with the ships (where can I find Defender M1 -> M2 -> M3 below the techs?). Maybe it just isn't finished yet, or there some other reason, but it couldn't hurt to put it up here.

I'd like to see the icons to be a bit less minimalistic, or the techs to give more information without having to mouseover the icons below them. I'm very used to what it looks like in Civ5 - that would not really be necessary here, I'm not demanding it, but I'd like to see the information a bit more accessible than it is now.

Now for the questions: this is mostly gameplay related, going on the parts that are hardest for me while playing.

1. How fast is the research supposed to go, on average? I take anywhere between 7 and 10 turns for one tech. I'm still very busy with techs in the first era, but the bar in the lower end of the screen (the one that appears when you've researched a tech) is already filling up in the third era.

2. Related to my confusion with the icons, where are the medium-sized ships? My opponent is suddenly attacking me with fleets containing medium ships, they can tear an entire fleet of mine apart without too much trouble. I think I can manage to keep the upper hand, but that is mostly because I continue to destroy all shipyards near six of the enemy planets. Having a couple of medium sized ships myself wouldn't hurt. I made the same sudden progress when I figured out how to assemble a fleet.

3. In combat, does it matter where the weapons of my custom ships are? One custom ship is aligned a bit wrong: You're looking at it from the rear, when you select it in the shipyard, as opposed to every other ship in the game.

Thanks for the help