PQ 8 are not that bad. You can use them. They can be terraformed into atleast class 11s. Games are not lost because you don't own the highest PQ planets, or not having a bunch of bonus tiles on your homeworld.
I don't know about you, but I rather have complete control over a collection of sectors, than to to have a hand full of high PQ planets. It makes it easier, and more useful to use economy starbases. Innaddtion, you are less likely to annoy neighbors due to your influence, or lose planets because you colonized deep within another civs territory.
Before I can get anything worthwhile colonized, I have 2-3 civs asking for tribute for being so weak, despite having 2-3 small fleets flying around as an attempt to display military power.
Keep your ships orbiting your planets. They seem to get a small attack bonus when they do. Early in the game, its a big deal to have +1 damage for all of your ships. Plus ships orbiting planets repair faster, useful advantage after a big fight.
My problem comes from the initial colonizing phase. Even with my flagship on Auto Sruvey and a scout or two on Auto Explore, I can never seem to find a colonizable planet of decent PQ.
I'm thinking I'm spending too much time trying to find good planets.
1. You should take what you get. A class 26 that you can't reach is worthless to you. Go grab a few class 8s instead.
2. The default scout designs are not that good. Its better to research a few sensor techs, and build a proper sensor ship using a cargo hull for space, and then give it sensors, life support, and engines.
Once built, you want to manually control this thing. Maybe order it to fly to a nearby system you haven't looked at yet. "Auto Explore" is only good for exploring every single parsec (which does have its uses) and can be expected to be too slow for finding planets.
