Basically, aside from a planetary garrison to deter invasions, you have no need to constantly build armed naval vessels. I usually just take a small hull and slap on however many weapons systems will fit, and put one or two of those around each planet. As long as my military rating's over a hundred, or at least high enough that the computer doesn't come asking for a thousand bc every couple of turns I'm usually pretty safe. When you don't need more military ships, you can drop your military build rate to slow production and increase your research rate and switch over to building freighters (if you have open trade routes) or constructors (pretty much all the time).

Two things that greatly help with managing ships are governors and rally points. For example, most of my planets will never build anything but a constructor in the entire game, and I have all of these immediately send ships to a rally point usually labeled "Con Rally." I move this rally point every couple of turns to wherever I want a starbase built, so that a few waves of constructors are always converging on the desired location. This is much simpler than launching each ship individually, then trying to locate the spot you want it to go to for each vessel you launch.

Use fleet rally points in war time, and turn over your top production planets (use the planet list to find them) to the construction of military craft. Usually, I keep building until near the end of the conflict, when I'm fairly certain I'm not going to need any more ships to finish off my opponent. Maybe keep one or two planets producing transports until things have actually finished off - I usually find myself with total space superiority but no ground pounders to make it stick.

Anywho, hopefully that should reduce some of your management woes. In brief - use rally points and governors to simplify your job, and don't build military ships outside of wartime (except for a basic planetary garrison).

Well that helped alot thanks.

I never stop building military vessels. The only time i will slow down is when i am in the red. Then i just sell some of my obsolete ships to my Allies or the minor races. Keeping a big military has its pros and cons.

GOOD- most neutral and evil races will pretty much leave you alone or even give you tribute because of your military might.

BAD-Good races will see you as a threat "damn KRYNN:)" and gather their allies to declare your upon you because of your imperalistic nature:)

The bottom line is the bigger the military the more respect you get from the other races. Just keep all of your excess ships on the edges of your influence sector. that way if war breaks out.........you will be prepared:)

That's a tougher question to answer, which depends a little more on your style of play. The computer usually won't trade weapons with you, particularly, if you're militarily very powerful, but you can always pick up needed defenses in a pinch. I usually research weapons technologies prior to war, or when a foreign power seems to be getting hostile and well-armed. I usually stop whenever I max out a tier and move over to producing the appropriate defensive tech or a manufacturing/economy tech. Remember that industry is as important (if not more important) than military hardware. I usually have one or two shipyard planets that can crank out almost anything in three weeks or less - this way, even if your vessels are slightly inferior, you will have the advantage in quantity.

You can use the amount of weeks required to research the tech as a basic barometer. If a weapons or defense tech is relatively few weeks, research it until the commitment time spikes up, then move over to other technologies. Don't forget that aside from weaponry and defensive, production capacity, range, ship speed, and sensor range all impact your warmaking ability. In general, though, you don't have to worry about overtly military techs accept before and during wars.

There are other ways around an overpowering adversary, though of course constant military build-up works too. However it's fairly easy to provide friendly A.I.'s with ships and cash for proxy wars that don't risk your own planets and keep aggressive civs off-balance. This way you don't have to pay upkeep and can use the cash to expand your infrastructure and advance your technology level. With better industry and tech, when you do want your own navy you'll have the best - and probably a good chunk of cash besides. A handful of dedicated shipyard planets can bring a sizeable modern fleet online before my peripheral planets are seriously threatened.

Very true. Recently I've been playing a few low-planet games on large maps where having even a one-world lead is a significant advantage over the other races (esp. since the only habitable planets are homeworlds). With more planets, you can afford to take a few hits and recover; in a smaller game, every world is precious. Economy also takes precedence, since I can't count on a massive tax base to support my empire, I'm stuck using trade and limiting my navy - of course, the militaristic and expansionist empire of the Space Lobsters limits its navy by sending soldiers into battle, but theoretically, I could play a more pacified game. For example, I could limit my navy to the minimal deterrent force, pay my allies to fight proxy wars for me, and then reap the profits with a fast transport fleet.

But that isn't always as much fun, and the Space Lobsters are a fun-loving empire...