1) For DA, creativity sometime gives you bonnus research points. In TA, it finishes the current research. Luck gives you better chances for critical hits in combat and a higher minimum 'dice roll'.

2) The resources you mine are added to your civilisation-wide bonus. In the civ-manager, you should be able to view your effective current abilities.

3) Dependant, I guess. Early on, I use it for production, later I switch to econ or special projects. But there are others who can give a much more detailed advice on that matter.

4) Don't rush build too much. Save the money, you need low taxes to keep your approval at 75% or 100% as long as possible. Additionally, in TA you'll only have 3000 instead of 5000 bc in the beginning. So don't get used to spending too much too early.

5) Strange. What are you trying to do? Don't they show up on the model?

anything, it just wont place, mebbe I just don't know the command to place?

Creativity is pretty neat in TA. The effect is obvious. Luck is not that obvious but I assume it works. I never pick luck as an ability.

The resources are all empire wide and the effects are huge. You need to get as many as possible

I use the home world for a little of everything since it is your main contributor in the early game. One or two factories depending on bonus tiles, a lab, a market, etc. it will always wind up being my political capital but seldom any other capital

I rush build some early improvements like factories and starports but I seldom rush ships. I crank up the military spending so that I get a colony ship in 5-6 turns that is usually good enough to get my share of planets. The AI seems less agressive with colonizing very early but the pick up the pace with a vengance in early mid. It is hard to beat the AI at anything they are focusing on so you need to make hay while they are sending out scouts.

Sounds like you are doing something wrong. You left click the part to pick it up and you left click again on the attachment point. Then you save the design with a unique name.

Turning off tech trading is not a bad idea but if not it is easy and cut and dried. Make an offer and if it turns green it is a deal. research diplomacy to make more deals. If they do not allow some trading for unique techs I will probably stop trading entirely.

Espionage sucks in the game, so all you need the agents for is to remove the occasional enemy agent and to handle the spy mega event.

I had the same problem the very first time I used the ship editor. Left click on the item, position the mouse cursor on a mount point (red arrow on hull), then left click again to install. It can be a bit tricky to get the item locked on a mount point so you need to finagle the mouse cursor over the point sometimes.

1. In DA, Creativity does nothing unless you research very expensive techs. The static RP is collects is pathetic. In TA, Creativity finishes entire techs for free. Luck, in both DA and TA, gives you a higher minimum roll, making your weapons work better, and also finds you more Precursor Ranger starships than other civilizations tend to find.

2. Mining Starbases give you a galaxy-wide bonus, as has been said.

3. Look above.

4. Don't rush colony ships at all. Just put Military Spending to 100%, Production to 100%, and Focus Military. In campaigns, this gets my colonizers ready in 3-5 turns depending on the ship design(engines and support).

5. See the red bumps on your hull, click an extra from the list, and click the red bump where you want to put it. Use the controls below to rotate and resize the extra.

6. Tech Trading and Manipulation are very simple skills. IMO, it's fun. Here's the basic instructions:

1) Identify your useless techs and your important techs. Useless techs are those that the AI cannot fully exploit, like Sensors, Space Mining, or obsolete weaponry/defense techs. Factory techs are also useful in breaking the AI economy, since they'll build lots of them. Important techs are all those that boost the AI's diplomacy, ground warfare, and space-warfare abilities(modern weapons/defenses). You don't want them to have these.

Also, whenever trading propulsion techs, never give the AI Impulse Drive, Warp Drive or HyperWarp. Give them Mk.2 or Mk.3, but don't give them galaxy wide speed boosts.

2) Open up the diplomacy screen. There are 3 things to do here, of which you choose:

-1- Tech Buying - Look at their techs to see what you want. If you see something you like, click it, and then keep clicking your own useless techs until the text goes green. Then click the AI's money thing at the top to get the cash balance for the deal and press 'Send'. If you run out of useless stuff or you think your giving too much, forget the deal and hit 'Clear'. Come back when you have a better Diplomatic ability or juicier junk techs.

-2- Tech Selling - If you've just completed a new useless tech and need some spare cash, do tech selling. Click that useless tech from your list and click the AI's treasury to get the price for it. Hit 'Send'. Do this for all the AI's on the same turn, or else they'll do it themselves. Mind you, Minor Races will pay more for the same tech and never use it.

-3- Proxy Wars - If you want some enemy of yours to be dead without you lifting a finger on them, use proxy wars. First, go to the treaties screen and click that race. List all the other races who have relations with this race as 'Neutral' or below. Visit those races, for they will be your proxies. Click the 'Attack' button in the proxy race's list of stuff and choose the target from the list. Offer them one or two useless techs or obsolete warships, and balance out the deal with a bit of cash. Hit 'send' and watch the fireworks. Do this with all the races on your list, for the more wars, the worse your enemy suffers.

You can even give gifts and demand tribute, but these things rarely work and don't do much even when they do work. Also, the AI will not want you knocking on their door all the time, so time your visits with a bit of tact.

7. Offensive espionage is useless. Just keep one agent for checking on enemy planets and use the rest for defense until you can build Counter-Espionage Centers. Even Starbase details can be obtained simply by right-clicking them in the diplomacy screen.

I've done okay with tech trading turned off in DA, but in TA many races have holes that can only be filled with tech trades from other civs.

Also, I like using the diplomacy window to find out what weapon and defense techs my enemies are researching.