Survey modules for your ships are not under the advanced life-support line. They are available when you research "Sensors". I would suggest though, that instead of playing the campaign first, that you start a new game on beginner or easy-mode level, with a tiny galaxy. This will give you the opportunity to learn the game without being wiped out quickly. Unlike many other games, the campaign in GalCiv2 is NOT a tutorial. <im
One way to jumpstart this is to outright buy the first factory. That will give you some production to get the rest going.
You do realize that it doesn't change the name of the ship when you upgrade it, right? eg: if you Upgrade "Fighter" to "Superfighter" the name of the ship you upgrade will still show as "Fighter 56756786" and not "Superfighter 56756786.
It appears that Amazon.com has them in stock: Link
Did you make sure to hit "Send"? I know I have, on rare occasions, just hit "done" rather than "send". Nothing happens in that case, but you should be able to go right back and redo it, if you catch that happening.
I am having a similar but different problem. I pre-ordered the game through Amazon, the nice retail-box and all. I had been able to get the first patch on Monday, but when I tried to grab "X" today it tells me that my serial# is not registered. After playing around searching for some place on this website or as part of the game to update that info, I decided to DL the Stardock Central software and install it. I was able to f
