When you find an advanced research station and you are thinking about capturing it, send a science lab into the system the research station is located in, and click on the little science lab (your one) and there should be a tab named ARS. Click on it, and you will find what units the research station contains. Now, you are thinking about hacking it you say? Well, look at the left-most unit in the ARS, because it is that unit you will get, always. It is always the left-most unit that you will get.

Thinking about your turret placement? Tip: Dont place them at each wormhole as that will only serve to WEAKEN your defenses, as the AI will easily overrun the meagre defenses, instead look to make a layered defense, or even just make a big clump of turrets right next to your CMD (Command) station, but not IN the shield, that will make them weaker. Also, sniper turrets, please put them as far away from the system center as you can, because they have infinite range and thus should be as far away as possible.

Trader is rolling around in your systems and you want to buy something? Think hard and long about where you would most need that armor booster, or perhaprs that ion cannon. A choke-point would be the most ideal place to put these. But if the trader rolls around in your home system, place a zenith power generator immediately, as it is the best protected in there.

Go into the CTRLS tab, look all the way to the right of the list of buttons and you will find a button called "Auto-build energy collectors" enable that, and then click apply and save. This is a button that should never be disabled as having energy collectors in every planet is a good thing, with no negative effects.

Just a personal opinion here: unlocking the tier 2 and 3 of the Economic CMD station as your first unlocks is a decent choice, as it boosts your income by quite a bit early game, and it will help you build a strong economy faster.

Playing with multiple people? A nice thing to have is dedicated roles, such as: economy, offensive, defensive. The economy player takes all the metal extractor upgrades, economy CMD stations and so forth. Offensive unlocks all the ships and should get military CMD stations. Defensive player unlocks all turrets and force fields etc.

Personal opinion: Building a few, say, 12 mark 2 research labs and selecting them all, holding down ALT and right clicking on empty space, selecting "Auto-gather knowledge" is really useful, since it collects knowledge really quickly and you wont have to worry about building them yourselves, they will just go to a planet you colonized and gather the knowledge there.

Did you know that it is possible to receive a small amount of the benefit from the Fallen Spire without angering the ai? If you only do the first 2 surveys you can get 4 spire frigates without the AI getting angry.