Change default. Ask before opening. I think the reason the manual seems dated because the game changes to much. Yes if you select a shipyard first it should be instintaneous.

Right click on the file and go to the "open with" function and use the program you want to.  

I have to disagree with that.  Guardian Drones have a shorter range weapon, but the same overall weapon rating (IIRC).  But the kicker is that a Guardian Carrier Module is about 20% smaller than an Assault CM.  This subject will take some study.

Okay, new question.  Say I have a bunch of ships that all use Duranthium.  I zero out my supply, so I can't build any more.  But then the enemy knocks out my major Duranthium sources, so that I no longer make enough to supply the ships and improvements that are already built. 

What happens? Do the ships etc. just keep working?

The durantium is spent the moment you build queue it.  If you cancel build, you get it refunded.  The enemy can't take away what you already spent.  This isn't Civ--built units don't really need supply. 

You need to change what app opens XML by default.  

1. Find an xml file
2. right click
3. choose open with
4. choose another app
5. choose notepad (or whatever)
6.  click the "always open with this app" box

Well, that seemed to be quite obvious! Can't believe I didn't think of that myself! Thanks!

Download Notepad++.  It has a XML editor (or maybe it needs a plug-in).  Much much better than dumb ol' Notepad.

What's the best way to deal with ship repair.  I've a 1000 HP dreadnought that is knocked back to 100 points.  Send it to orbit a planet?  Into the same hex as a shipyard?  Or do you form a small group of high-repair auxiliaries that sit back behind the lines?

Or just poof it and build another?

"What's the best way to deal with ship repair."

For Large or bigger ships,  I usually "upgrade" to the cheapest new design.  Upgrading produces ships fully repaired with their  experience intact. 

Yeah, I've done that.  Works a treat, if you can afford it.  In GCII you could "upgrade" to the same class for very little.  Don't know if that holds in GCIII.  (BTW, in the example my DNs use Thulium and I'm out of Thulium so that may not be an option.)

And now!  From the Wiki (I'm getting the impression that this is the real game manual):

• .. starships repair at a base rate of 1 hit point per turn, whether they move during the turn or not.
• Starships that end their turn in a shipyard repair at a base rate of 4 hit points per turn.
• Starships that end their turn in orbit around a planet repair at a base rate of 5 hit points per turn.
• Starships that end their turn in a starbase repair at a base rate of 6 hit points per turn.

Going up a level also may grant extra HP. 

I'm going to have to think about that.  At a given moment, starbase mines produce X stuff.  Stuff-users use Y stuff.  Doesn't really matter if it's 'per week' or not.  The question is about what happens when (X-Y) goes negative.  E.g. I'm out of Thulium and take a world with a Thulium Data Archive on it.  Either the sum goes negative, or the Archive vanishes or refuses to archive.  Or a race surrenders and all their Thulium-using ships defect...

I'm trying to find a world with an Archive to test this, but so far no luck.

BTW, whatever happened to capturing technology when a alien world is taken?

That used to be real motivating!

I agree.

That was exploitable.

How can you exploit an exploit?  <G>

I did that in Galciv1 all the time:   

-  Sell an AI a planet.

-  Backstab the AI and invade the planet

-  Get the free tech

-  Repeat

In Civilization 4, cities have a hidden stat called OriginalOwner that remembers who first founded each city. It is used for a couple things to deal with exploits around trading cities, and could easily be used to fix that example.

Regarding custom citizen pictures, if I have the AI playing as a custom civilization, does the player ever see the citizen pics of that custom civilization, or does that only happen with the player's citizens? I ask to find out if I need to spend time creating custom citizen pics of all of my custom civilizations, even the one I always use on AI! (Something I will eventually do anyway, when I get the time)

If you dont create custom citizens then they are all human.

If you successfully invade an AI player's planets, you will gain any of that AI's citizens that are assigned to that planet.  So yes, you can (in some cases) see them.

Ok, that's what I wanted to know!

Notepadd++ is one of the best free apps for Windows, IMO.  Everyone should have it

How is - or is - 'faction' different from race/species? 

Different terms for the same thing.  Faction is a bit more generic.