The sale is still going on, and I know a lot of people like myself bought it with many questions. So why not make a thread for this?

This game is hard to learn. But I'm learning it. I'm ten hours in, and the fact that I'm only at 1417 is pretty amazing. I've watched some Let's Plays, watched the video tutorial series that was linked in another thread, and done extensive online research. I learned enough to rebound Portugal from #180 in the world to #1. I started out completely botching my relationship with Aragon by breaking an alliance, and then got into a horrible war with Morocco for territory (I had a mission to take a province. I didn't plan it out well..) that I was only bailed out of by England saving my sorry butt ending with me having a prestige of -28 or so. I then went back and started studying before coming back to the game the next day to rehab. I ended up taking that stupid province in the second Portugal/Morocco war, then turned my attention to Algeria to take their province as my missions told me to. I now have the strong navy in the game (not hard when Portugal starts with like 10 heavy ships), and something like 22,000 troops primed to restart the Algerian war once the treaty runs out.

So, for all us newbs that just picked it up because it was cheap, how about some tips on how to succeed long term? I'm sure there's people on this forum that know all kinds of things they can impart. One thing I always worry about myself, is the tech levels. I'm used to the more gratifying methods of say...Master of Orion or Civ. By 1417 should I have more then level four techs? I could focus on one tech...but then I'll get it by say 1429, while everything else will take forever. I'm not sure if that's what I should do...or if I should just keep it steady and slow?

I'll try to help anyone who has any questions myself...But here's the resources I used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wj1rtbb4-E
Eighteen part tutorial going over all the menus. Extremely helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfnkYkToD5M
And here's the LP I used to convince myself to buy the game/learn some stuff.

I recommend using the Paradox forums for Europa Universalis 3:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?323-Europa-Universalis-III

They are very friendly and often quite helpful.

But to answer your question, you shouldn't worry to much about technology as an European nation (Portugal is in the Western Tech group). But the best way to research is to focus on one thing at a time (not split it between all the groups). So like putting all money into Government until you reach lvl 4, then focus on the next thing and get it to 4 and so forth. Also don't try to research government to like lvl 12 while other things are low, you receive penalties if your to far ahead in research (slower time to reach next lvl, example: Gov lvl 6 to lvl 7 will be harder if all western nations are still on lvl 4).

Also having many merchants, increases your income and therefore the money you can spend on research.