To get a diplomatic win? I dont see the button anywhere...

I think it just happens at randon set periods?

This.

Wait so the diplomatic victory is completely random? Sometimes i never see it appear at all...

It's not random, the council is activated after enough species have contacted each other. Then, it happens at set intervals - someone wins by having enough votes either by themselves controlling enough population or by swinging enough votes their way by having several other species also like you enough (or sometimes fear you enough) to vote for you.

not everyone has to be in contact with each and every other species for the council to happen, just someone has to be in contact with them

Well thats weird, ive gone entire games and the council never convened...and that was all the way till max research...

was it on huge galaxy? I dunno that's odd. I don't think I've ever played a game where the council didn't convene. I've had the council stop convening because contact got broken with a species - usually early game due to the Antarans attacking and destroying an AI outpost which was that species only connection to the one other empire near them which was connected to the rest of the galaxy.

Page 145 of the manual (emphasis mine):

"The last and possibly most complicated method is to win an election of
the Galactic Council. When nearly the entire galaxy has been settled,
the threat of war over competition for the habitable planets becomes
too great. The extant races gather and form the Galactic Council to
prevent future war"

I guess that kind of explains it. Usually i dont colonize too much and i guess the AI doesnt either.

If i have 4 banks of weapons, how do i set them to fire one by one instead of EVERYTHING at one target?

And what is the best way to take out fighters and missles? Im getting completely destroyed by those. I currently have cruisers setup with 12 PD mass drivers each. They kill like...2-3 missles per volley.

Also have warlord, +75 computer and battle scanners.

If you click on a weapon in the tactical screen, you can cycle trough 3 firing modes.
- fire on next attack (default)
- don't fire on next attack (reverts to default after the first time you fire the ship's weapon)
- only fire on incoming fighters/missiles (will remain in the mode until to change it manually, only affects point defense weapons)

There are several ways to take out missiles/fighters before they hit your ship
- point defense weapons
- normal beam weapons
- anti missile rockets
- intercepting them with your own fighters (they carry point defense weapons)
- lightning field (also works on energy torpedoes)
- ECM special
- there are also special weapons that deal damage to everything in a radius around the ship

It can also be useful to see what modifications were placed on those missiles

So when a weapon is set to "red", that means it only fires on fighters/missles? Will it auto fire on nearby fighers/missles?

I experimented with making cruisers loaded with 99+ fusion beam PDs with the continous firing mod. The main problem is actually getting the targetting cursor for fighters/missles though. And fighters/bombers with high level armor can be very hard to shoot down with PD.

I guess the main modifier is beam attack chance rather than damage?

Ive tried using interceptors in the VDC mod, they do a lot more damage now(i think), but they just dont auto target fighters/missles/bombers.

If you set them to "red" they will only fire at fighters/missiles aimed at that ship. They won't shoot at incoming stuff towards other ships.

Beam attack is important but crew experience will also help. Against armoured units, you will want to use beam weapons with higher damage like phasors or particle beams