Ok so I have never played a 4X game. I made my purchase based on all of the reviews, but the manuals and tutorials are severely lacking in how to teach you to play this game. Does anyone know of a better set of instructions out there?

Have you read the official manual?

There are so many ways of playing 4X games, especially SMAX. I often play as the university and out research everyoneelse as I find this makes it so much easier to fight against the more militaristic factions. Also make sure to expand as quickly a physically possible at the start of a game. Build a colony pod, make a new base, build a garisson, build another colony pod. You should always have at least one base building a colony pod for at least the first 100 years or so. As I said, there are other ways to play - you could focus your attention on just a few bases and still win.

The emphasis is on the 4X

eXplore: meaning scout your surrounding
eXpand: as mentioned by Hodd
eXploit: NOOOO not exploiting cheats ;), but use all resources around your bases to the best. Place new cities in the best spots (minerals/energy/nutrition). really pay attention where you build new cities.
eXterminate: I think this is the most obvious ;)

And SMAX is a good game. BUT as SMAX is random based you might get into situations where you are just doomed. Live with it ;) Those worms can be quite frustrating ;)

With the manual, it was kind of typical for its time, everyone kind of new all about 4x, so why write it all over again. Every developer followed the same/similar rules, as outlined above. It is no just up to you to find the right balance (and luck).

Some people prefer a more militaristic way, some others more research or even diplomatic approaches can work in SMAX.

So it is up to you to decide, you have ALL options ;)

If you are looking for something more specific you would need to ask a bit more specific ;)

this game is not very good at giving balanced maps, so i always save my game at the start and use the scenario editor to look around. I do not like to see large landmasses unused and at the same time AI players or myself on stupid tiny islands! WTF is with that anyway?? lol

"this game is not very good at giving balanced maps, so i always save my game at the start and use the scenario editor to look around. I do not like to see large landmasses unused and at the same time AI players or myself on stupid tiny islands! WTF is with that anyway?? lol"

Are you playing SMAX? If so, there's a known problem with poor starting positions. The starting positions are much better in SMAC. The reason probably is that the SMAX developers had to reserve starting positions for the Cult and the Aliens (who don't generate for the first few moves). This results in the other factions being "squeezed" together.