Im really not sure why it is in the game tbh or how to use it.

Could someone let me know why its there and how it is of use to me? Ta.

Trade section has several meanings:

1. you can win a game by buying up monopolies (kind of Heyoun/Ferengi-type of winning the game). Monopolies have you gain interests in transactions made by others on their global stock exchange with that particular resource.
2. speaking of it, you can sell and buy resources. This makes particularly sense when you have a certain surplus and need quick credits (though beware, prices fall quickly as well as rise when you buy precious resources). Buying resources helps building theory simulators and subatomic simulators for example, since you get them at tech 6 and they require crystals as resource which you probably won't have a lot by then. So you can buy and start that building in advance.

Otherwise it's not that important, you can mostly ignore and still win the game. It's a nice addition though, especially at times when you are in dire need of credits/resources.

Ah so i can largly ignore it. Thats a relief as i didnt want to manage finances that in depth. I presume weath winning conditions can be turned off if players do not wish to win by being the wealthiest if such conditions exist?

as you can see in game preferences, there are options to choose all kinds of victory conditions, by default all are activated. you need to quit and restart a new game to have changes take effect. victory conditions stay with a game all the time and cannot be changed on-the-fly.

Ah i see. Tho what would you say is different between conquest and combat as i would have assumed they mean the same path and end results? Also noticed win by being richest isnt their so thats a relief. Tho i take some might have liked that if they played ferengi. Somit to think about perhaps?

Also while im here as i cba to move topic lol. When playing the option New Game is greyed out and couldnt pick. Had to exit the game to start a new game. Oh and quitting menus are in german.

yes, a wealth victory would be nice there.

differences between victory conditions and current status of them can be viewed at Empire->Victories menu. The numbers there are dynamic so they adapt to current game state. Conquest means conquering a certain amount of worlds while combat means ship combat victories in particular.

Loading and starting a new game from in-game was a feature that didn't really work in Alpha 3 and before so we commented it out for the time being.