Hey there, Crystalentity, welcome to the site!
This is a question that is quite often asked in the forums. to be honest, i'm surprised that people fidn this site before they find that patch!
The patch is available over on - the parent site of these forums.
Just click on the link I put above, then LOG IN to the site - you can't access the download area unless you're signed in. Personally I think that's a stupid idea coz it forces people who may have no intentions of posting to sign up, but that's just the way it is.
Anyways, try using the same login info that you use for these forums. I think they're the same. Otherwise, just sign up like you did with these forums.
Once you've signed in, click on the downloads link at the top of the page, then click on the patches link.
There are TWO patches available - for some reason, the one patch works for some people, and the other patch works for others. Try them until you find one that works for you.
There are a few people who simply cannot get the game to work on their computers though. If you find that you are one of those people, contact Joker over on armadafleetcommand.com - he's the guy who created the original patches, so he may be able to help you further.
Once you've installed the update and patches, you can then have a try at modding your game as well. There are plenty of mods available on armadafleetcommand, and even more are in development...