First, in my experience your tech research order, your build order, what you build, and initial colonizing rush are the most important building blocks for a good game. I'll just try and give a list of some of what I do.

Morality: I see you play as evil. One somewhat cheesy, but useful for learning, thing to do is save/load upon colonization until you get +X% PQ. Makes you much more powerful and rich. 2nd biggest thing with morality is establishing trade with a like minded at AI (evil in your case). Having several routes with the evil Drengin will make them love you in no time and come to your aid in times of war. This can make a huge difference in war. Once they like you, you can also easily bribe them to take one or more of the "goody goody" races. This is really easy to do. Just select "attack" and then choose a race for them to attack. Then keep offering more techs and such until the text turns green. Walla, youve thrown everybody into war but you. They get weak, you grow strong. Nough said.

From the start
Spending to a 100%, taxes at 50%, 75%mil and 25% tech.

tech order:
comm th, univ trans, diplo, trade, ind th, med th, basic env, prop th, cold fusion, warp, interstellar refining, nano metal comp, artif grav, controlled grav, improved env
now go military
wep th, phaser, instant comm, zero grav res, def th, deflectors, etc

Once you get phasers and deflectors, push out some fighters and defenders to keep the AI honest. Try to alternate several socail techs, then several military techs to balance development and defense. Trade techs aggressively. Trade for a rare one (or build it yourself) and then market it to everyone. You can get like 5 or so for 1 this way.

Build colony ships from SOl and put about 100mil on each one. From the planets you colonize, build colony ships with 25mil and the occasional scout to help you find other planets. Basically colonize every PQ 15 and above you can get your hands on. Be very aggressive about it and it will pay off in the long run. Dont colonize additional planets in your system until later. If you run out of range, temporarily colonize a bad system to extend your range. You can destroy it later.

Use scouts to contact other races and start tech trading. Picking +40% or more diplomacy at the start will help tremendously in this regard. Get more bang for the buck basically. As soon as you feel that you have enough colony ships built to grab what yellows you can, switch to constructors and 40/30/30 mil/soc/tech. You want to still put more into mil in order to churn out constructors to grab resources. I dont see many people talk about doing this after colony rush but I think its huge. They are immensely useful. I prioritize them in this order:

Military, economy, morale, research, influence.

It can very depending on your starting picks. Ie, if you pick a bunch of morale, then you'll need research more. Influence becomes more important at harder levels.

trade: as soon as you research trade, have earth put out 2 freighters and send them to either the closest race or the one you want to like you the most.

Now that you have 30% to social I recommend building in this order

Soil
Habitat (if you have it)
banking center
entertainment
fusion
manfucturing
embassy
medical center
antimatter
stock market
research center (or lab, cant remember)
harmony generator (sometimes needs to be moved up)
economic exchange
neural net
teleporters
stadium (if you need it)
Trade center (if your a good guy)
terraforming
etc

For extra influence: news, cultural exchange
Influence resist: redu center, propa, spin, secret police
For extra research: Galactic research center
Defense: You know what they are. I personally never use them though
Worthless: info net, virtual reality, orbital hospital, multimedia

Pick 2 or 3 planets to be "starship makers" and only build shipyards etc on those planets. Not on all the planets.

goods/wonders
As soon as you have grabbed what resources you can go to 20,40,40 and develop your empire. As soon as you get a manufacting center built on earth, build a manufacturing capital and start build goods and wonders. Most important are Diplo trans, tristronium steel, Grav accel, and Galactic Stock Exchange. The Gal Stock Exchange is HUGE IMHO. Buy it if you have to. Trade for the goods that the Ai might have beat you too. Hopefully you will be able to build a production starbase in Sol's system during this time to facilitate this process.

Unless you are #1 in everything sooner or later somone will decide they dont like you and make demands or declare war. Simply go to all the other races and bribe them to go to war with the bully. Having friends at this point really helps. Your trade partner will most likely send you ships or join the war on your side. If your having trouble making friends despite your trade, gift them some techs. Get the bully fighting for his life and then swoop in during the chaos.

Combat: most people like frigates. Unless its a big map I prefer battle hammers. They get bigger boosts from military resources. I tend to use them until dreadnaughts are available. Before bh's, battle cruisers are nice.

Defense: I tend to build a battle axe at every system thats remotely close to the front line.

Well, Im out of breath. I dont know if I helped you or not but this is basically what I do. Its gotten me through painful so far and Ive never lost. I also move really slowly though.

Good luck!