Welcome (back?) to the community.

2. In game the diplomacy tree doesn't really have much for 1v1 (besides a few miscellaneous bonuses like a boost to TEC production rates), but in 5v5 its very important. The support abilities of envoy cruisers and especially pacts can be substantial if you get them, and "feed" (giving your teammates resources) is vital in certain situations.

3. Well you got the basics down. Try to use your colony cap to take vital ice/desert/terran planets early, while use your colony frigate for asteroids that aren't as important. The fastest expansion possible is to only have your ships target siege frigates, then send them to the next planet while your colony frigate comes in and colonizes the planet. Then build a defense turret and send everything out of the gravity well until the turret destroys the enemy ships (you should practice this technique in single player a bit until you are comfortable with it. I saw an awesome video of an expert players "rapid expansion" techniques but I can't seem to find it).

Trade ports might be what you are doing wrong. Taking unclaimed planets are the best form of economic growth because they pay for themselves very quickly if you develop extractors and basic infrastructure quickly. Trade ports are also very profitable but they are expensive and it takes a while for them to pay back the cost of building them. If you opponent spends those resources on a better fleet and then destroys your trade ports before they can pay themselves off, you just made a bad investment. Thus, only build trade ports and other big economic investments once you are sure you can protect them (which is why its important to always scout your opponent so you can check if he is going to rush you).

1) Type "\a" before typing your message.

2) In a 1v1, Diplomacy is largely irrelevant.  In a larger team game, it depends on your situation.  Generally speaking at close proximity you're going to be in a fight for your life and it's a big mistake to invest significant resources in anything other than military assets.  Otherwise, this can be an extremely effective way to bolster your team.

'Feed' is the general term for sending money to allies.  In team games, you usually have one guy on the front-lines specializing in military technology, and other players on the back-lines specializing in civic tech, and they contribute by sending money to the front-line people.

Absolutely; a good early-game advantage can easily be built into an overwhelming late-game advantage.  I'm sure you're feeling this first-hand.  Generally speaking, the average opponent you'll face in a 1v1 is more challenging than the average opponent in a 5v5.  Not to say that you won't find beginners in 1v1 or you won't find experts in 5v5.  You can get a lot of experience by playing 5v5's and watching your allies.

Watching your replays could also be very helpful.  There is a mountain of tricks you can pull to squeek out 15 seconds here and there, which at the end of the day can add up to a 3 or 4 planet advantage.

If the host was using Alloy to manage the connections, then you can't be booted, but you're dependent on IC's servers, which are a little flakey at times.  If the host wasn't using Alloy, then he can indeed boot you.

Welcome to the community, Mando

I have been called a smurf before and booted from lobby's for being a smurf. It took a while before someone actually told me what a 'smurf' was as myfist0 has just done. Unfortuanately, there are the bad as well as the good of individuals on the internet and that applies here as well. Most people in my experience will either trash talk and just want to raise their scores in the game, OR, they are willing to help and are by far the more enjoyable people to play with. Due to time constraints I have not been on ICO in quite some time. With work quieting down a little I hope to get back into it.

boshimi336 is my online tag.