Rebellion uses steamworks. There is currently no retail version, and you will need to use steam regardless where you purchase it.

If you purchase the earlier versions of the game, those are the same regardless where you get them (they do not use steamworks, so the steam version is no different from buying elsewhere and adding it to your steam list manually).

If you only have Rebellion, you can only play multiplayer with other Rebellion users. If you wish to play with those who do not have Rebellion, you would need the appropriate earlier version(s) of the game.

Magic.

Well Krdaxdrkrun is a forum member and Kyro is a big wig of Stardock. So pick who you wish to believe.

Titans - One per faction. You can only build one at a time.

Capital Ships - 6 types build up to 16.

Frigates - Split between Frigates and Cruisers in build list. About 9 in each list. Corvettes kinda/sorta counted as frigates (its a long story). Build as many as you have supply. Have had hundreds.

Strike Craft - Fighters and Bombers. Built from Carriers Cruiser (2 for TEC and Vasari and 3 for Advent) plus from Capital ships and Titans with amounts varying between types of Caps and level of said cap.

Strikecraft (fighters and bombers), Corvettes, Frigates, Cruisers, Capital Ships, Titans. 

First of all, try playing on the faster game settings if you weren't already.

Trade is the best way to earn money mid-late game. Early game, colonizing as many planets as fast as possible is the most cost efficient way to get resources, and it gives you to infrastructure for more trade and research facilities later.

Did you get Rebellion or Trinity? In Rebellion there are six subfactions. The TEC factions are split exactly by offense/defense. The TEC loyalists are very defensive while the TEC Rebels are entirely offense focused. The Advent Loyalists are also pretty defensive, focusing on culture. The Advent and Vasari Rebels can be played either way, and the Vasari Loyalists actually play pretty offensively despite having mostly economic bonuses.

For Trinity, the 3 races aren't really divided by those basic strategies very much. They all can be good at offense and defense. The TEC focuses on being simple and cost effective, with the best economy and raw stats it can either try to steam role or win a war of attrition, but it lacks some the great and complicated end game capacities the other factions have. The Advent are all about synergies; an Advent fleet is far stronger than the sum of its parts as its units work together, though they are considered to have the worst economy. The Vasari units are the least cost effective but they have access to all sorts of special abilities the other factions can only dream of, (such as connecting distant planets with phase gates, shield bypassing phase missiles etc).

okay with the map generator, how do I actually make a custom map? I mean I can pick what worlds and such I want and how many but how do i put them in order? I.E a straight line

Okay so I made a map with the galaxy forge but how do I activate it for the game? I saved it in this folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\sins of a solar empire rebellion\Galaxy Forge

And is there a requirements for making a map? like something you must do before it work/? 

Then simply go into the game and start single player match and change the type.  You'll cycle through small, medium, and large games before coming to galaxy forge and custom random maps.

Just another quick question, regarding setting up a defence of a planet, What is the best way to do it with each race? I have rebellion btw

With the TEC I do dual starbase next to each other with 3-5 repair stations, 1 phase delayer and the rest hangars for anti flak with fighters inside with the starbases been upgraded for max weapons and armour then the rest into strikecraft and some anti flak, long range frigates and strike craft holders in the center. and usually a capital that captures planets for the range/accuracy bonus

That defence will pretty much hold against most of what the AI will throw at me  however I can never seem to do the same with the advent

I do the same in units basically with a strikecraft capital for the rate of fire bonus with one starbase with max weapons/armour/meteor and I think it's one left over which I throw into strikecraft, again with 3-5 repair, phase delayer and the rest hangars for strikecraft and shield bonus however this seems to be squashed pretty easily by the AI.

So any ideas for to improve these?

and what sort of strategy so i do for an orkulus starbase? I never really use vasari

cheers