[Aussie Gamer]

Go to the "?" icon it has access to the manual there.

Also if you start a new game with high tech for all players , select all the fields such as organic, temporal etc in the race for youreself you get all the tech's, then allow access to the tech tree in the game setup.

Start the game with your race and just one other player, deselect the option for the computer to put in other AI's.

With the game started, go to the research area (the beaker) and then to the tech tree.

You will get a look at all the buildings and components that go on the ships. You will also get a level readout of the different tech's.

Hope that this helps!