Colonization and research strategy varies a lot depending on your playing style. I myself tend to go for any specials with artifacts I can colonize first, then breathable atmospheres; after that priority depends on what resources I need the most.
I'm not sure my research strategy is good enough to give out as advice.
I'm still experimenting with it myself.
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Cap'n Q
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"
[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 03 June 2001).]