On the second level, clicking on the items in the Tech screen turns them green, but I can't (e.g.) send my ships any farther than I could before. Am I misisng something?
It's a bit of a grind. I've played twice from scratch, and each time get bored about ~1.5hrs in, when I'm just flying around, the markets have nothing useful, and I can't complete the next "quest" item until I hit level 9 (11 seats for miners).
This is a good game, but is get f*ing hard starting around Day 16. Those blue things with beaks are just a little bit too fast for those of us who no longer have 16-year-old reflexes...
Yes, click your HQ and do some upgrades