Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars/Empire Colony Status

Information Columns (from Left to Right)
At the top of each column is an arrow. Clicking on the arrow will sort the listed colonies based on that attribute (either ascending or descending order). This ability become important once your empire colonies exceeds 8 colonies. To reach a individual colony menu, either click on the planet icon in the Empire Colony Status list or at the Galaxy Map, click on the planet.

Upper Left of the Screen
You will see a repeat of the Empire Colony Status attributes

Upper Right of the Screen
You will see:

Planet Info
Basic planet information from the Galaxy Map

Manage Structures
The View button will give you a listing of structures built on that colony. By clicking on an item of the list, the item will come into focus. You can either destroy or dismiss the structure.

Colony Focus
Change the purpose of the colony. The default is Balanced. Changing this setting will redistribute the population accordingly unless you override the distribution using the Manual mode.

Colony Population Distribution
Each of the three colony attributes: Research, Food and Production.

Colony Production Queue
The Colony Production Queue is an ordered list of items being built (current production) and to be built (queued). If you dismiss an item from this queue, you will loose any production used for that item. A smarter way to handle a change in production is to click/hold and drag an item from the back of the queue to the current production (leftmost slot). The item being replaced will push back into the queue and retain the production already used.

Example: I have a Frigate being built and it has 2 turns left for production. However, I need a Fungal Farm built immediately. I click/hold the Fungal Farm and then drag it leftward into the current production. The Frigate moves to the next rightmost slot and still has only 2 turns left of production. After the Fungal Farm is built, the Frigate moves back into the current production and is available 2 turns later.

Available Technologies
A view of the unexplored technologies with their cost in game turns based on your empire's research points. As your colonies build more research structures, the additional research points will reduce the turns needed to complete the research.

Technology Tree
Clicking on the View Technology Tree button will expand the view to a tree style view. Using your mouse, you can pan the tree (left and right) to view and select target technologies. Once you select a target technology, the Done button will light up and let you out of the Research Management menu.

Suggested Target Technologies
Selecting a target further down the tree will have your empire research all the prerequisite technologies. Once your basic exploration/colonization technologies have been researched:

Upper Left of the screen
A view of your race and the opponent races. Clicking on an opponent will bring up a view of the race and allow you to initiate diplomacy actions.

Upper Right of the screen
An overview of your race. On the Racial Trait line, you can hover with the mouse and see what attributes you race has. Below that area in the Relations area is the diplomacy wheel. By hovering the mouse over a particular race symbol, you can see what treaties (if any) are in force.

Lower Left of the screen
If you included minor races in the game during the setup, these races will appear in the listing as they are discovered by your empire.

Espionage Management
This menu is not available until you research the Spy Center technology.

Leaders Management
Once you hire any Leader, this menu allows you to Recall, Dismiss or Assign a leader.

Information Columns (from Left to Right)
The important aspect to be mindful of: When you want to reassign a leader, simply designate a new resource. Recalling the leader and then reassigning them will waste extra turns.
 * The Manages column will show a green icon for colony leaders and a violet icon for Fleet leaders.
 * The Rank column will update as the leader gains experience
 * Hovering the mouse over the icons in the Bonuses column will give information about the bonus represented.
 * The Salary column will show the current BC paid to the leader.
 * The Status column will show what empire resource the leader was assigned to.

Left Side of the screen
You will see a list of the available ship blueprints. You can create a new type of ship (in addition to the default ship designs) in a blank slot.

Right Side of the screen
If you are creating a new ship design, you will automatically be in the Edit mode. For the existing ship designs, if you want to change the design, you can use the Edit button. When you finish with editing, use the Save Button. Additionally, you can remove an existing design with the Scrap button. The Upgrade button will light when either (or both) Core Systems or Weapons have a better technology available.
 * Ship Stats
 * Combat Stats
 * Costs

Bottom Center of the screen
In normal viewing mode, hovering over an item with the mouse will pull up an information card. In the edit mode, clicking on the item will pull up a sub-menu of available technologies.

Path to Victory
This menu will display the available methods to win the game. These methods are available to all players of the game, you and your opponents. The information cards will show your progress against the other races. Additionally, hover your mouse over the interested method and the requirements to win will be shown.