If I joined the Bay12 forum would someone be willing to show me the ropes? I got this game pretty much when it first released on steam EA, and couldn't get my head around it then, and it only seems to have gotten more complex since.
I'd recommend trying to make a ship on Creative first, in space, just to get the basics down. Simple things to note :
Unless you want to make a drone, you'll need a cockpit to drive a ship. In Small Ships this will be a front - facing, fighter - style cockpit. In Large Ships you can have these or alternatively the Command - Console looking things - they all serve the same purpose.
Nuclear Reactors give power, and need to have uranium to work in Survival. In Creative, just having enough to generate power will work.
Thrusters generate force in the opposite direction to which they are pointed. You want at the very least a backwards and a front thruster, otherwise you'll have to do an about turn whenever you want to stop.
Gyroscopes are what affect your turning rate - if you're building a fighter you probably want a comparatively larger amount than on a SotL. (Ship of the Line)
Weapons require ammo to function in Survival, but not Creative - go nuts.
Oxygen is a fairly new addition. Oxygen Generators make Oxygen out of Ice (In Survival) and pump it into rooms via vents. Basically, if a room looks airtight, it probably is. Try to make your ship airtight.
Conveyors are probably the trickiest thing to get your head around. The Conveyor block acts like a Six - way conveyor, whereas the tubes are Two - way. Basically, make sure all your weapons, nuclear reactors, oxygen vents, assemblers etc. are conveyored in together so they can use the Ship's resources. Some redundacy is probably advisable if you're making a combat craft so that one unlucky shot doesn't rek the Ship.
Landing Gear - Activate them with P when they're close enough to lock onto a Station or surface. You probably want Landing Gear on most of your ships.
Button Panels are very useful for making your Ship feel like it's something out of Star Trek / Star Wars / BattleStar StarLactica etc. You can assign up to four functions to each panel, from opening hangar doors to making the Ship's hidden warhead storage explode and the Ship Self - Destruct. (This is very satisfying if the enemy has boarded it and you have no hope of survival.)