I might be able to help!?

First one: it won't matter as far as the demo, you should be able to remove it since it should be in a different subfolder than the main program. The gold edition and dark avatar icons will remain, unless you just remove them from the desktop. They are both part of the core program. Expansions add to the base game, they don't install completely seperate. So if you do a fresh install you will be simply reinstalling GC2 and DA, then adding TotA. So I would only think about clearing out the demo; the rest needs to stay.

Second one: unless you first save you ship "design" without any modules/weapons/etc. you will have to wait until you get to the same technology level you first created them in. If you design without the "working parts" as they're refered to and save it, you then have that design ready for any game and only need the tech for that size of hull. Then you "upgrade" in the designer and add the other parts as available, remembering to adjust the name of the ship (i.e. Ver 1, Mk 2, etc.).

This should help get you ready for TotA and reuse your designs. Good luck!

Are you playing a different race than the one you designed the original ships in? If they're using a different hull template, they won't show up.

Other than that, I don't know of anything. (That reminds me, I need to clean out my saved ships - I'm tired of having to come up with new variations on the word 'crap' for each new ship I build.)

The "explored" area shows up if you choose "blind exploration" on the initial game setup. Otherwise the entire map is displayed right from the start.

To the top right of the minimap are a list of icons that can toggle what your mini-map displays. One of the icons looks like three overlapping circles. Clicking on this will show each empire's area of influence within the area you have explored.

Hope that helps,
~ Wyndstar