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Some games will start you out with your own planet, others will start you off at Terra. You can choose to use your 'starter planet' as your 'base,' but chances are it's in a pretty bad spot for a base.

Base location is important, you don't want someone else discovering it.

Sectors can have many warps to other sectors, and as you notice they are not always in numerical order. In fact, some sectors only have one or two warps out of them. If you find a dead end sector with one warp in and out and a few sectors leading to it with only two warps in and out it would be a good place to build a home base with a planet or more in it. 

Colonizing a planet is difficult until you can buy a ship with a Trans-Warp drive and buy fuel ore for the planet from a port to power the T-Warp colonization. But first you need the right planets. Buy Genesis Torpedoes from the Star Dock and build planets using the “U” option from the main menu. Keep in mind the number of planets per sector and don't go over it or it will create an unstable mass. Create a planet, the M class is Earth class and can make a good base, the L class is also a good base and builds citadels faster, the O class is a good cash crop planet as it builds organics faster than the rest. These are the standard Tradewars planets but some games have different edits and you have to read each planet type to learn more. Build a M and O planet for example and colonize them. 

If you don't have a T-Warp ship yet, just use the regular move and pick a dead end close to sector 1 to save on turns, unless it is a unlimited turns game. Have a ship with the most cargo holds you can afford and move to sector 1 and back to make sure no enemy fighters and mines are out there, and use the scanner to check before you move. Then move colonists from sector 1 to your home planet after the path is clear. Add them on the fuel ore production for now, to get fuel ore later for when you get a T-Warp ship. The Corporate Flagship is good but only has 85 cargo holds and you need to form a corporation to own one and be the CEO of it. The Havoc Gunstar has a T-Warp option but only has a maximum holds of 50. The Best results have a ISS with 150 holds. These are the stock edits but different edits can vary by ship. Basically what you need is a ship with T-Warp with the most available holds to colonize a planet efficiently and save turns.

If you have a Fed commission you can T-Warp into FedSpace and get a beacon there. If not you have to T-Warp to a sector near FedSpace you placed some fighters at to get a beacon. You will learn that fighters or figs as some call them, are important to the game. They can be placed in a sector in defensive, offensive, or toll mode. Defensive means they prevent a player from moving unless they attack and destroy them. Offensive means they attack any player that enters the sector. Toll mode means they won't let a player enter unless they pay a toll based on how many fighters there are, or destroy the toll fighters. But even 1 fighter can be a beacon to T-Warp into.

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