I'm an experienced 4x'r and pick these games up pretty quick. But I'm lost here.
In CiV or EL you build a unit (7 or so turns) you pop a goody hut and get gold, or culture, or weapons, etc.
In CG3 it's 'You need a survey module'. So you build some factories, then a shipyard, then modify a freighter, then remove 32 units of weight so you can add a survey module to it then you have to spend 40 turns building it.
This can't be right. What am I doing wrong here? I just want to survey space before the game is 160 turns in.