I have several suggestions (and I don't intend to be offensive if you are a new player to SMAC, but someone on another site has accused me of being impatient with new players):
(1) there is a 250 page manual that came with my game (which you might not have if you purchased the game second hand or through Sold-Out software). I believe you can purchase the manual at Amazon second-hand. (There is also another SMAC site that offers it for download, but I am not sure if CFC permits me to point you to that site.)
(2) there is Prima's Official Strategy Guide, which you can buy at Amazon.
(3) there is
Vel's SMAX Guide that the author, Chris Hartspence, donated to WePlayCiv.com when it opened a year ago. You can view the latest commercial version
free; I do recommend that if you like it, you buy it at Amazon. For $15, you might appreciate being able to refer to the hard copy while playing.
(4) The esteemed moderator of this forum, Petek, has a list of
SMACX Links.
(5) In particular, the
Gamespot guide and
(6) the
SMAC Academy may fit your needs.
(7) there is this forum. There may be people here who are willing to explain why a tachyon bolt weapon is more powerful than an impact weapon, although we are a rather dull group (in my opinion, we are more into game play than into game related fiction)
(8) there is the SMAC forum at WePlayCiv (and people who might be interested in speculating why one weapon is more powerful than another).
However, please give us a try first.
Note that the Prima Strategy Guide does have background about tech. I didn't like it, but that may be exactly what you are looking for.
I'm sure Petek can point you to other resources.