How Can A Player Upgrade to Level 2/3 Right From Sta

I was trying to play the multiplayer game this evening.  The main problem was I lost before I could even get started.

How could the other player upgrade there base right away?  I was building my base on a similar start position neither of us had debt so how could they upgrade right away?  

Otherwise I see some major flaws with starting a new game right now in multiplayer if you haven't played for a while or are new to the game.

• It's not very clear not to build right away or you start in unrecoverable debt.
• Not clear how other player is so far ahead of you or why they can do things which you can't.
• Keep playing the same player over and over again.
• There should be an option to not play same player you were just playing wait for a different game.
• It almost appeared as if I was playing a very hard cheating AI player because I couldn't even come close to keeping pace with him or learn from my mistakes as I was so far behind him I was just playing catch up.
• Match with like rated players (even though there may not be that many games.

Thanks for help anyone who can.