First anger

Ok I'm a long time galciv3 fan so much of the new game is familiar. 

 

First, I thought I had selected the Terran alliance as my player. Turns out I ended up being a random player and I was playing as the yor. What the hell?

 

Second, remember how in 3 when you didn't want to build any ships you could highlight that button and said don't notify when the queue is empty or something like that? I don't see that here. I have to keep building ships forever?

Third, how do you mine the special elements? Durantium for example.