sigh...feel dumb but gonna ask anyway

No they can't.

Construction frigates are autobuilt by the planet and cannot leave the gravity well. You don't even actually need to give them any orders at all, just place build orders via the planet and the construction frigs will be sent to the build sites as needed.

Got it the simplest things so once a new planet is colonized, it will build construction frigates and away we go.

Purty much bane.

i would like it if you could build additional ones. or at least make them a bit faster, cuz you only get 1 then 2 after a upgrade. Its just worrying when you have to quickly build an entire defence around a planet when the enemy fleet is 2 jumps away. but thats probably my poor planning   

Mikey, upgrade the planets tac slots, this gives you 3 total construction frigates which should easily build anything you need.

if i expect a counter assault on a system i conquer i generally keep my fleet there until more permanent defenses are in place

no, its like when mutiple AIs work together, so the backwater planet that i think is ok, beacuse its next to an ally, so i don't defend it, then i get a warning sayin a enemy fleets en-route through my ally then im like WTF!! cuz my fleets on the other side of the galaxy and i can only build defences.



thanks 4 this i didnt know which slot gave me constructors i was just clicking buttons randomly  .............seriously
  

Its realy easy to mod planet behavior. Just open the planet type you want to mod with notepad and scroll down till you see what you want to change. I have mine set up for 5 constructors right off the bat on all planets as well as 2 crystal and 2 metal mines in each system with 9000 ore in them hehehe. Home planets start with 1000 population and can be upgraded to 3500 pop with 1000 ship slots. I wanted to make a total destruction quick game and its much faster paced than the regular game. It takes less than 5 min to do this mod. Next I am going to make all this ships move 50% faster. Make sure you copy and paste a copy of your game info folder somewhere safe so you can switch back to the regular beta when you want to.

Actually as vasari you can get 4 constructors on terrans. Not sure about the max on others.

The max is 4, just keep doing logistics/tactical upgrades, they give you more constructors. I think asteroids max at 3, though. I rarely pay attention

What about constructing things on the resources around a gas giant? Or a system that is just some debris?

Those you use your scouts (Vasari) or colony frigates (TEC, Advent) to capture. They're already built, just need to be captured! Those ships have an ability to do it.