Honestly finish vanilla X-Com first. An X-Com game is like 1/50th the length of an X-Piratez game and finishing that will have you understanding the basics pretty well.
Research is important but so is investing in manufacturing and income to support research. Ideally you're generating a constant surplus income to re-invest in manufacturing or other profit generation.
Also don't over-emphasize spreading out brainers across multiple techs. That's fine if you have no idea what to go for, but if you want something badly then beeline it hard. Getting a powerful armor or gun upgrade in a week rather than 2 months is a huge advantage worth wasting a few brainer days to overflow.
