Too Many Civilians

[Borealis4x (OP)]

The amount of civilians hanging around Earth is seriously beginning to impact my ability actually see what is going on around the planet and also slowing down my game. Is there a way to make them invisible but still be able to see my own fleets?

What are they even building all these freighters for? My colonies cannot support any more people and they don't seem to ship their own infrastructure. I guess I have to make it. Will they ship minerals automatically as well if, say, I want to build a factory on Mars that doesn't have enough of their own?

[xXKageAsashinXx]

As far as I know, civilian shipping lines only proactively move colonists and trade goods around.  Maybe they'll move the occasional infrastructure on their own, but other than that everything has to be done manually by either using your own ships or giving them contracts that they sometimes don't do.

[Iranon]

I don't know of a way to hide them, but you can commandeer their ships with a tugboat.
Be careful though, iirc the civilians can still scrap them and you lose all ships in their task group when they do so.

[Garfunkel]

Go to Contacts sub-menu, find the drop-down menu and select "No Civilians". They move the products that the commercial, civilian sector produces, which includes "free" Infrastructure if there is a demand somewhere.

You can also issue them contracts to move your installations around through the F2 window.

[Iranon]

Oops, do I feel silly now... I even used to use it a lot. Don't drink and post, I suppose.