It's primarily an Elite-style space combat simulator where you fly in a small craft and build up your wealth and combat ratings. There are some heavy trading and economy features, plus the ability to buy and even capture several ships (albeit not incredibly well) from afar, and even buy and build your own space stations and complexes, dock with them, etc.
I think from what I've seen, a lot of people buy the game and think it's a game liuke Sins of a Solar Empire when it's actually anything but that. The X Universe was conceived as an Elite-style game where you have one ship and a whole Universe to explore, trade with, and fight if you want.
One of the problems with the series is that you start off with very little, including little idea as to where to begin, and this was a real problem in the earliest games where the manual was deliberately sparse and the storyline essentially thrust you right into the middle of things with only a ship and 100 credits and not even a time-jump device to speed up the long distances to travel through - in other words, a mere pittance. With later games this has been less of a problem (espcially if you read the manual) as some of the equipment came as standard, you had more money (although this is probably more due to inflation as the games went on
) and there were different starts for beginners, as well as combat tutorials (although they weren't great). The two X3 games, Reunion and Terran Conflict, also have a different control system that old X hands (like myself) needed some getting used to - for one thing, the earlier games required a joystick, but now you can play with just keyboard and mouse (some even prefer it this way - I don't).
As a newbie, you will probably find it a tough going experience - one of the reasons I like it is the established storyline (although the story missions aren't all that), backstory and plot which make it all very familiar. However, perseverance will make it very rewarding, opening up areas that you won't expect (I won't spoil it for you, sorry
) and offering a decent challenge.
If all else fails, the online community is a great help. I'm there too.
But the bottom line is that I think you might have the wrong idea about Terran Conflict if you compare it to SoaSE and Nexus. It's not a strategy game in that vein, even though at first glance it looks like it. It's more like Elite.
) but also add plenty of additional content including new missions and ships, many of which have been warmly received by fans.
). 
