@ AgentExeider
Erm... It already needs research to colonise. Its level 4, so its pretty high up. I am currently testing the AI as we speak, but I imagine, once they have researched it, they will colonise.

@ jfp3
Planetary bonuses will come, the next update will be both my mods in one pack.

An interesting idea for the advanced bombing tech, but so far I haven't seen a weapon that is more effective against a certain planet type, but I will keep it in mind.

To the point on 'using up' the asteroids, I'm not sure if thats possible yet, so we'll have to hold that back for the moment.

Thanks again for the comments, keep them coming. You never know, the next update/mod I make might have your ideas in it (with credit to you, of course ). Any other planet types people are interested in? So far I'm thinking a Barren planet, and a Forest world.

hmm, my idea for a new planet would probably be either an all forest planet like kashyyyk or endor from star wars,

a hive world like armageddon from warhammer 40k,

or u could have a war torn planet with craters blown into its surface, or even parts of the planet drifting into space but in orbit of the planet.

sort of like half the planet is intact, but the other half is destroyed and floating out into space.
that would be really hard to do though.

Nice work and thanks for your efforts....It will make my games that much more fun.

Now, I like the sound of that. The one thing I'm a little concerned with though is the one race over another option. Balance may suffer.

However, if I were to create another 3 planet types for a future update, then each race could have the edge at colonising a certain planet. I like that idea, and may use it.

@ Exsam
Much as I like that idea, I went on the thought that the colonies where land based at the poles. The ocean would be rough, and most probably filled with dangerous creatures, seeing as things can grow a lot bigger in water, than on land. But look out for your ideas on another planet type

Thank you, and everyone else for your input, its greatly appreciated.

HEE HEE HEE!!!!!!! THIS IS SO COOL, INSTALLING NOW!!!!!!!1

They are separate mods, therefore they cannot be active at the same time. However, if Max would like to incorporate mine into his, he is more than welcome, just as long as he give me credit and lets me know. However, merging mods without a tool to do it is very time consuming, and labour intensive.

Rings? Open up your Planet###.ENTITY files and near the bottom look for:
ringsChance 0.000000
Change it to 0.500000 for a 50% chance for that planet type to have rings. 1.000000 and every planet of that type will have rings. 0.010000 and 1% will have them.

I'm very pleased with the other mod you have put out, I know I will enjoy this one as well. You do some very good work by the way.

Something I think would be intresting but don't know how well it would work. Is Something like the astroid belt, only done with various blown up ships. After all we do tend to have some rather large space combats and there tends to be parts floating all over after most of them. Why shouldn't we encounter areas where there were previous engagements. I'm not sure how it could be worked in due to my lack of knowladge in modding. But I think it would at least be something intresting.

Anyways keep up the good work.

I really like the idea of this mod, and as soon as i get the hang of the game without it, I am definitely going to download it.

Also, can't wait for the walk threw on creating a planet. Would love to try and make one myself

Since you said you wanted ideas for a mod, I was thinking it would be cool to add moons and use them to give bonuses to the planet and the overall empire (I hope this isn't in already, I would feel very embarrassed...). You could get a mid level tier research that would allow you to colonize it, and it would allow you to increase the max population on the planet. Also (with additional research) you could add things on the moon to, say, quicken resource production and research/build speed by a small amount (the research overall, but the build speed is planet only), like add research lab kinds of things and, say, a building to coordinate project development/resource extraction?

My two cents.

@ shnitzel5
The walkthrough, which took an hour might I add, is here. Reply #4.

Well, I have a planetary bonuses mod out also, and that has Moons in it. However, there is no visual effects, just stat increases for the planet. Creating meshes is out of my league at the moment, maybe in time I may venture into those realms, but not now. I will keep it in mind, thanks.

@ Bink
I don't think bonuses can trigger abilities. They are pretty limited to what they can do, from what I've seen. However, reading your post has given me an idea, but I have a bad feeling that it might be hard to do. I wonder if research can unlock another level of exploration on a planet. That way, once you research it, you could then explore the planet further and open up more bonuses. Something to look into...

Thanks for you input both of you, much appreciated.

I think a gaseous planet would be interesting. It could have low population but high defense - projectiles more easily burn up in the dense atmosphere, and beams/plasma also interact more with the atmosphere and loose some of their potency. Could have standard tactical/logistic slots, and be very high in the research tree - 5th or 6th and with only 1 or 2 upgrades, but have more resource asteroids around - like maybe 6. Oh and the gravity well could be bigger - under the assumption that gas planets are much bigger than solid/liquid ones.

Btw, the mod does look nice, I'd test it out but I'm still getting my feet wet (pun not intended ) with this game.

@ Grayhorse_1
Enabling a mod I think temporarily disables you normal save games, as they won't be compatible, but I'm not 100% as I haven't tried it. Can someone else verify?

Also, when an update for the game is released, you should be able to still use your mod, but any updates from a patch that effect a file which the mod has, won't be changed when you enable the mod. If that makes sense.

@ whiterabbit007
Very good idea sir. There are already Gas Giants in the game, but they are un-colonisable normally. That should be easy to include, you may see that in the next update.

@ Bink
Yes, I've seen the exploration bit in the planet files, but I'm a bit worried we won't be able to add, or unlock, another level with research. I'll look into it when I get some time.

Thanks again for everyones feedback.

Thanks for the planet modding tutorial! Definitely going to try it out (after i download the first file )