I'm trying to do a basic mod to get rid of some personal annoyances from the game. I've gotten as far as copying over game files into a new folder and converting binary files to text using https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_HNsmaU2CA as a guide.

Questions:

1) What is the best way to keep black holes from spawning on random maps? I'm fine with all other star types, but continuous damage is a no go. I could just edit the continuous damage down to zero, but I'd prefer to remove them entirely.

2) What is the best way to prevent Magnetic Clouds and AntiMatter Fountains from spawning on random maps? Alternatively, what is the best way to allow abilities to be used in Magnetic Cloud wells and allow starbases to be constructed in AntiMatter Fountain wells?

3) Is there a way to reintroduce automatic mine sweeping to scout ships? Early in beta testing for the original game you could leave a scout in a gravity well and they would automatically seek out mines to be swept even if they were not in range of the reveal mine ability. I don't want to remove mines entirely, and I'd prefer not to buff the detect mine ability to absurd range although that's looking like my best option right now.

4) What is the easiest way to increase level cap on capital ships? At a minimum I want to increase it to 15, to allow all skills to be maxed out (plus a third level to the ultimate ability, see below). I might go higher, but it's rare for a game to last long enough to really need that.

5) What all needs to be changed to allow an additional level of a capital ship ability?

6) Same question with Titans, although I realize I'm going to have to increase the ability caps (and create new numbers for the higher levels) as well to allow for the 2 ability points per level.

7) When as much as possible of the above is done, where do I put the altered file so it will function as a mod?

Are there any existing mods that do any of these things I could use as a base?