Yes on both counts.

Yes, that's possible.

I've been playing around with increasing the Logistics and CPUUsage of the Pirates, and here are the results:

With CPUUsage at 100 the Pirates still behave the same as before. Attack and follow ships, if they get too close. Otherwise, stay where you are. It's all very basic. Asteroid mines are also still the Pirates arch-nemesis.

Doubling their Logistics-ability didn't allow the Pirates to keep more fleets. If the previous owner had multiple fleets in the same tile, then only one fleet stayed intact. All of the remaining fleets got disbanded. I also haven't seen the Pirates create new fleets during my observation, though I'm certain that I've seen them do that before. Maybe I simply missed it, or it just didn't happen this time?

how did you create the pirates in the first place? surrendering as player doesn't seem to work for me...

thanks that worked well

I've justed done a single test using the unmodded 2.04 vanilla game albeit with new exe. The only single change was done to Raceconfig.xml to increase Pirates' logistics from 8 to 40.

Then I used Control+B to spawn several battleships on a single spot, used cheats to research all techs to get logistics high. I've put the battleships into 1 fleet with over 50 logistics (so the pirates can't hold this together), another with 28, and then a lot of single ships - all at the same spot.

In the turn they became Pirates both fleets got disassembled. Thus there were around 20 single ships in one spot.

The following turn the Pirates assembled a fleet of 5 ships (5*7 = 35, the possible maximum for 40 logistics) together and headed towards a close constructor. The other ships stayed singled out in the spot.

The next turn the Pirates repeated this behaviour, just that the fleets had different targets.

A turn later the last remaining single ships were formed to a fleet, but they just remained in that spot, not getting any target. At this time no more single ships were present.

The Pirates AI then went on to chase individual target that came close to him. However, his ships just had speed 3, so most targets got away and he didn't pursue them much, though they would follow endlessly if target has same speed.... If no target was close by his ships just stayed at their respective place.

--> speed is absolutely necessary for them.

--> logistics will help to make it harder to defeat them, also, they could take on stronger targets like warfleets or starbases with defenses. however, too much logistics could bear the danger that alot of non-militarized craft could successfully evade them. in such cases, swarming space might be more effective.

***

I made the second test with the latest CU

repeated basically all steps

fleets were also formed. but initially the pirates had no targets to go after in the near proximity. So they stayed dormant + non-fleeted. But whenever a suitable target appeared they would first form a single fleet, then send this fleet against the target.

Happy New Year! My, you lot have been busy. Here, have a few more screens! Here's a rundown of what's been done:

TitleWnd: the UI and logo have been fully decoupled from the background
GalaxyWnd: extended the combo boxes for custom map and scenario, they were absurdly inconvenient to use
RaceWnd: "fixed" the scrollbar on the political box, aka the slider from hell! This thing was fiendishly uncooperative...
CustomOverViewWnd: extended the political box at the expense of Tech and added a slider to the scrollbar; much better behaved...
EventWnd: horizontally restricted the video panel to its native aspect ratio, minor graphical touch-ups to accommodate the change
TradeWnd: horizontally restricted the video panel to its native aspect ratio

Please do your utmost to test these out. Further, there's only the Invasion screens that I still wish to tweak. The robots in the Headlines are also stretched but... well, I say they can stay fat! It's a progressive future, right there!

Here's a breakdown of the game's resources: there are 183 unique dxpacks with references in the exe (145 in TA, 4 in DA, 34 in  DL). Additionally, the exe references SummaryEpicWnd.dxpack, which is not present in the files. Of the files in TA, PlanetDetailsGridEntry and OptioneEntryDeviderWnd are not referenced in the exe. I rummaged through the whole lot, trying to find cases where resolution distortion may occur.

There are a few outstanding problems that I'm unsure how to address:

Options: in the Browse popup to change the Mods folder, the Cancel label is misaligned on the button. However, I'm unable to find where this popup is controlled. Help?

Tutorial: There's a slim blank button under the video. Is there any purpose for it or can it be ignored/erased. Also, the fullscreen videos are cropped, but this seems to be a coding issue, not fixable from the dxpack.

Finally, can we remove the ending period in the special ability descriptions, the one-liners that appear in the race selection screen? The text handler has a nasty habit of treating it as a separate word and, occasionally, placing it alone on the last line. Since these are brief one-liners, scrapping the period seems both acceptable and more reasonable than tweaking the UI over it.

TitleBack really isn't ready for consumption, it was just a quick job to serve the immediate purpose. The right side should be entirely starscape, no planet (duh!) and hopefully no demonic presence right in the bloody centre of the picture. It should preferably fade to black at the far-right.This picture is used in a number of screens, so it can't be glossed over, I fear. If there's no one else who can try to do it, I could give it my best shot, but an experienced hand would be far more helpful in this manner!

Besides changing farms to give proper food production again, there are some other things I'd like to implement. However, I'd first like to hear your opinion.

Invasion Tactics:

-Remove the tactics Intimidation and Marines. Intimidation is identical to Information Warfare, making it redundant. Marines doesn't add anything new. Plus, Stellar Marines already unlocks Core Detonation.

-Reduce the max PQ-damage of Gas Warfare from 20% to 10%. The penalty is simply too high. Nobody in his right mind would use this tactic, when there are better options available.

-Change the TechRequirement of Information Warfare from Advanced Diplomacy back to Planetary Invasion. I don't understand this change, and the inclusion of Intimidation. It feels like an attempt to prevent the Yor from gaining access to this tactic. But why would you do that? Because the Yor want to wipe out all organic life? So? The Korath want to wipe out all non-Drengin life, while anybody joining up with the Drengin would end up in a Slave Pit (if they are lucky). Yet both of those races got access to this tactic. Isn't this contradictory?

-Increase the bonus of Core Detonation from 40-50 to 50-70. This tactic is underpowered. There is no reason to use it over Tidal Disruption.

-Give Mechanized Warriors the following stats: Cost 500 (from 800), bonus 100-200 (from 40-50), PQ-damage 10-30% (from 0), improvements-damage 80-100% (no change). This tactic was overpriced compared to what it did. The tech-description of Mechanized Warrior doesn't state anything that could justify this ridiculous cost. It does state, however, that "As a result, our troops are immensely powerful per man." Yet, the actual tactic is weaker than the Drengin Shock Troops. The Thalan don't have any other advanced tactic available in their tech tree, so I decided to use Mass Drivers as a base for Mechanized Warriors. I also want to change the description of the tactic to this: "Mechanized Warriors are armies of robotic troops that can be controlled from afar. They are immensely powerful. So powerful, in fact, that using them will cause significant damage to the surface of the invaded planet."

-Give Terror Drones the following stats: Cost 300 (from 250), BonusType 3 (from 1), bonus 50-70% (from 20-20%), improvements-damage 50-70% (from 25-25%). In its current form, this is the weakest of all the invasion tactics. It also provides an attacker-bonus, which the Yor already have in form of the much stronger Mass Drivers. To fix this, I decided to give it a penalty to the defenders. As base, I used Tidal Disruptions. Here is the new description I want to use: "Terror Drones work alongside our soldiers and are extremely effective in adapting to every kind of combat scenario. As their name implies, the primary function of Terror Drones is to induce terror into our enemies, thereby greatly reducing their capabilities to fight back. The only downside is that the resulting panic causes widespread damage to planetary improvements."

Political Parties:

-War Party: change the Soldiering-bonus from +10% back to +15%, and remove the Hit Points-bonus. The HP-bonus on top of all the others felt like overkill. Plus, it didn't really mesh with the rest. The War Party is all about combat-equipment and training, not expertise in ship-construction.

-Pacifists: change the Influence-bonus from +15% to +10%. The bonus felt a bit too strong.

-Mercantile: replace the +10% Purchase Now Reduction-bonus with a +10% bonus to Influence. A PNR-bonus is too powerful, in my opinion, to be granted from a political party. Plus, a culture-bonus is more fitting. As the description states: "Exporting goods and culture to other civilizations will make them more dependent on our prosperity for their own success."

Shrinking everything was the easy fix and I tried it. It's worse: you get not only the map, but the UI on the sides. Even if I were to apply a black background over them, the decorative graphics on the borders were made to hug the screen and end in sharp edges, yielding a very ugly presentation. Plus, it prompts the obvious question of why there's total blackness on the sides. This way, the entire event window looks like a natural outgrowth of the game interface at the bottom; personally, I find it satisfyingly immersive, and it works better than I ever imagined it would.

Sigh. I thought a lot about the best way to change it, and this still seems like the optimal solution. Firstly, my basic premise: the stretched videos were ugly. Simply put, you could tell they were distorted. As I pointed out with the news robots, I will happily let sleeping dogs lie if it's not bothersome. With the leaders, though, it is. And while I appreciate how old-school fans are used to them and don't mind, there's planet-loads of whiny people who immediately go for this sort of stuff. Then there's folks like me who can live with it, but would rather fix it when possible/practical. And, it turns out, it is!

Now then, that was the why I'm going through all this trouble. Here's the situation with this particular case: the black parts are non-functional, anyway. If the choice is between a visibly distorted video and a regular video with black bars to the side, I pick the latter. The alternative solution was to stretch the video down, at the expense of the message boxes. This might seem like a good idea, in theory, until you realise just how obtrusive Lord Kona's mug becomes at wider resolutions. Worse, at some point the message boxes become too small, and the overall aesthetic of the screen becomes ugly. Same thing if I try to expand the side columns, at the expense of the message boxes. Plus, there's many dozens of elements at play, each needing to be corrected individually, so the work will be appallingly tedious and the chance of errors exponentially greater. And I'm not a pundit, so I know just what "exponentially" means

As to the planet trading exploit, though I'm not on your level in understanding the workings of the AI, I've actually had similar discussions on the feasibility of province-trading in Europa Universalis. Swapping, actually - money for land was usually quickly dismissed. There's very little historical precedent for the practice, and it usually required significant financial strain on the part of the seller. Land was always seen as a status symbol and giving it away should be overly expensive at the best of times. Space, especially GalCiv-space, is no different. Which is all to say, I'm in favour of the in-game practice, but only if it can be implemented well. In this case, it's not. I gather that the economic-draining aspect of inconvenient rush colonies is more tolerable than the exploitability of trading by a strategically-prescient mind. So, unless you know how to modify the selling price to be consistently and significantly over-priced, I'd say keep the feature off.

Sure, I'll take a gander at'em. At the very least, I'm confident I could shrink the rally point screen down to size. Then again, I was confident I could handle that stupid slider, but it sucked the life out of me

I'm still hoping Mabus, when he's back, can help out with that Cancel button, maybe with some of the other screens. As for the graphics, Maiden, would you be able to help with TitleBack?

I'm for eliminating planet trading. I never knew you could Mod that in how do you do that. By the way last thing froggy said is that they are bringing back sensor caps to three.

What I did was modify how the terror star and the background png are scaled, so that the star no longer looks stretched. For this reason, the background also needs to keep its ratio. I can do what you say, crop it, but because the terror star is at the top, the cropping needs to happen at the bottom. This cuts off most or all of the planet and makes the terror star too big on the screen. So, the extension should happen to the right.

1792x768 is 21:9, which is the extreme range of the common aspect ratios. The fix is meant to work for any resolution, not just 16:9, so that's the limit I chose. Anyone who uses a lower ratio will only see the left-most part of the total image, with the terror star properly overlaid. Anyone who uses a higher ratio would see beyond the end of the image, which is a problem but surmountable: if the image fades to space-black in the far-right I can simply put a sublayer of pure black that stretches arbitrarily.

So, what I need is some way to extend the starscape of the original to the required length. Simply stretching it produces too many artefacts, plus it has to be done without touching the borders of the terror star video.  So, I've tried to mirror the original image, copy it to the right, smear over the gluing line, and then attempt to deform the right part to eliminate the mirrored planet. Since you were providing some graphical  tweaks, I thought you might have facility in such matters. I could get back to the problem eventually, but right now it would just eat up too much time better spent on those other dxpacks.

It's been a while since I've played DL, but if I remember correctly, IP trading was pretty much pointless. You couldn't get anything for it. In TotA you can at least buy something with it. Though it is a bit too strong now.

All right. Planet-trading is going back into the game. Still, we could make a separate version of the trade screen available as a mod. One without planet- and IP-trading. This way, people have the option to choose. Spinorial, are you up for this?

Consider it done.

So, should the Populists party stay as it is then?

Sure, no problem.

Here are the updated files and the new changelog. I changed the farms to provide proper food production again, as well as tweaked several other improvements and techs.

English.str
[ArtifactsBonus]: removed "100% Research bonus."
[FertileSoilBonus]: changed "Sector suitable for building." back to "Rich soil and varied Mineral Deposits make this quadrant well-suited for the construction of a Farming District."
[MineralDepositsBonus]: removed "100% Manufacturing bonus."
[MysticSpringBonus]: removed "100% Approval bonus."
[RuinsBonus]: removed "100% Influence bonus."
[PrecursorArtifactsBonus]: removed "300% Research bonus."
[SplendidSoilBonus]: changed "Sector suitable for building." back to "The splendid soil, excellent drainage and easily-managed topography make this quadrant perfect for the construction of a Farming District."
[RareElementsBonus]: removed "300% Manufacturing bonus."
[PrecursorLibraryBonus]: removed "700% Research bonus."
[PrecursorMineBonus]: removed "700% Manufacturing bonus."

PoliticalParties.xml
removed Espionage-penalty from all parties
Federalists: changed -10% Purchase Now Reduction to -10% Influence
War Party: changed Soldiering-bonus from +10% back to +15%, removed Hit Points-bonus, changed Influence-penalty from -15% to -20%
Pacifists: changed Influence-bonus from +15% to +20%, changed Soldiering-penalty from -10% to -15%, removed Hit Points-penalty
Mercantile: changed "and they enjoy a discount when buying ships or improvements." to "and they enjoy a bonus to influence.", changed +10% Purchase Now Reduction to +10% Influence
Industrialists: added -1 Sensors to penalty

PlanetImprovements.xml
Civilization Capital: changed Food from 8 back to 16, changed Moralebonus from 35 back to 25, changed EconomicBonus from 25 back to 10, changed PlanetaryDefenseBonus from 50 to 25, removed FoodProductionBonus
Initial Colony: changed Moralebonus from 15 back to 10
Cultural Exchange Center: changed Cost from 60 to 90
Propaganda Center: limited to one-per-planet, changed Type from GalacticAchievement to Normal, changed Maintenance from 0 to 1, changed Cost from 600 back to 150, changed BriefDescription from "Increases morale." to "Increases loyalty.", changed Description from "To keep the people in our empire happy, the Propaganda Center will advertise the strengths of our culture." to "The Propaganda Center will advertise the strengths of our culture, thereby increasing planetary loyalty by 20%.", removed 20% Loyalty-bonus, re-added ResistanceBonus of 20
Order of Krynn: changed Cost from 75 back to 200
Traditional Factory: changed UpgradeTarget from None to MinorBasicFactory, changed Cost from 35 back to 50
Advanced Factory: changed Cost from 70 back to 75
Xeno Factory: changed Cost from 105 back to 100
Manufacturing Center: changed Cost from 140 back to 150
Industrial Sector: changed Cost from 175 to 250
Dread Factory: changed Cost from 210 to 350
Slave Canyon: changed Cost from 105 to 100
Industrial Replicator Lv 1: changed Cost from 70 back to 50
Industrial Replicator Lv 2: changed Cost from 105 to 100
Industrial Replicator Lv 3: changed Cost from 140 back to 150
Minor Traditional Factory: changed Cost from 35 to 50
Manufacturing Matrix L3: changed Cost from 300 back to 400
Central Mine: changed Cost from 50 back to 25
Basic Collective: changed DisplayName back to Collective, changed UpgradeTarget from None to Industrial Sector, changed Cost from 45 back to 70
Manufacturing Collective: chanaged Cost from 85 to 105
Manufacturing Collective II: changed Cost from 125 to 140
Manufacturing Collective III: changed Cost from 165 to 210
Manufacturing Collective IV: changed Cost from 205 to 350
Research Lab: changed UpgradeTarget from None to MinorBasic Lab, changed Cost from 40 to 50
Research Center: changed Cost from 80 to 75
Research Academy: changed Cost from 120 to 100
Invention Matrix: changed Cost from 160 to 150
Discovery Sphere: changed Cost from 200 to 250
Neutrality Learning Center: changed Cost from 300 to 455
Slaveling Imagination Lab: changed UpgradeTarget from None to Discovery Sphere, changed Cost from 25 back to 40
Improved Slaveling Lab: changed Cost from 55 back to 60
Advanced Slaveling Lab: changed Cost from 85 back to 100
Ultimate Slaveling Lab: changed Cost from 115 to 180
Minor Research Lab: changed Cost from 40 to 50
Technology Matrix L3: changed Cost from 300 back to 400
University: changed Cost from 70 to 50
Market Center: changed Cost from 30 back to 40
Trade Center: changed Cost from 90 to 80
Stock Market: changed Cost from 150 to 200
Barter Station: changed UpgradeTarget from None to StockMarket, changed Maintenance from 0 back to 1
Merchant Emporium: changed Maintenance from 0 back to 1, changed EconomicBonus from 15 back to 14
Merchant Trade Complex: changed Maintenance from 0 back to 1
Black Market: changed UpgradeTarget from None to StockMarket, changed EconomicBonus from 10 back to 8
Trader's Den: changed EconomicBonus from 15 back to 12
Malicious Bazaar: changed Cost from 90 to 120, changed EconomicBonus from 20 back to 18
Minor Market Center: changed Cost from 30 back to 40
Entertainment Network: changed Maintenance from 2 back to 1, changed Cost from 55 to 50, changed Moralebonus from 15 back to 10
Multimedia Center: changed Cost from 110 to 75, changed Moralebonus from 20 back to 15
Extreme Stadium: changed Cost from 165 to 100, changed Moralebonus from 25 back to 20
Zero-G Sports Arena: changed Cost from 220 to 150
Virtual Reality Center: changed Cost from 275 to 250
Traditional Temple: changed Moralebonus from 15 to 10
Temple: changed Cost from 100 to 55, changed Moralebonus from 25 to 18
Minor Hatchling Mound: changed Moralebonus from 15 to 10
Hatchling Mound: changed Moralebonus from 25 to 18
Arena of Agony: changed Moralebonus from 20 to 18
Slaughtertorium: changed Maintenance from 1 back to 2, changed morale bonus from 30 back to 25
Dream Conclave: changed UpgradeTarget from None to Virtual Reality Center, changed Maintenance from 2bc to 3bc
Festival of Capitalism: limited to one-per-planet again, changed Type from SuperProject back to Normal, changed Maintenance from 0 back to 1, changed Cost from 80 back to 100, changed Description from "A empire-wide celebration of the pursuit of money. It also increases the economy of the planet it is built on, thanks to all the tickets we sell." to "A planetwide celebration of the pursuit of money. It also gives a small boost to the economy, thanks to all the tickets we sell.", removed 25% Morale-bonus, re-added Moralebonus 25, reduced EconomicBonus from 2% to 10
Minor Entertainment Network: changed Maintenance from 2 back to 1, changed Cost from 55 to 50, changed Moralebonus from 15 back to 10
Healing Pools: changed UpgradeTarget from None to Virtual Reality Center, changed Maintenance from 2 back to 1
Hot Springs: changed Cost from 220 to 275
Maintenance Grid: limited to one-per-planet again, changed Type from SuperProject back to Normal, changed Cost from 80 back to 50, changed Description from "The Maintenance Grid ensures that citizens in the empire are in tip top condition." to "The Maintenance Grid ensures that our citizens on this planet are in tip top condition.", removed 20% Morale-bonus, re-added Moralebonus 20, removed PopulationGrowthBonus
Xeno Farm: changed UpgradeTarget from BasicFarm to None, changed Cost from 50 back to 40, changed Description from "Grow enough food to feed 3 billion more people." to "Grow food for your colonists using the latest in sustainable intensive farming.", removed FoodProductionBonus, re-added Food 2
Enhanced Xeno Farm: changed DisplayName to Xeno Farm II, changed Cost from 75 to 80, changed Description from "Grow enough food to feed 4 billion people." to "Grow food for your colonists using the latest in sustainable intensive farming.", removed FoodProductionBonus, re-added Food 3
Robotic Farm: changed UpgradeTarget from None to XenoFarming, removed FoodProductionBonus, re-added Food 3
Harvester: changed Description from "increase food production by 4mt." to "increase food production by 3mt.", removed FoodProductionBonus, re-added Food 3
Basic Stalk: changed AI from 10 to 50, changed UpgradeTarget from None to XenoFarming, changed Moralebonus from 10 back to 5, removed FoodProductionBonus, re-added Food 1
Charging Stalks: changed AI from 10 to 50, changed Moralebonus from 20 to 10, removed FoodProductionBonus, re-added Food 2
Advanced Charging Stalks: changed AI from 10 to 50, changed Maintenance from 1 back to 2, changed Cost from 75 to 100, changed Moralebonus from 30 back to 20, removed FoodProductionBonus, re-added Food 3
Secret Police Center: changed Type from GalacticAchievement back to SuperProject, changed Cost from 300 back to 600, changed BriefDescription from "Improves loyalty." back to "Improves approval.", changed Description from "By suppressing the spread of dissident ideas, this center will give a 20% boost to our empire's loyalty rating." back to "By suppressing the spread of dissident ideas, this center will give a boost to the base approval rating of whatever planet it's built upon by 20%.", removed 20% Loyalty-bonus, added AbilityFactor 0.2 (it now really does increase base approval by 20%)
Hyperion Matrix: removed FoodProductionBonus
Gaia Vortex: FoodProductionBonus

Screens.str
[SuperAbilityDescription0] - [SuperAbilityDescription11] and [NoSpecialAbilityDescription]: removed fullstop from the end of the sentences
[AlignmentBonuses3]: changed "+ The Propaganda Center Galactic Achievement improves the empire's approval rating" to "+ The "Propaganda Center" improvement makes planets less susceptible to rebelling", changed "+ The Secret Police Center Galactic Achievement makes planets less likely to rebell" to "+ The "Secret Police Center" Super Project improves a colony's approval rating"
[AlignmentBonuses4]: changed "+ The Propaganda Center Galactic Achievement improves the empire's approval rating" to "+ The "Propaganda Center" improvement makes planets less susceptible to rebelling", changed "+ The Secret Police Center Galactic Achievement makes planets less likely to rebell" to "+ The "Secret Police Center" Super Project improves a colony's approval rating"

TechTree.xml
Xeno Propaganda: changed Category from Culture to Pure Research
Xeno Brain Washing: changed Category from Culture to Pure Research
Dark Influence: changed Category from Culture to Pure Research
Laws of Krynn: removed Morale bonus +5%
Order of Krynn: removed Morale bonus +5%
The Way: removed Morale bonus +5%
Xeno Public Relations: changed Category from Culture to Pure Research
Xeno Entertainment: can be traded again, can be stolen again, changed WillingnessToTrade from 0 to 100
Extreme Entertainment: can be traded again, can be stolen again, changed WillingnessToTrade from 0 to 50
Zero-G Sports Arenas: can be traded again, can be stolen again, changed WillingnessToTrade from 0 to 50
Virtual Reality Centers: can be traded again, can be stolen again, changed WillingnessToTrade from 0 to 50
Slaughtertoriums: changed Morale bonus from +10% back to +5%
Xeno Farm Construction: can be traded again, can be stolen again, changed WillingnessToTrade from 0 to 50
Xeno Farm Construction II: can be traded again, can be stolen again, changed WillingnessToTrade from 0 to 30
Space Weapons: changed Military Production bonus from +10% back to +5%
Planetary Bombardment: changed Soldiering bonus from +15% back to +5%
Mechanized Warriors: changed Soldiering bonus from +40% back to +30%
A History of Benevolence: added -25% Espionage-penalty
A Glorious History: added -25% Espionage-penalty
Way of the Drath: added -25% Espionage-penalty
History of the Dread Lords: added -25% Espionage-penalty
A Ruthless History: added -25% Espionage-penalty
Precursor Legacy: added -25% Espionage-penalty
A History of Mercantilism: added -25% Espionage-penalty
The Path: added -25% Espionage-penalty
A Minor History: added -25% Espionage-penalty
Innovative History: added -25% Espionage-penalty
Temporal Mechanics: added -25% Espionage-penalty
A History of Perseverance: added -25% Espionage-penalty
Cybernetic History: added -25% Espionage-penalty

Yor_TechTree.xml
Collective Evaluation: set Diplomacy-bonus to 0
Collective Planning: set Diplomacy-bonus to 0
Collective Thought: set Diplomacy-bonus to 0

Screens:
CivManagerGovernorWnd.dxpack (added the original file)
CustomOverViewWnd
EventWnd.dxpack
GalaxyWnd.dxpack
PlanetWnd.dxpack (added the original file)
RaceWnd.dxpack
TradeWnd.dxpack (added the original file)

Spinorial, I just realized that the loading screens also shows TitleBack.png - but the full pic stretched to the screen. Can that be fixed?

It's clearly bugged in DA & TotA. The game mistakes IPs for cash, if you offer in between the range of 1-999. You can easily corroborate that by instead offering the same amount of money, resulting in the same payment. But once you cross 1000 IPs their value defaults to the normal level back.

If you agree you could let them have 20% moral 10% popgrowth and no influence. If a player wants to go for high influence there is Pacifists. If he needs strong moral he has Populists. For good popgrowth as well, considering the strong ties of growth with moral. The Universalists still stay strong & unique because of their luck bonus.

I find Mercantile also weak now, although I understand the thematic. The problem is that trade doesn't do anything for you initially because you first need to research it, and build freighters. Later on many traderoutes are cancelled due to wars. Additional traderoutes would be nice but a neutral Korx already can have 12. Perhaps range? Would make sense in that you could set up more distant trade routes, and before, will help with the colonial rush. Would also be a unique stat for a Pol. Party.

^ that's a brilliant idea   I already have some symbols present (from my personal mod) which were derived from some of the old symbols, if you find one appealing take it. Back then I've tried (unsuccessfully) to create new ones - basic problem was that they looked rather differently in their style than the existing ones....

http://www.xup.in/dl,35315760/PoliticalParties.7z/

Expansionists seem very strong considering how expensive speed is in the distribution points spending screen. Though their rangebonus is rather lackluster - this will add just +1 square on most maps.

Loyalty is also one of the rather weak stats, that might be safely increased.

Good

This is remniscient of vanilla, 1 sct for 3 points. Looking over the old distribution points balancing, I feel inclined to say that there was some wanted disbalance. I mean, 50% MP for 4 points, 25% luck/courage for a mere point.... There were strong options & weaker ones. The AIs pick randomly, perhaps an intent to create factions with different strengths even at the same diff level.

I just made a quick test in order to find out how range-bonuses relate to range-mods (because, in my personal mod, these are all gone so I had to increase rangebonuses enormously).

Setup is medium map, with 0% range, and 10% range, respectively.

I checked on initial range of an empty cargo hull, then gave that 1 basic rangemod, then 2, then 3.

Racial bonus: 0%:___10%

No mod:_____16 pc___17pc

+1 mod______25 pc___25 pc

+2 mods_____34 pc___34 pc

+3 mods_____43 pc___43 pc

there I stopped because a ship can already reach any place on a medium map. Is this WAI? the same range (except when not using any mods - which are available right away and deadcheap). And at that, only a single pc while a mod will bring 8-9!

Well you got still 2 places left on the selection screen. No idea what an Isolationists party could do though