[geoschmo]

That is similer to what we had with Devnull Mod. Devnellicus mad a new tech area called Universal colony and the universal colony required 1 level of that. Then you needed all three colony tech to get universal tech and the ability to research the uni-colony comp.

The problem was if you placed the uni-colony comp after the others in the comp.txt file, everybody got it by default in a low tech start, but if you put it before the others in the comp.txt file, the AI would never use the component, even after researching it.

Obviously colony comps are treated different than regular comps in the code somewhere.

We tried fixing it by making the uni-colony comp a level 2 comp, and had the same result you did, in a low tech start, you got no colony components. It was giving you level 1 of uni-colony tech, but since the comp was a level 2 comp, you didn't have it till you researched it.

We did fix it though by removing the uni-colony tech area, and making the uni-colony comp have three tech area requirements, all three colony techs. Then the game only gives you your soecific colony type in a low tech start, but once you research your third colony tech, you can build with all four comps. And the AI can use it too.

Not sure if this helps you or not. I'd have to see your data file to know exactly what you are doing. Was level 2 of ship construction the only tech area requirement? That seems kind of cheap. Was your uni-colony just a comp or did you have a uni-colony tech area that opened up at level 2 or ships const?

Geoschmo