really big games

Upon consideration you can get the effect of higher population due to improved climate by a change in settings.txt
Modify the list of Pop Modifier x Population Amount to be lower values and lengthen the list from 12 to about 16. That way you do not need the higher population goal I desired.

On the other hand you STILL would need a huge increase in the System Types.txt file to get the variety of systems my method produces. And that variety is half the reason I did it in the first place. Some systems will be easy as usual but others will be horrendous. If you examine the generated map then you will see that as many as a dozen planets have the same atmosphere type in a single system where a random allocation would give only 9 in a 45 planet system.

I examined the history.txt file to see if there has been any change in population growth lately, but no soap. Apparently it has been cast in concrete. If you want faster growth you have to select it in your racial characteristics. It applies to any race you conquer so that is a bonus. You can also improve your environmental resistance if you have the points available, which should upgrade your apparent climate but I have not checked that out....

Some of the Posts I have been reading mention races available in mod packs. Are they really better than the standard ? If so then why the **** are they not added to the standard game releases ? Is it a case of not invented here or lack of resources to do an official checkout for official release ?

I do not use game handicaps since my goal is to test my strategy against the AI on a *level* playing field. If the wimp AI can not hack it then that is a major indication that some work must be done on the AI strategy. Of course it has been less than a year since the demo came out and MM has been working overtime to fix bugs so AI seems to have fallen by the wayside. Am I on target or speaking from ignorance ?