Silly me

[Elowan]

I have a Universal Colony component that becomes available after all 3 coloy techs are researched.

I had this 'bright' idea that I would make it available at the get go but that it could only colonize researched colony types. That is - if I have only Rock (starting tech) the UC would only colonize Rock but when Gas became available - the same component would be able to colonize both. I did this because there's already enough book-keeping in this game.

However - when I tested this in-game, I found that all 3 colony types were lit up - that is available! Du'oh! I thought the types only got flagged when the research had been accomplished but it seems otherwise.

Anyone?

[Suicide Junkie]

What you can do is make a three dimensional grid tech.
You will need seven components; Name them all Omni Colony Module.

The first three components require only one colony tech, and provide only one colonization ability. (Same as normal ones) (Use Roman Numeral 1)

The next three components require any two colony techs, and provide only the two colonization abilities. (Use Roman Numeral 2)

The last component requires all three and provides all three. (Use roman numeral 3)

Use the same family number for all of them.

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So when you have "show only latest" selected, you do not see your single-type colony components, and only the double. Or only the triple if you've researched all three.

This "Grid Tech" theory works for large numbers too, and there are programs to help you generate the components.
The above example uses three tech dimensions, with two levels each (zero and one)
For the new missile system in CBmod, I have nine basic missile components which you can improve with research in ECM(3 levels), propulsion(3 levels), warheads(3 levels) and manufacturing (10 levels)
This makes a total of 9*3*3*3*10 = 2430 components.
However, you only ever see nine of them in your design list at any one time because of the family numbers and the "show only latest" option.

[Fyron]

Elowan said:
I thought the types only got flagged when the research had been accomplished but it seems otherwise.

There is nothing special about the colonization abilities or technologies. They function just like everything else, except that the game will assign 1 level of 1 technology that provides a component (any component) with the colony ability that matches your HW type. There is no overall "ability to colonize" to be researched, just abilities on components that happen to become available with those tech areas.

[Q]

It is important to put the universal colony component at the top of the component list and the normal components below it.