This bug was mentioned once, and the reason was found to be installation of the release version over the previous beta.

When installing TA, did you first completely remove the TA beta and associated folders, like it was recommended?

i didnt participate in beta, i bought ultimate pack some week ago, dl'ed it and installed it properly w/o any problems.

they use colony ships for colonisation. no planets were conquered or changed aligiance.

there was an event (not sure if its mega event since i've disabled them, yet some events pop up in some of my games, tho i'm not sure entirely if those are mega events - like some comet or was it supernova giving galaxy-wide population growth bonus) giving some artifact of "ultimate power" to thalans mentioning that its power is going to grow as time passes and that i can choose to defeat now thalans or be enslaved by them later... after a few years of game i didnt notice much change in thalan empire; yes, they are more powerful in every aspect, but that can easily be explained by 10-12 planets they colonized while not having the necessary tech to do it...

so i guess its basically an unexplained bug ?

Hold it, am i reading the above correctly?

I always assumed the pattern of Extreme-Colonization was a two step affair. Ability+1 means 50% upward capacity until last level has been reached for full access.

The reason i'm asking is that my mod could also use a bit of fiddling with these values & properties.. since, in the already listed new techs i have some *yet to implement* factors about all harsh planets and even down to the surface tiles level (which would only need more *enhance* levels beside the 123_YOR default schema).

What i'd require is a sort of break-out linear growth on the abilities with something like; from AQUA_ADV_FINAL (0,50,50 = 100%) to AQUA_ADV_ULTIMATE_FINAL (0,25,25,50 = 100%).
You could also read the last post in 'About the Custom planets...' (In Moddings) thread to learn how i perceived the entire theoretical concepts for new Colonization techs and necessary working tile enhancers.

Is any of that possible mod wise, Kryo?

Actually, looking into it the game does automatically interpret it as 50% per "real" bonus point. I didn't check if it could exceed 100%, though.

If it does, then there is my answer. One thing to consider also in such a theory would be to *PlanetQuality--ing* the upward percentages to actually get more Red (level-3) tiles ---after--- the last extreme tech has been completed.

What i hoped for was to tie the purples_blues (levels 4 & 5) with HeavyGravity, Aquatic, etc... it seems that the extreme planets could react to 150%+ value but with a bunch of extra Red tiles to develop instead of true & different tags.

It is, i guess, a two layer process. The Planet as a whole (extreme or limited through tech paths) and any surfaces of everything else including regular ones. Carielf is pretty clear in the Modding guide (DL only, btw - i must rely on some truth or validated facts) as to the number of enhance levels; 1, 2 and 3. I simply want some more, if i ever am to be able to implement the Harshland Conditioning, Coastal Integration type of stuff.

In the meantime, gotta test this further. Thanks Kryo!