Start with no planet?

well you can incorperate capturable fleets in grav wells so you MIGHT be able to make a special ship/fleet to start with, keeping in mind that it wont have all the normal abilities of a cap ship, such as leveling. Uzii had a mod that was incoperated into 7 deadly sins when he quit updating it. this was one of the features. now, you might have to have a start planet, im not 100% sure, i never fooled around with creating planets myself.

and yes, you can choose what artifacts go at which planet, it least if my memory serves corectly you can. i though i seen a post a few months after sins released about this from uzii. you can also boost the artifact density by modifying the map text files. (.galixy files)

You must start them somewhere, it must be something designated home planet TRUE or the game ended instantly with DEFEAT.

Start each race at a dead asteroid designated as the home planet, then use a scenario template with what you want the players to start with: like a Capital Colonyship, a cruiser wing, frigate wing, and some scout ships.

Check here for information on "Scenario Templates: A How To" about how to insert one into your map.

I've included in the above thread a map "Systems of War -ULTRA" that includes precisely the thing you want to do.

It would be really cool to not only start with no planet but heavily damaged ships, at least for the "aliens" as that would add an element of "canon" to them for a certain senario.

Heavily damaged ships to start!!   I love that idea!!    

I think 7DS has some textures they are using for "derelicts" that look like that, but i havent seen them anywhere else.

If you get 7DS, or ask if you can incorporate the damaged ships textures, you could have it.

Hope this helps,

-Teal

Please at least ask danman about incorporating 7DS elements into your mods, we're still in development of 2.0 and would like playtesters/betatesters to not "borrow" elements that we still have in testing for their own work -even if you on your own take something and modify it for your use.  That said, if Danman gives you permission, give Danman some mad props.
By all means however, feel free to assist us in our work @ http://sri-corp.com/Forum/index.php so that all can benefit alike.

Other than "Damaged" textures, there aren't any ways to damage ships from the start.  Besides, once the ships repair back to full shield/hull, why would they look damaged?

Yes, you are right about supporting 7DS first, and asking permission for your own use. As to your question about why would a ship still look damaged when the shields, hull, armor go back up to full?  It is really only cosmetic, to "look" old, to reflect the point that this ship has been out there fighting for the last 50 years.    But i wonder if there would be a way to have the shields and hull, armor reduce permanently by xx value over time?  Like say, after a heavy game, my hull has lost 10 or 20 points permanently? Hmmm..... If that were the case then that in-game ship would resemble a "real" ship in the sense that i could only use it so long before i would have to replace it.   But it is an interesting idea. 

-Teal

honestly, deralict ships was not danman's work to begin with, it was uzii's. altho danman eventualy took it over. and honestly, no need to yell at him for an idea, does not necessarly mean he is going to actualy go and "steal" textures or whatnot.