It is hardcoded...you can change how much XP is needed to earn each level, but you cannot change the number of levels or the number of ability points earned...

You could set the first few levels to require zero XP, or you could set the upgrade price for purchasing levels to zero...either would mimic the effect, as you'd start with a higher level capital ship (and therefore more levels)...

In rebellion, abilities can be upgraded up to 4 times, and the ultimate one up to level 2. So, I am limited to have something like this: 4-4-0-2 / 4-2-2-2 and so on. Point of my question is to have 4-4-4-2 comfiguration at level 10.

How can I set capship to start with ability without needing to put a point in it ?

Like I said, you set it up so that the capitalships start with the abilities or they get them through research in additional to the 10 points you get as you level up. However, you will never be able to use points on these abilities. It will start with the ability and not use any points, but you can't use points to make it go to level 2.

To do that, you need to change the ability file so that instead of being "Intristic", it uses FixedLevel0 (starts with it) or ResearchWithoutBase. See noncapitalship abilities for how to set them up.

No, all you can do is increase the XP rates for a faction, change the XP needed to level up globally, change the XP value of specific ships, change the price of purchasing levels and the highest level you can by per faction, and set it so that capital ships automatically gain XP up to certain levels per faction. That's all I think you can change with the XP system directly.

Man that stinks. I would like capitals to be a risk venture, i.e. building a capital-heavy fleet would be at a disadvantage to an enemy who did not rely so heavily on caps, but could pay off in the end once they level. They way it is right now, your essentially stuck with choosing 1-2 caps (diplo) for most of the important era of the game.

Changing so that they didn't share exp (possibly upping the amt needed for leveling) seemed a good way to try.

That's easy to do. In the gameplay.constant file, there's two sections that define the XP required for both capitalship and titan levels. The first few lines of it is

    CapitalShipData
        ExperienceLevelData:0
            ExperienceNeededForNextLevel 200.0
            ExperienceGainedForDestroying 100.0
            UpgradePriceForNextLevel 1250.0

Just in case this is your first attempt in modding, never edit the base game files. Make a copy of the gameplay.constant file and make a mod out of it.

Could you please explain how to do the bold statements? I've been browsing this forum for a while looking for those answers specifically with no luck. I'm sure I just haven't looked in the right entity file. I've tried Capital and Titan ship files and have only been able to change the amount of fighters they carry. Thanks for any help you can throw my way.

The entity file tied to the Advent technology "Mass Transcendence" would tell you how to do what you want to do...

The file is RESEARCHSUBJECT_CONSTANTEXPERIENCE.entity

Open with a text editor (notepad works), look at the modifiers at the bottom...placing those modifiers in whatever technology you want to will allow whoever you want to automatically get XP....you set the rate that free XP is earned as well as the level cap....for example, Advent currently cannot get automatic XP with this tech once the cap is level 3/4 for levels 1/2 of Mass Transcendence....

The Gameplay.constants file contains all the information regarding the XP requirements for cap/titan levels...it also includes the XP earned for destroying caps/titans at all possible levels...

If you want to change the XP of a ship or structure, you will need to look at that individual ship's or structure's entity file...for starbases, note that each starbase upgrade adds additional XP (you would have to look at each upgrade to change that)...XP for destroying planets is at the top of the Gameplay.constants...XP for strikecraft is in the individual fighter entity files...