Can I get hulls have weapons built in?

No, this isn't possible. Ship-components can only have one Category.

Can I redo some stuff if I get the right compiler? What languages do I need?

And is there a way to ues the map editor effectively on immense maps?

I also want alot of races and planets higher than class 20 something in the editor?

Darca said you would help me.

No, a compiler wouldn't do you any good. Most of the game (including the actual game-mechanics) are hardcoded. As for most of the actually accessible parts, you only need to know XML and how to use a text-editor in order to modify them.

Use Randomize All until the map is roughly how you want it, and then edit the rest manually. That's a lot less time-consuming than placing everything by hand. There may be some other things you could do to increase efficiency, but I don't know them. I'm not that familiar with the map editor, as I've hardly used it.

You can only have 10 major races active in a game, and the base-PQ is limited to 26. That's hardcoded.

Warum bin ich nicht überrascht?

^ lol Gaunathor.

but there has to be a way to do the hard coding our selves. What do we need to do it?

and my name is DARCA

DARCA

Either access to the source code of the game and a copy of Visual Studio 2003 (which doesn't work on Win Vista and above), or reverse-engineering the game (which is illegal last I checked).

Yeah I think honestly the way forward might be to find a way to patch VS2003 to work on Windows 7/8/9.  Perhaps petition Microsoft to open-source it since it's ten years old?

Well I'll see if MS has a copy I can get.