Looking for a mod - No planetary invasions tech for AI

That's a very specific mod. I am not aware of such a mod existing.

Why don't you just make new tech trees without the planetary invasion techs.

Maybe because, that would be something completely different than what I was hoping to find? I was pretty clear that I hoping to find something that slows down the AI basically having this rather critical tech basically right from the start. Taking it away entirely, would be likely be a lot simpler, but that is not the goal. I just want something that makes it more far more expensive and time consuming for the AI, to get their mitts on, and hey, if it applies to the player, Id be ok with that too.  

I suppose it would be possible to seriously ramp up the cost, and its location in the tech-tree, but Im not really currently conversant with modding this game atm.

Planetary invasion is kind of a game changer, and I say this as someone who has experienced my HW being captured by the AI within less than an hour of gameplay on more than a few occasions,  often accompanied by escorts I cannot hope to match, much less defeat.  

What map size and setting are the AI on? Also what DLC are you playing with? 

The AI can be somewhat pacified if you mass a bunch of basically useless ships with guns and low range that make your military a paper tiger. The AI doesn’t know your useless army is a paper tiger but they will back off and not give you ripe for conquest. I use these basically useless ships as scouts and this helps prevent the AI from DoW immediately. Also the ideology in the pragmatic tree is about as useful as it gets if you want some breathing room.

also is it the same race that keeps declaring on you?

Just base game, gigantic. Its pretty much always the usual suspects, Krynn, Yor, Drengin etc, since I almost always pick up pragmatic and benevolent, so, they pretty much guarantees they will declare war almost as soon as you make contact. My beef with this, is how all the factions seem to come pre-equiped with Planetary Invasion tech, thus my hoping to find a mod that moves it far....far  up the tech-tree. That way, they can still declare war, attack shipping, bases etc, and generally be a nuisance, but, cant end the game before it even gets started.

Never really looked at it this way but Troop Module should have some required technology (in ShipComponentDefs) that could be changed for something in Age of war/ascansion. That would delay anyone invading a while (exept troop transports from ideologie trait). You would need right name of technology from right version of MasterTechDefs. If you want do it YOURSELF it might be doable.

Make a copy of MasterTechDefs and place it in ....Documents\My Games\GC3 Crusade\Mods\Example Mod\Game, Open MasterTechDefs in a text editor, search for PlanetaryInvasion, set the Weights, yes all of them, to 0, save the file. Now the AI should (Unless there is back round hardcode) ignore this tech untill it has no options but to take it or you sell it to them. (Requires a new game)

That is an interesting approach, but, woudl that not be a little overboard? My notion wasn't that they never have the tech, only delay it by making it very expensive and force the AI to expend a lot of time and resources to obtain it it. If I understand what you are saying correctly, they would have to research the entire? tech tree until they finally acquire it normally?

Yas, or they require a tech in the same branch and Planetary Invasion is on route. Slim to Zero chance the AI will research it. Some AI start with this tech though, and it is tradeable.