hello

are you a player like me who is a warmonger and like to declare war on every AI on the map? are you slave driver like me who wants to conquer all of their systems and enslave their citizens? are you a conquerer like me who want to build an empire with no boundaries? but these objectives seem impssible because there is a stupid colonization limit that makes your empire implode after going over merely 9 systems! however there is a way to get around that!

first of all you need to download a free software called Notepad++ and here is the link:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.5.3.html
this software is completely free, and i have been using it for years now, and many of you probably already has it. this software is necessary for the following steps.

after you have downloaded Notepad++ follow the below steps:

1. find your steamlibrary in your hard drive. everyone installs their steam on different hard drive, me for example, are installed on F drive. different people have different preference, it is up to you to find your own steam library.

2. after you have located your steam library, go to -> steamapps -> common -> Endless Space 2 -> Public -> Simulation.

3. scroll down inside the Simulation folder, and you should find a script called "SimulationDescriptors[Empire], or you can always use the Ctrl+F fucntion and find this file. after you located this file, open it with the Notepad++ software we just downloaded.

4. after you have opend this script, use Ctrl+F and located a specific line starting with "Property Name="OverColonizationThreshold" and immediately to the right, you will see a line says "BaseValue="0".

This "BaseValue" dictates the number of systems you can have before the over colonization penalty kicks in. so if the base value is 0, it means even you have only 1 over colonized system, your empire will get a penalty.

now all you need to do is to change this base value to w/e number you want. e.g. if you change the base value to 100, it means that you empire can have 100 systems before the over colonization penalty kicks in. you can even change that to 1000, meaning your empire could have a thousand worlds before the over colonization penalty kicks in. so even if you are playing on huge map with 10 AIs, you can still colonize the entire galaxy with NO PENALTY! and that's an empire which knows no bonds!

if you follow these steps correctly, it should work, it even works on save games! so you don't need to restart your current conquest to enjoy this wondeful feature. 

here is the proof that this method works! 

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198035233688/screenshot/900022714516553240
if you look at the bottom left coner you will see that my empire system limit is 27/109!

Thanks for reading

So this probably would belong in the modding section, but if you wanted to make a change, it would be best to create a small mod (and there are resources explaining how to do this in the modding subforums).

In the mod file, you could copy the class you're changing in with your edit.

Directly editing the game's files is probably not a great idea. But if you do and you mess something up, you should be able to have Steam verify the file's integrity and it will hopefully fix your edits.