I'm currently running Windows 8 64-bit and having trouble using these GoodMap mods I found. Unfortunately after trying a few games I've quickly learned that the map generation doesn't seem to be very good at making fair distributions of planets (I was aquatic and never found any other wet planets within jump range, just radiated or asteroids) which has lead to me restarting several times now. Can any body offer some help? Or link me to other map gen mods that work on this version?

Can you clarify what exactly .exe's you're running and by what way?

@zlurker
Aquatic is always a bit of a gamble. Sometimes it really pays off, but you need to be pretty lucky to have a water planet within range of your home system. If you figure there are at least 5 basic 'common' planet types: Barren, Arid, Swamp, Toxic and Radiated, you shouldn't expect any more than about 20% to be swamp planets (assuming random distribution is the same for all types). Ocean, Terra and Gaia planets are the rarest types by far and are often guarded by space monsters.

Thats incorrect, as there is a talk about map-modifying game mods, and not about random distribution. Map mods usually are strongly leaning to increase wet planets probability compared to original map generator.

Small upd. -not even mentioning the Tundra planet type what is also do exist (and wet), the original map generator ofc is not using the random distribution for planet types anyway too.

When I checked the properties of my MoO2 shortcut it says it's running dosbox.exe

As for the other .exes they're from the GoodMaps mod I downloaded after having difficulty getting any good planets but I admit I have no idea what to do with them since the instructions were basically 'unzip to your main MoO2 folder' and that was it.

Also I understand not to expect many wet planets from what I've seen others saying about which is why I want a map generator that favors these more. According to the page I got GoodMap from it even eliminates gas giants/asteroid fields which would make me immensely happy. Unfortunately if I click on any of those goodmap exes it just says my computer can't run them.

You need to launch "goodmapX.exe" (x=2,3,4,5) instead of regular game .exe in order to use the mod. In case you're using a crappy GOG's wrapping - it could be a problem due to enormous number of shortcuts and dosbox.conf's used, so you can end in modifying one config, while you're shortcut run another and so on. Just very unhandy way provided by GOG, sadly. In short you need to modify your dosbox.conf to run goodmapX.exe instead, you could just install a new dosbox (free software) at new folder, and then drag-n-drop desired exe into shortcut of dosbox.exe (no manual fixing of .conf needed in this case, it will automount). From what you're saying now - you're definitely not launched a mod yet. http://masteroforion2.blogspot.com/2006/04/map-mods.html

Yes, exactly, you make the shortcut and then drag needed .exe onto it, and release the button. It should be easiest way.

It took a bit of finalging but I finally got it to work. Thanks for all the help. :D

Did anyone ever mod a way to make the galaxy bigger or is 70-80 systems of 0-5 panets still the max?

Max is ~254 (maybe 255, not sure) objects (planets + asteroids\gas) per map, yes.