Roesh is fictional...

Technically all online personas are fictional, some much more then others.

And

Add custom map sharing to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.

Question...Does anyone have specifics on how refinarys (And their ships ships) work? 

Ordered most important to least.

What "Cargo" do (Inrelation to refinary ships)?  when I changed that value, it doesnt seem to do anything.

Do refinaries provide a set income? Or do the ships attached to it, which are actively servicing extractors make for the income?

How are refinaries linked to extractors? Is it that one refinary "Services" all extractors in the gravitywell, or that one refinaryservices all in the gravity well?

What "Cargo" do is not a question.  Not one that I understand anyway.  Re ask it in a coherent manner.  Like, "what does the role type Cargo do for the refinery frigate?" or something like that.

Refineries themselves do not provide income.

For each successful trip the ship makes, the income is added.  It's the same thing for trade ships.

Refineries are linked to extractors by a count you can see when you select the extractor.

Are you asking the same question twice?  A refinery services all of the resource asteroids in the gravity it is in, as well as all of the single hop connecting gravity wells.

I don't think there is any difference between in system and out of system mines for refineries. All that matters is the total number of extractors serviced by the refinery (which assuming all the mines have spare capacity) in the refinery's gravity well and in every adjacent gravity well. I think the actual amount of resources you get is defined in each planet's entity file, which is how those neutral gravity well extractors both more refinery resources and can support more refinery ships. If you want to arbitrarily raise the global amount of resources generated by refinery ships (for a specific faction) without changing the planet entity files, in Diplomacy you can use a research with a "refinery cargo capacity" or something like that used by the Vasari resource pact.

Further, I advise that the Devs add custom map sharing to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.

A further question ... is there a maximum number that beyond it, the AI simply won't research?

To add onto what I asked earlier; it appears that the maximum number of research prereqs a research tech can have is 2; adding anymore to the research entity will only result in the first two of the list to show up.

Further, I advise that the Devs add custom map sharing to Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.

Ok...I have a map where the AI starts at a dead asteroid HW with a couple of labs and a frigate constructor present.  They are also given a dozen scouts and another dozen colony ships and frigates--but they just won't colonize. 

I've set the game on 8x speed and made everyone "colonizer" or "aggressive" and they just don't do it.  I've changed the phase lanes and moved planets right next to them and in about 20 run throughs one faction colonized one dead asteroid and nothing else.

What does it take to make the AI take a colony ship and colonize without having a major world nearby?

Try giving them 2 civ labs to start. Not to sure on how the map maker will jive with the existing civ slots though.

I had them on a dead asteroid with two civ labs and a frigate factory and a militia siege frigate that would slowly bomb them out.  They just sat there.  In about ten runs, one of eight AIs colonized one dead asteroid.

I did find the trick though.  Apparently they need actual credits and don't black market resources for cash.  Even though I started them with a generous amount, it wasn't until I swapped the dead asteroids for pirate bases (with the income bonus) that they began to behave normally.  Still the stupid AI but actually colonizing at least. They colonized all world types but prefer Terran followed by Desert.

Thanks for the replies though.

So to sum up: give them half a dozen scouts and colony frigates at least, two civ labs and a frigate factory on a pirate base that is "true" for being their HW.

Just curious, are there mods that add independent colonies and the like to random maps? Because I just figured out a way to do so if that's not common knowledge.

Yeah I realize that wasn't quite was I did. I have figured out how to get independent colonies on any map without changing the individual maps. Random, prebuilt, galaxy forge etc., doesn't matter. Each time you load a map, you may find random neutral colonies at any given planet.

If this is something that hasn't been done before and there is interest, I may make a small mini mod that shows how to do this.

Define "neutral colony". If you mean having a planet colonized by milita, without having it spawn with a colony frigate, I've done this before personally. If you mean a neutral player that owns a planet and goes out colonizing, I haven't done that, though I think it's been done before.

Is it possible to modify the cost and time of buying capital ship levels?

Second, as I don't see a option in GalaxyScenarioDef to specify, when making groups for a planetItemsTemplate whether the player is AI controlled or human controlled. I request Ironclad, if they have not done this already, to implement this. It would result in a nice amount of options for modders.