12. When changing ship hulls: The game keeps a copy of every ship in the xxx\Distant Worlds 2\data\ShipHullModelData folder. If you want your changes (such as adding component bays) to show up in the game, you have to delete the hull's file in this folder.

The game will generate a new file from the ...

10. Components with negative size work, but make it impossible to retire a ship (they will remain stuck as "damaged", whilst the ship will not be broken down untill all components are destroyed).

11. Keep in mind that any "cheat" component you make will also be available to pirates and independent ...

This is what I've found so far:
(ComponentDefinitions, PlanetaryFacilityDefinitions, ResearchProjectDefinitions, ShipHulls)

1. Changes made to the research, component or planetary facilities will not work until you start a new game. No modding savegames as far as I have found.

2. It is possible to ...