Note: Improper tinkering of game files may cause problems with the installation; proceed at your own risk.

Look for your game's installation path. (Normally its in C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Sins of a Solar Empire) Look for the galaxy folder.

Within the "Galaxy" folder, you'll see all sorts of systems from the game, tutorials, and more. Right-click on any file in the "Galaxy" folder and open it with Notepad. You should see the following string at the top of the text file:

* homeplanetupgradelevel: population
* homeplanetupgradelevel: civilianmodules
* homeplanetupgradelevel: tacticalmodules
* homeplanetupgradelevel: home
* homeplanetupgradelevel: artifactlevel
* homeplanetupgradelevel: infrastructure

These strings mean different things, and represent upgrade choices that can increase tactical capacity, population, and more. Here's what they mean specifically:

* population = civilian infrastructure
* civilian modules = logistics capacity
* tactical modules = tactical capacity
* home = capital planet (default when you start a game, cannot change)
* artifact level = exploration (already at max when you start a game)
* infrastructure = emergency facilities

If you head back to the same text file and scroll to the very bottom, you'll find a section that starts with "playercount [#]". You should find it right after the section describing the phase line connections. The section starting with "player 0" represents you. The three strings "startingcredits", "startingmetal", and "startingcrystal" are values of your starting material that can each be changed to a maximum of 9999. Change those values freely.