When we said you could mod Galactic Civilizations II, we meant it. And one of the features of 1.2 will be the example mod. The first beta has an early stab at it but it will be in beta 2 (this week) that more meat comes into play for the mod. One might argue that we went overboard with our example mod as it is arguably a mini-expansion pack unto itself. These mods could be done by anyone mind you. There is no coding involved. Below are two screenshots of alternative game interfaces that will be with th emod so you can get an idea of what is possible.
v1.2 will be FREE to all Galactic Civilizations II players.