Ok,
I just finished getting off my lazy butt to play with some of the AI generals of some of my favorite races to produce "P&Nv2 Versions" of them which us the appropriate "racial quirks" so that the ai uses some of the cool flavour of the mod (gave the Cephalopeia the living ship tech, stuff like that). It got me to thinking about how cool it would be to have race designers make custume P&N Versions of their races. I wouldn't imagine it would be too much work if you already had a good base ai file to work with, and it would at a lot to the game IMO. Still, it would be extra work for people that already give me very cool stuff for free, and it probably isn't fair to bug them like this. Still, I can't help but wonder what people who make amazing races like the Cephalopeia, the aquilaeians (one of the toughes ai races I've ever had to face) and the rage collective would be able to do with a whole new tech tree to work with. TDM modpack P&N addition, anyone?
I mean, I know customn P&N Versions of races would be confusing to new players (hell, first time I had to install a new race, took me 3 trys to find the right directory) but I would really like to see AI designed to thrive in the P&N environment. Even AI with mod-patched (cool little utility, btw) ship designs (for a resonable amount of engines) and a re-mixed general AI to suit the environment would be cool. For example, I considered playing with the AI general of the Darlock shipset to give them miniture race addvantage (shapeshifters could use special shapes disigned to make more room for other things, right?) but then I thought maybe theyed be too dignified to make utilitarian shapechanges like that. While I can make my own decisions about stuff like that (I gave them the tiny race advantage) I think it would be cool to see what the guy who spent hours trying to re-create the Darlok race for the SEIV universe would think. But anyway, like I said, this may be pure ingratitude, asking for special mod Versions of races from people who already spent hours producing a free comercial quality product. But, as someone from the War Engine forum observed "gamers are a terminally dissatisfied lot"
P.S. typed this idea up quick before I left for town. So probably full of spelling/grammer mistakes and top-of-mind gibberish. Was kind of wondering if other people thought the same way...