[Devnullicus]

I do not want or intend to become a part of the TDM-ModPack. That is a separate mod and should remain so as their goals are much different than mine. I simply want to incorporate their good ideas into my mod for more enjoyable play.

There are three reasons I want to combine TDM-ModPack with DevnullMod, one of which is now invalid.

1) I really like what they've done with their AI for the standard races. It puts what I've done to shame, simply because their work is more well-rounded. I've mainly concentrated on tech, while they've modified every aspect of their races to be better. I admire their work and want my mod to be the best it can be, so therefore would like to have their standard racial AI in my mod so that it's better than what I currently have.

2) DevnullMod is, in many ways, an amalgamation of mods (including my own). When I see someone else's mod that I like the ideas, I want to include it. Partly though, this is because I'm trying to save myself some work -- if someone else has already done a good mod in an area, why should I redo their work? Since I put out DevnullMod 1.3 without TDM-ModPack, this reason is now invalid as I went ahead and re-did the files for the 4 standard races in TDM anyway.

3) I like the new races in TDM-ModPack and think it adds a lot to the game. Again, since DevnullMod is an amalgamation of many mods, I want to include other peoples' excellent work, and I think the new races are excellent work.

I do not feel like I need "validation" for my mod. The reason I do this mod at all is because I enjoy the process of creation. I don't even really >PLAY< SE4 all that much, really. I just like modding it =) I began this mod in the first place as a way to make the game more enjoyable for myself, but mainly to make the AI tough enough to be a little challenge. I think in this Version of the mod, I'm much closer to that than I was. In my current game, I'm actually seeing some really interesting things.

On turn 21, for example, I had the Cryslonites come at me with a fleet of 2 destroyers armed with ER Shard Cannon II's and Crystal Torpedoes. Pretty impressive for turn 21 for the AI, really. I still trounced them, but that's not the point -- the game is much harder than it was, and so I'm happier.

I'm going to continue tweaking the mod and for the next Version, I'm already planning some interesting new things -- new racial traits (I really like what Zippy has done with his Energy Race trait), new races that take advantage of combo-tech, and more combo-tech as well. I'll never really run out of ideas.

What I'm hoping is that this mod becomes accepted enough that I can get about 10 or so people to play via email with me =) But sine that hasn't happened yet, I'm working on the AI so that I can play solo and enjoy it.