Sparhawk and Geoschmo-
I agree, good job on the settings. And thanks for the coordination efforts, geoschmo!
The game concept sounds really fun. That is what is going to make this a good game.
Sure, Gold adds some nice features, but there isn't anything prohibitive about playing with V1.49. Plenty of us are happy with it, and upgrading to any Version always adds new things you would like fixed, and new features you would like to add.
In any matter, SEIV still rocks as a game and I can't believe I'm still playing it regularly...