Custom Race Feed Back

[Atrocities]

Ok, as many of us know, there are over 60 custom races now available for us to use. What I would like to do is get your opinions on them. So, please feel free to post comments about what you like or dislike about all the custom races now available. If I forgot a race, please add it in your post. Also, I did not include the names of the race creators, as that would be over kill for this post. (Look them up at the links below.)

Sources:
Universal Ship Yards http://universalshipyards.tripod.com/
Rambies Fleet Yard http://www.xmission.com/~rstulce/SE4-Index.htm
Spoogy Federation http://spoogyfederation.tripod.com/
Shrapnel Games http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/For...ML/000017.html

Addisian Empire
Atraikians
Bab5: Army of Darkness
Bab5: Army of Light
Battle Star Galactica - Colonials
Borg
Borg Variant
Canadian Empire
Crauw Empire
Darlok
Earth Alliance
Eysk Empire
Federal Union
Federation
Gron Prime
Gryphon Sector
House of Aleskander
Illuminati
Ixaris Empire
Klingon
Little Green Men
Manadakh Gold Fleet
Narn Regime
Niridian Enclave
Niridian Enclave
Nloam Fleet
SIMS Empire
Observers
Pacean One
Pyrochette
Rage Collective
Rintax Empire
Romulan
Scrin Empire
Shadows
Sharlon Empire
Solarion Empire
Space 1999
Space Oddessy 2001
Spoogy Empire
Star Blazers EDF
Star Blazers Gamilon
Star Blazers Gron
Star Empire of Romii
Star Wars Blacksun
Star Wars Dark Empire
Star Wars Galatic Empire
Star Wars Rebel
Star Wars Strike Force
Star Wars Trade Fleet
Talaxcalan Imperium
Teara Empire
Terran Coalition
Toron Confederation
UCP Borg
UCP Cardassian
UCP Dominion
UCP Federation
UCP Ferengi
UCP Klingon
UCP Romulan
UFP
United Colours Empire
United Flora Empire
United Terran Empire
Utopian Brotherhood
Y'Gathian Free States
Zorgoid Empire
Zorians

[Deathstalker]

Ok, you want some feedback, well heres some. The only thing I truely dislike is a really good shipset (Solarion, StarWars) with NO AI!! or even worse a stock base se4 AI, (which seems to always be the Terran AI, why I don't know).

Thats why I love what John Beech is doing, advertising for AI creators! It give those of us who are not graphicly inclined but can write a half decent race AI a chance to contribute without 'stealing' someones shipset. I have a good working AI for the Solarion shipset that I use personally but cannot/will not post due to the fact that it is someone elses set.(but damn they look good flying around kicking my butt )..

Thats my only comment for now (till I sleep and think of some more......)

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Atraikius]

My big points on the styles are:

No AI - the ship sets I get with no AI that still look fairly nice I've renamed and stuck in the nuetrals folders so they don't all use the same ships.

Inconsistance between files. It drive me nuts when I run into styles that expend the points on an expensive racial tech, yet don't have all the techs in their research tree (I've ran across a couple that had Religeon but didn't have the initial religeous tech in their research tree) or that are inconsistant between the general file and .emp files, and when the abilities between point seting change drastically (like the EEE)

Last would be a pet peeve thing - I hate it when the different ships (the race portrait, troops, platforms don't bother me though) are all pointing different directions, and they have masking problems. I am sort of reluctant to use those races even if the AI is good. (Atrocities - I really appreciate your efforts with the masking)

[dogscoff]

I have been very impressed with the styles I have seen / downloaded / used, especially original ones (ie not taken from sci fi films/ shows).

My request is to webmasters offering these shipsets for download, although it will probably require the co-operation of shipset creators:

Please list compatibilities with your race styles. Some race styles seem to gnerate error Messages under certain Versions of the gam (most notably 1.35). Perhaps also note how well the race style will work with latest Versions of the more popular mod packs (Devnull, TDM, Zippy...).

(As if you weren't all working hard enough already=-)

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"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"Uh, I think so, Brain, but balancing a family and a career ... oooh, it's all too much for me. "

[capnq]

quote:

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Do you think it would be possible to classify the existing AI files and use them in a building block approach to give reasonable AI's to the one that don't have them, or to provide a base for a modder to work from?

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A building block approach is how I'm starting my first attempt at an AI. My Tiktsin are Organic Scientists, so I'm starting off working from the Eee's Anger and Politics files and the Xi-Chung's Research and Design files. I've been taking notes on my own games to get ideas for research progressions and designs the Tiktsin would use.

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Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft

[Deathstalker]

Nitram: There was a 'godsend' posted awhile ago, a link to download a program called 'ACDsee', (think it was downloads.com or something like that , Atrocities might know...) run any 'dark' shipset though it, just hit the edit button, select all for images and then hit 'plug-ins', the first option is 'adjust levels', hit it. Then you can either look at all the ships to see if you like the changes or want to change more but generally the level lightens all of the images. Works wonders for the SeorFleet, Rage, Tlaxcalan, Atrakians Chaos and other 'too dark' sets.

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"The Empress took your name away," said Chance.
Owen smiled coldly. "It wasn't hers to take. I'm a Deathstalker until I die. And we never forget a slight or an enemy." -Owen Deathstalker.

[Nitram Draw]

I admire your ability.
I have searched the forum and read and studied and come to the conclusion that I will never understand the research and design files .
I feel like an inventor with no work shop, lots of ideas and no way to build them.

[DirectorTsaarx]

A small request: all of you that are posting opinions about the races, please mention which races you're commenting on (i.e., list the ones without AI; list the ones with "inconsistent" AI; etc.) Just as a reference for those of us with less time on our hands, so we can get the "good stuff". And also so those responsible for the styles that need work can get a "nudge" to finish what they started...

[Nitram Draw]

The ones I know of that don't have AI's are the Star Wars races at the Kuat Drive (kuatdy) site, at least they didn't have AI's when I Last checked. Beautiful shipsets though and lots of them.

[Alpha Kodiak]

The Torons and the Klingons (both from the TDM modpack) have proven themselves to be very tough when I have run into them while testing the Rage. I haven't had to much opportunity lately to see many other races, due to the fact that I keep restarting the same game setups while tweaking AI files.