Primitives for proportions?

[dogscoff]

I'm actually resurrecting an old conversation here. A year or two ago there was a fairly active thread here about modding primitive (or, to be politically correct- technologically impaired) races into the game. I think it was generally considered too much of a pain in the arse to mod for minimal results, since such races would be pointless cannon-fodder for regular races in the standard game. I remember the thread taliing off with me wistfully dreaming about a mod which would make the map seem much more big and empty and hard to colonise, where ground combat reigned over orbital bombardment and where primitive races could still remain useful and independent by virtue of being strategic allies.

Now, hey presto, we have the proportions mod, and I think it would be the perfect setting for primitive races.

Now, you might be wondering what the point of such a race would be, since they could be easily glassed with a single ship and conquered with only a little more effort, but you have to remember that in Proportions mobilising even a moderate invasion fleet is a far bigger ordeal than in the regular game, especially if the target planet is a long way away and you have the Xi-Chung on your doorstep.
However, offer those primitives a few sparkly things and strike up a partnership with them. Suddenly you have a friendly resupply base and an eyeball in (what might be) a strategically important position, as well as a handy supply of resources through trade. You could also gift your new friends some weapons platforms or ships (mental image of Ewok driving AT-ST in Return of the Jedi) just to really surprise and humiliate your enemies. Finally, conquering them would provide a valuable source of developped real-estate and population (especially if they breathe a different atmosphere): Think of that as a bonus for whoever gets there first.
Besides all that it would add flavour. You would be effectively modelling the exploitation of technically-underdevelopped aboriginal cultures by more advanced imperial forces which we have seen in our own history, and I can imagine even hardened players getting quite protective over some helpless indiginous society who have dragged involuntarily out of their depth into interstellar warfare...

I'm no modder or I'd just do all this myself, and I'm not appealing to PvK because I know he is too busy and/or sick of modding anyway. So what I'm hoping to do is inspire a fellow Proportions enthusiast to create a bootleg Version of Proportions with primitive races enabled.

Here's how I imagine it would work:
The primitive races could be assigned to some of the neutral slots, which many proportions players don't use anyway. All normal technologies (ships, engines, weapons) would have to be assigned to a zero-cost racial tech, and primitives to another, so that they each have a seperate set of technologies available to them- just like the nomad/ pirate/ regular choice in P&N mod.
Then, a new set of "primitive" techs would be introduced. Now obviously, any tech level prior to space age could be used but I'm imagining a very basic pre-industrial race here. It could just as easily be industrial-revolution tech, so you could recreate War of the Worlds=-)

At the start of the game they'd get a cool array of weak but cheap primitive infantry units and weapons (spears, bows, knives), a few farming/ mining facilities, some weak counter-intel and that's about it. They'd have to have their own Version of the cultural centre too, which would produce useful quantities of orgs and mins, maybe a negligible amount of rads and intel and have a space port ability. No resupply ability, no repair, nothing else at all. These cultural centres would be upgradable to better Versions, but only after some research.

The primitive races would have a tech tree all of their own, but since they can't produce research points they would only be able to get new techs by forming a Trade and Research alliance with a more advanced race.
Space-faring races ought to be able to gift them techs as well, although this might be impossible to implement. 'Advanced' primitive tech would include:
-(most important) the ability to resupply spacecraft. This makes them useful as allies to more powerful races.
-improved min, org and output
-improved intel production, improved counter-intel, maybe some simple offensive intel?
-rudimentary rad production,
-some improved infantry and ground weapons (siege engines, cavalry, rifles)
-simple weapons platforms: not with weapons, but with armour (representing the ability to protect themselves from orbital attack)
-rudimentary anti-plague tech.

So what does anyone think? Is it worth doing? Is it possible?