Is there any way that in the next release of the alpha that we have more control over game creation?

The specific control that I'm looking for [for testing] is the ability to set the number of minor races in the galaxy. The parameters would ideally be similar to the original BotF where you could have None, Few, "standard", and Lots.

I suspect that my thoughts won't be popular but here goes. If we can get the mine output, research output, ships balanced, expansion set properly, AI working well, etc. without minor races really driving the game then I think everything will work out for the better.

After everything is known to work well without the minor races then I think adding them back in such a manner that they wouldn't totally upset the delicate balance achieved earlier would be a good move.

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Any thoughts on the above? Is it likely to happen soon? Is it even a good premise with which to work?

hm, there is a rather crude way to set minors out of game. just rename the minorraces.data file as a whole and put a blank new document at it's place that way minors won't bother in the game anymore. Might be a good choice in some circumstances but I think the minorrace number control thing is more worth waitin for

Do you think that my premise is good though? [I.E. if we get the game working well with no minors then if care is added so that adding the minors won't destroy the existing balance that we'll end up with a better game in the end]

hm yeah. I mean we certainly have to develop a balance that include good playability when no minors are in-game anyway so it's a good idea but as I said I think waiting for Sir P. after his break getting the minors' number changeable in-game should be better IMO. Then we can develop a balance that suits every aspect (no, few, several and lots of) minors.

It certainly makes sense to wait for the number of minors to something that we can control in-game as opposed to something that we "hack" to make work.

I was thinking that this would be a good feature to have though for the next MAJOR alpha release.