I'm trying to create a simple map for sandbox play - I'm a compulsive CTRL-Ner - and just looking to set up a (gigantic) map including my custom races...  I'm using the TA map editor to do it.

However, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to include other custom races.  The TA map editor only has one slot for "Custom Race".  I figured if I set multiple systems to "Custom Race", I just end up getting one of the systems I set randomly, but they all end up assigned to me... same with ships, etc.

I find nothing in the forum beyond this --https://forums.galciv2.com/310708

The race handling in the game itself isn't really designed for multiple custom races. So if you need to use them, you'll need to manually replace the base races with them, then just reference the base races in your map.

Can someone demystify this for me?  Does this mean I should overwrite the existing races in raceconfig -- or -- should I just be adding my own custom races into Raceconfig?  If the latter, are the custom race settings and attributes available anywhere in a file I can just copy/paste from (I created my custom races directly in the game interface).

Or.... is this saying that I should just create the map, set the homeworlds using the "standard" races, then edit the *.gc2map... and replace... what?  The <race></race> values? 

Finally - I want to include the full boat of 8 minor races... I haven't yet run across any minors as I've been working through these other map issues - are minor races automatically assigned somewhere if my sandbox game settings call for 8 minors (assuming my map can support 8 minors - and it should).   Do I have to manually assign minors - and if so, how?

Thanks in advance.