Alright, CoSH-05B and its zipped set of Minor Races are as of now properly available in the library!
Quick summary of "Changes";
- Each race now has its own starting system along with a 'balanced' number of planets which also have exclusive texture surfaces (those may seem strange - not really geologic features but rather an extensively edited image which represents the current race!)
** PS; The toughest system to make was by far for the Fantastic Four -- lemme explain: Since they have the Thalan tech tree, there are special developping concerns that allow for a good pattern to spread while the terraforming techs become available. Thus, any secondary planets were certainly fairplay at PQ4. Tron was also a tricky gamble since i HAD to keep them in a single Homeworld for exploration edge.
- There is an extreme planet in most of those systems (Much higher PQ count) that introduces an extra challenge (i think) with...
A-- Colonization techs timing and,
B-- Influence Flipping possibilities once you (or the AIs) dare grabbing these juicy trophies of war while it matters than one player should have any of these planets long enough to prevent the enemy from using it. and,
C-- Tiles count value IN a balanced colony rush (well, at least for awhile).
- A series of alternate 'Cursors' (Ya know, that tiny cyan circle that surrounds ships & planets) were created so that you can simply rename anything to a proper 'Selected.dds' file, copy to the Graphics folder root and play with it. My favorites are Holo & Spideroid... but Twirl is also quite the ride once you get used to its colorful sphere.
- The surface tiles *SD_BOX* selection schema was altered too with a simple 'Thunder Bolt' type of lines. What this basicly does is that when buildings are clicked & scanned, the surface images remain in focus (well, only a tiny bit more) and the overall feeling is somehow leaner. It takes a bit of time to get used to this new interface... but after a few games, you won't want to return to the old graphics -- i'm guessing.
*The Minors structure*
- At first, i wanted to distribute all of that supplemental stuff as a single 'switching' schema as it is found in X-Worlds... but i figured i had the opportunity to introduce a new feature for this situation. Thus, was born the thematic concept for these.
Star Trek (Done!), Star Wars & Super-Heroes & Sci-Fi will get more later.
**PS; a new RaceConfig.xml is automatically loaded (and graphics added) once these files get unzipped in the provided folders which simply takes out the defaults or *a previous set of CoSH minors* (once these are made) while replacing all necessary assets with the new ones.
- Three new Political Parties (Alarmist, Naturalist & Scientific) were added to the usual X-Worlds group of 10. Those are **extremely** strange gameplay elements which you will possibly find totally crazy... but, as they say, fun is sometimes a weird combination of tricky values OR lucky shots at balancing facts.
There are a number of other things included but i'll let you all discover what remains.
Enjoy!
