I've finally figured out the mod I want to make for the game. A custom race of my own design with a custom tech tree, and custom buildings, etc. Looking through previous posts it seems like this group called I-Mod Productions would be a great place for me to find other people who might feel like contributing to the mod making process (I understand .XML and write files in it for work on a daily basis, but my artistic skill is...lacking). So is I-Mods still active? They seem like a reliable group and the tech tree viewer sounds like it would be amazing at helping with the tech tree process.
