"Similar" is not at all the same problem as "identical."

No, I'm not kidding (here), and I don't necessarily think you have colour vision problems. I've had a few DL maps where color "normal" color similiarties were a bit hard on my eyes (Korx vs. Iconian has always hurt for me).

I posted b/c I thought it was pretty weird to see a map with the "Thalans" on it when I thought I was playing as the Thalans.

Um, aren't the Drath brown and the Drengin dark red?

It would be nice to be able to tweak race and hull colors (in friendlier fashion than editing an .xml file) on the fly in the game, if you decide you hate your hull colors, or run into a conflict with other race colors being too close to what youve chosen. A minor issue to be sure, but it would still be nice.

Its nearly impossible to find a color that doesn't look like a default race's color on the minimap, atleast I haven't found one yet. I tried using white once, it looked almost identical to the Korx. Then I tried a very VERY dark green, but I couldn't see my border's at all unless I had the ship range option on.

P.S. The Drengin and Drath colors display properly on the minimap for me. Maybe your settings are off? I've never had problems distinguishing Drath Brown and Drengin Red.

I like this idea, but I've run into theStormWeaver's problem every time I tried customizing.

Kryo, et al, can I get a response about whether this is a known issue (By Design or on a to-fix list)? I have a save game if I've actually found something new.

Thanks, Kryo.

I guess my stats weakness is showing again. I've played at least 10 or 20 games following that basic setup pattern and this is the first time the Thalans came up in the random drawing. It suprised me, but I can imagine it might make good math sense.

The 'Dark Yor' are one of the minor races. Sometimes it happens this way. They are placed randomly on the map, and occasionally get bunched up. Once you explore farther into the galaxy, they should become much more of a rare find. Consider this a bit of luck on your part.

Thanks, Mistralok. I am almost certain that Minor races were set to none, but I can't swear by it. I guess I got freaked when they happened to show up right next to me, on the first turn. And then, the anomalies just intensified the strangeness. With it being my first game after installing DA, I must have jumped the gun in thinking there was a problem.

Anyhow, enough yapping here. Time for DA game #2...

Check your custom race's file and see if there are any remaining references to them as the Thalans in it. The dialog you received is most likely a bug at least one way, no matter how you look at it.

If the Thalans appeared as a selectable option in the opponent setup screen, then that right there tells you that the game doesn't know you're them. Normally, if you play as a core race that race will not show up in the list of potential opponents at all.

I've got (ShortEmpireName)Thalan(/ShortEmpireName), Thalans still in the Description, (DialogueTag)Thalan(/DialogueTag), and (ShipStyle)Thalan Empire Style(/ShipStyle).

But those just look like the "normal" bugs I've long seen where my attempt to change my empire name was only partly successful. This weird diplo thing suggests to me that the AIs are somehow getting a "schizophrenic" view of my empire. Wouldn't it take more than misapplied labels to make an AI ask for help from someone who just declared war on them?

p.s. I took a peek at my DL folder. My last game there followed the same basic pattern of setup, but the file there is just called .raceconfig, no mention of "custom," and I never "ran into myself" playing a DL game or during my many beta DA games. I suspect the issue is in the code changes that enabled us to create custom opponents, but that's just guess from the peanut gallery