Whereas modern client programs support playing with non-standard race assignments, older client programs do not. In those, the special mission listed for each race will not change, so the player needs to remember that his special mission may be different, depending upon his race assignment. For example, if player 11 selects the special mission on one of his ships then the client program will show the mission as Build Fighters. But if player 11 has been assigned race 6 (or, rather, special mission 6), then the ship will actually perform the Self Repair mission. Using the Special Mission extended mission, players can bypass this confusion.

► Note: It is suggested that players edit the mission.ini file to have the Special Mission extended mission reflect their true special mission, and use this extended mission instead of the usual one.

Some client programs may refuse to set your special mission. For example, the Build Fighters is only permitted for fighter ships, so a client program will not allow the Cyborg-playing player 11 to set this mission on a torpedo ship. Using mission 31 instead also avoids this problem.

The following table summarizes the abilities controlled by the two options, PlayerRace and PlayerSpecialMission:

ValuePlayerRacePlayerSpecialMission
1Fed crew bonus (if enabled, AllowFedCombatBonus): Receive 25% shield bonus between fights; 50 kt mass bonus; all weapons fully functional until end
90% run traitor when ship is boarded
Super Refit mission
2Takes up to 150% damage in combat, and related benefits
Colonists are immune to Glory Device
Hiss mission
3Immune to NUK if ship has weapons but no fuelSuper Spy and Standard Spy missions
Immune to Force Surrender when doing Super Spy/Standard Spy
4Ships have Planet Immunity if configured so (PlanetsAttackKlingons)
Support 60 clans on desert planets
Pillage mission
5Beams have 3X kill bonus in combat
complete crew runs traitor when ship is boarded
Rob mission
Can board enemy ships if allowed (AllowPrivateerTowCapture)
6Beam aboard debris after destroying an enemy ship
Assimilate natives
Self Repair mission
7Prefer desert planets (CrystalsPreferDeserts)
Colonists are immune to Glory Device
Can lay web mines (using the standard/extended missions)
Web mines owned by this race drain fuel
Can board enemy ships if allowed (AllowCrystalTowCapture)
840% run traitor when ship is boarded
Can't be found by bioscanners
Dark Sense mission
9Support 60 clans on desert planetsBuild Fighters mission (see AllowBuildFighters)
10Ships have Planet Immunity if configured so (PlanetsAttackRebels)
Support 9 million colonists on ice planets; 60 clans on deserts
will find Empire using bioscanners
can't be found by Dark Sense
Rebel Ground Attack mission
Automatically build fighters on ships (see AllowBuildFighters)
11Support 60 clans on desert planets
Can sweep web mines with fighters if configured (AllowColoniesSweepWebs)
70% run traitor when ship is boarded
Build Fighters mission (see AllowBuildFighters)
12nonenone

For example, if a race has PlayerRace=7 and PlayerSpecialMission=7, he plays a "standard" Crystal. Giving him PlayerSpecialMission=6 instead, he'll still be like desert planets and be immune to glory devices, but will no longer be able to lay web mines or board enemy ships. Instead, he'll be able to repair in space.

Not all of the possible combinations make sense. Unless you explicitly want to try out the new possibilities, we strongly recommend anyone to not have a PlayerSpecialMission option in his game, so that only the 11 standard races are used.

Many other racial abilities are configured by array options. When playing with non-standard race abilities, you have to change them manually. Options which fall into that category:

In recent PHost versions, some options only affect the default assignments for hull functions. You can modify or cancel these using your own shiplist.txt.

This is a testing version.
It may be incomplete, and have more bugs (or features) than the public live version at planetscentral.com.