Thanks Fyron, for pointing out the 20 races glitch. Perhaps we can have some of the usual suspects from SEIV fill out the more exotic habitat niches (EEE, for example). The image mod sounds good, too. The less work we have to do, the more likely we are to actually finish this mod.
Taera - You're right that the humans could research some of the Progenitor tech in SMAC, but that doesn't mean we have to do it in our mod. I think we can be creative around the theme, rather than stay strictly within the confines of SMAC. I thought it would be more fun (and realistic?) if the Progenitors had their own tree. That way they would be very different from the other factions in play style. Perhaps a few of their techs could be in the ruins as well - that would be a nice mirror to the ruins on Planet. But, if you feel strongly that we should have one tree with all the techs in it, I can be convinced to do it that way.