Yeah, we can move it here... Or perhaps end it. I did have one more thought, but more of an aside (at the bottom).
That's rather responsible of you, to move it here & apologize; I didn't once feel you were being antagonistic, though, so no worries. : ) It's a fascinating (sometimes frustrating) challenge to me to have discussions & debates with people; I know many people think they are 'right' but few take the time to think of the 'why', their reasons & support. Fewer still can articulate those reasons thoughtfully & respectfully... But I haven't had much of that with you.
I suppose I will just have to accept that I cannot change everyone's mind (difficult, but true). I've learned it before, but it's the lesson that keeps on coming back. Like a boomerang.
In terms of Item Shops, I'm more being silly there. Also, I wasn't saying they aren't useful; it's more like "making them" is 'dumb'. They are a pain (at least for me) to come up with; all the items, their effects, how useful they should be, how many 'holes' you should fill in a race... It's something I didn't realize til recently for my Trolls, and have been scrambling to fill adequately. But there's nothing saying your Mini-race couldn't have an Item shop!
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My parting thought was this; I can see that many potential factions benefit from "full-race exposure"; i.e. the whole shebang. Things like Naga, Goblin, Pandaren... But there are some Factions, especially those made of just one solitary Race, that just "click" better to me as mini-races (or, at the very least, could be just as easily one way or the other).
- Take for example Dwarves; an "Ironforge Alliance" (Dwarves & Gnomes) is a great full-size Faction, but just Dwarves? Meh, might be better as a Mini-race.
- Also consider something like "Water Elementals"; making an "Elemental Confederation" makes tons of sense full-size, but just one of the four? That'd be pretty difficult & a bit monotonous to stretch 12 units, 4 heroes, and a full complement of everything else out of, IMO. Better as a Partial-race.
- Finally, consider taking natural "segments" of an existing race; a good example would be my submission for the Wc3C Race-Building Contest #1. I chose "Goblins", but decided to feature one particular slice/sect/section/part of Goblin culture; one particular Cartel. I chose "Steamwheedle" and made a sort of "Mech-obsessed Goblin Cartel", and it went perfect for a Mini-race! One big Warmech hero, tons of tanks & gadgets, with plenty of live support Gobbos running around, mechanical harvesting, etc...
Since then I've actually started planning out "mini-races" out of each of the other Cartels (Greed, Explosives, and (Al)Chemistry (that last one has real potential...)), even though I have a "full-size" Goblin race planned as well.
So yeah, a variety of options. But the most important thing to me is making these contests a lot more 'do-able'; I haven't joined any Techtree contests here, primarily due to lack of time. I think Race-Makers don't take everything into consideration & throw stuff together, sometimes; I mean, buff overlaps, units with summons or direct damage, tooltip-creation, proper names, naming in general, game balance & playability... I've been studying this stuff for years and feel like I've only scratched the surface. To squeeze all that into a tiny little couple-weeks/month-long contest?...